Iguazu | trying to travel light

Not sure my words will actually do any justice to the amazing Iguazu Falls, so this might be more of a picture blog post…

Iguazu National Park (Arg) with the falls in the background

Iguazu Falls (Arg)

If you plan to visit Iguazu Falls, make sure you go and seem them from both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian side – they are very different. To quote someone on Wikipedia “from the Brazilian side you see the falls, from the Argentinian side you live them”. In other words, on the Brazilian side you get a panorama vista of all the falls, which makes you appreciate just how spectacular they are and on the Argentine side you can walk around the National Park and there are pathways to take you close up to all the parts of the falls themselves, so you really appreciate the size and power of the falls. On both side there are a million photo opportunities, of course!

This is one of the smaller thermos flasks I saw...

Iguazu Falls is now (quite rightly, in my opinion) considered to be one of the natural wonders of the world (how this is worked out and voted for, I’m not sure). For that reason, and because I also visited during the Argentine holidays in January, the place was packed with tourists. You could tell there were lots of Argentine tourists because they all carried giant thermos flasks for carrying hot/iced water to make mate or they were carrying giant cool boxes between people with all their cold drinks and picnic food inside. The rest of us seemed content to fill up on free water from the water fountains and bring a packed lunch (supplemented by a purchased ice-cream, of course).

The cute but dangerous caoties

A monkey hanging out in a tree

Trying to take pictures in the boat

The Devil's Throat, where you can always see a rainbow (it was really hard to take pictures here because you are so close, and the falls are so powerful, that there is a constant spray of water)

I stayed in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side and only travelled to Brazil for the day to visit the falls on that side. Doing this practically filled two more pages of my passport with entry and exit stamps, so don’t believe the stories that you are just waved across the border if you are making a day trip. Because Iguazu Falls is so tourist orientated you can visit both sides of the falls on public transport without any problem and for little cost (apart from the National Park entry fees).

On the Argentine side I spent literally the whole day walking around the falls and also exploring the National Park with its lush green vegetation, wild life and hidden, smaller waterfalls with rock pools where you can swim. I say a flying toucan, caoties (furry creatures that look cute but attack you to steal your food), monkeys, butterflies, spiders, an armadillo, big fish and lots more birds that I don’t know the name of. I also took a boat ride to go right under the falls themselves, which was amazing! The noise and power of the water is almost overwhelming and of course we got absolutely soaked through to the skin. Very helpfully the boat driver would tell us when to take photos and when to put our cameras in the dry bags, though this resulted in a million people trying to take photos at once, which was funny and totally chaotic as we’re bobbing around in front of a massive waterfall.

Iguazu Falls (Brazilian side)

On the Brazilian side there is less to see unless you take an organised tour/activity so after a long day before walking around on the Argentine side I was happy just to enjoy the amazing spectacle of the falls and go back to Puerto Iguazu for a chilled out evening.

You can also read about Jackie’s visit to Iguazu Falls here. There are also LOADS more photos of both side of Iguazu Falls on my Flickr page.