Puerto Iguazú [pronounced “I”– as in zip – almost silent “g” wa su] sits at the confluence of the Paraná and Iguazú rivers and overlooks both Brazil and Paraguay from Argentina.
To celebrate its location, just to the west of the centre of town is a viewpoint – “Hito Argentino” ……
…… which gets busy in the evenings with people coming to watch the sunset….
Unfortunately, a light show which apparently included colourful fountains and projected holograms doesn’t happen anymore. It stopped with Covid and hasn’t been reinstated – or at least it hadn’t when we were there.
The town itself isn’t all that interesting. It exists to provide accommodation, food….
and trinkets for the thousands of people who come every year to view the Iguazú Falls.
When we went into a couple of wine shops in the market, we were rather confused by the pricing system as the price labels suggested a bottle was considerably more expensive than anything we had previously bought in Argentina. Then we clicked that the prices were in Brazilian Real, not Argentine Peso [Dollars]. When speaking to one of the wine merchants he explained that Brazilians come in droves to buy wine from Puerto Iguazú as it is far cheaper there than in their own country. 90% of his trade was from across the border.
Crossing the border is actually really easy which was exactly what we needed as we wanted to view the Falls from both sides. There are several bus companies running buses every day to Foz do Iguaçu which stop first at the Brazilian side of the Falls. There is a bus approximately every 20 minutes from about 6.30 am to 6pm and, the other advantage of the bus is that they don’t have to queue in the normal traffic lane at the border – which is a good thing because those queues were really long. Because of the bus schedule and the fact that a journey takes about 45 minutes each way it is actually possible to visit both sides of the Falls in one day – though having now been there, I personally wouldn’t recommend it.
When planning our trip, I decided we would spend four days in Puerto Iguazú because I wanted us to see the Falls under the best conditions – and rainy days don’t provide that. Luckily, when we actually got there the weather was on our side – we had three beautiful warm and sunny days followed by a very rainy one on the day we were leaving by which time we had seen and done everything we wanted to.
So, first to the Brazilian side.
There is a large visitor centre, with a café, and double decker buses to take you into the park. We had booked our tickets on line the previous evening – and had to pick a time. Not then knowing how easy it was to cross the border, we arrived about an hour early, but luckily, even though it was Sunday and therefore quite busy, it wasn’t the busiest time of the year for the Falls so they were happy to bring forward our visit time.
The main waterfall observation trail is only 1.5km long but, as different stunning and panoramic views of the Falls change at every twist and turn, the walk actually took well over an hour,
The trail is paved so it is very easy walking and it ends at a wooden walkway from where there is a fabulous view of “Salto Floriano”…..
…. a fantastic fall, which also gives you a bit of a wetting!
There are walkways at the end of main trails on both sides of the Falls. Some time later on our trip we met an Argentinian woman and her young son who had visited the Falls two weeks after us. Due to the incessant rain while they were there, both those walkways had been closed as the increased volume of water meant that its level had risen to the top of the pillars. We were very fortunate indeed with our timing.
The next day we went to the Argentinian side where there are several trails to chose from or, if you are like us and have the whole day there, you can do more than one.
We did Green – which is basically a short walk through the jungle, then the Blue “Circuito Superior” which takes you along the tops of the Falls….
…… then the Yellow “Circuito Inferior” which descends more or less to river level from where you get a very different view.
At the end of the Green Trail is the “Estacion Cataratas” from where you can catch a train to and from the “Circuito Garganta del Diablo”. We decided to walk out along the Brown trail, but caught the train back.
It was well worth the walk.
…. and then you get the Devil’s Cauldron.
In fact, the whole day was well worth it because not only did we see the fantastic waterfalls, we also saw quite a lot of wildlife.
Although the Brazilian side provided panoramas that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss, if I had to chose only one side to visit it would be the Argentinian side.
On our visit to the Brazilian side, we saw that there was a “Parque das Aves” just before the entrance to the Falls. Whilst we tend to avoid zoos and the like I read that this bird park was a rescue centre for injured or illegally trafficked birds and for endangered species. So, we decided that on our third day, we would return to Brazil and visit. We really enjoyed our time there and, although I would rather see and photograph birds in the wild, I was happy to be able to photograph birds I am unlikely to see anywhere else.
The canopy nets are really high up and the enclosures very large – so although it is not the wild, birds are able to walk or fly quite freely.
Near to the entrance we read about a flock of flamingos which had been living in the park for 25 years and had grown from a small number to 176. When we turned a corner there were just four and there were mirrors which had been erected to make it look like there were more. What is going on we thought?
Mike spoke to one of the staff. In November 2021 two Jaguars [mother and daughter] had managed to enter the flamingo enclosure. The mother was teaching her one-year-old cub to hunt. 172 flamingos died – some due to direct encounter with the jaguar, some indirectly due to something called “Capture Myopathy” whereby when faced with the presence of a predator or being in a stressful situation birds die from cardiac arrest.
Because flamingos are sociable and like being part of a large flock, the mirrors had been placed there to make the four remaining birds feel happier.
Of course, Jaguars are also almost extinct and were not being deliberately cruel. They are wild animals which hunt for prey but still, a sad story.
But there were happier endings for other birds….
…… including a large number of parrots and macaws – several of whom had been rescued from trafficking.
Overall, three fabulous days – well worth the airfare getting to and from Iguazú and, on which note I have to say, airfare in Argentina is cheaper than air or rail fare in the UK – for much greater distances.
