Activity Summary
Thursday 4th January - Day 457 (continued)
Fly to Iguazú, Argentina
Hito Tres Fronteras - Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay
Dinner and a beer at cerveceria Patagonia
Friday 5th January - Day 458
Iguazú Falls / Cataratas, Argentina side
Ice cream at Libereco Helados
Saturday 6th January - Day 459
Travel to Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
Summary
Iguazú, Argentina
The largest waterfall complex in the world. Super impressive and well worth the visit.
The Argentinian side gives more views on top of the falls, rather than the full panoramic vibes.
Transport
Iguazú, Argentina
Bus from Airbnb to Jorge airport
Flight to Cataratas of Iguazu International Airport
Private shuttle from airport to Airbnb (desks in airport lobby)
Accommodation
Iguazú - Airbnb
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £16
Positives:
Whole apartment
Location was super central and close to bus terminal
Negatives:
Aircon unit in the living room rather than bedroom
Room took time to cool down
Living room not overly comfortable
Recommend?
Yes
Diary
Thursday 4th January - Day 457 (continued)
A seeming perk of arriving early for check in meant we got the extra legroom upgrade to the emergency exit seats for our flight to Iguazú.
Nicola was well prepared once landed, heading straight to the shuttle bus desk and for a tidy £3pp were on board the bus to Iguazú town. Surprisingly it managed to drop us off exactly where our Airbnb was.
The joys of getting a late morning / early afternoon flight meant we were able to waltz straight into our Airbnb on arrival. The Iguazú temperature was not a fun one, hitting 35 degrees on arrival and the aircon unit (strangely put in the living room with only a fan for the bedroom) was not cutting through it at all. We had a small run around killing a couple of mozzies before getting comfortable and thankfully these were a one off. Luke does not enjoy biting invasions in his private abode.
Expecting to have a full on day the next day, we got a cab to Hito Tres Fronteras, a viewpoint where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. The taxi was required to preserve Nicola’s sanity in the intense heat who didn’t fancy a 2km sun soaked walk.
First order of business was an obligatory cheese photo with the Iguazú sign.
The viewpoint of the 3 countries was pretty nice with a couple of platforms at different levels.
We grabbed a magnet and after a short visit we’re back in a taxi to town. Beer is always more pleasant in horrible heat so we stopped for a fairly terrible dinner cerveceria Patagonia. Got absolutely nothing on Manush but it was cheap.
Friday 5th January - Day 458
Eventually once the sun went down, the temperature of the Airbnb dropped and the aircon / fan combo got the bedroom to a decent temperature. This however took a while and the attempts to sleep still warm weren't overly successful.
The chicken Caesar wrap from the night before ended up giving Nicola a dodgy stomach the next morning and with the heat she was in a pretty bad way.
With an unhappy Nicola in tow (never fun for either party involved) we walked over to the bus terminal, got bus tickets for a reasonable £5 return pp, and proceeded to wait in a queue that was an affront to Luke’s Britishness. It was a long line of people standing in the sun, waiting to go to both the waterfalls and the airport. When the first bus to the falls departed half empty and the people ahead didn’t get on, Luke lost his shit and started trying to school the guy in charge that the queue made no sense. Sadly he didn’t change his operations but did decide to give more detailed instructions for the next bus that arrived.
The Rio Uruguay bus to Iguazú Falls / Cataratas took less than 30 minutes to the National park and Nicola continued being unhappy. Sick bags were at the ready and daggers were thrown at anything that took her attention away from cuddling the cold water bottle and rocking slowly like a crazy lady.
Once off the bus Nicola returned to the land of the happier living.
Our tickets were pre-purchased for 9.30am just in case (£18 each) given it was a weekend and the summer holidays were in full swing. Pretty spenny especially since half the routes were closed due to massive rains that washed away the bridges and viewpoints deeper into the falls. Apparently these weren’t going to be repaired for a long time.
We started with the superior trail, with decent walkways that ran along the top of the Iguazú falls.
The first viewpoint had the best pano overlooking the falls.
From that point the boardwalks would take us up close to the top of the various cascading waterfalls. The roaring sound was awesome and the colours and views were great.
Combined with the juicy greenery sitting at the base of the waterfall complex it was pretty great.
What wasn’t so fun was the mass of people, which was absolutely expected. We had managed to skirt past a couple of massive groups that had set off which made our time walking around the narrow trails easier but there were still masses of people and as Nicola can’t function without a power walk, we had no choice but to ‘per miso’ our way past everyone.
The walkways that went into the forest and across the murky pre-drops of the river were also really nice. Despite being nearly 17 months into our travels and thought he had learnt everything he had to know about fluvial geomorphology, Luke was hit with anastomosing rivers, the low energy joining and meandering cousin of the braided river.
The Inferior trail took us along the bottom of the falls and offered some different perspectives.
Most interesting was the route of the boat rides, running as far into some of the waterfalls to give their passengers a closer soaking.
One of the waterfalls was huge compared to the others in the Argentinian side.
With the train closed we decided to walk around the superior trail again before heading back to the bus. We did however get a train ride by catching it from the trails back to the main station, and a complete waste of time when walking the distance is so easy.
A well timed return meant we were on the bus immediately back to town.
As we were back quite a lot earlier than expected, and had a lot more Argentinian cash to burn through than we needed, we went into town for some ice creams to help with the savage temperatures.
Thankfully leaving the aircon on and the cooling events of the prior evening meant the temperature in the Airbnb was perfect, despite the day's heat. We cooked dinner and packed for a travel day tomorrow.
Saturday 6th January - Day 459
To try to avoid travelling in the hottest part of the day we were up and out of the Airbnb at a reasonable time and walked to the bus terminal.
Again we got bus tickets at Rio Uruguay to Foz do Iguaçu, essentially the Brazilian side of the Iguazu falls. We didn’t have to wait too long at the bus terminal before a bus arrived.
At the Argentine passport control everyone disembarked from the bus. Passports were scanned for the last time and then everyone returned back to the same bus which then continued across into Brazil.
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