Igazu Falls

Hey Gang,

So we are finally back in a more urban place that offers reliable WiFi, so what better time to write about and share photos of our trip to Iguazu Falls!

Like the other posts, if you want to jump straight to the photos and videos, you can find them here.
The videos are a great example of how insanely powerful this place is. Literally and figuratively. It's impressive how can a place the so loud and yet so peaceful.


When planning this leg of our trip, everyone said we had to see the following:

• Buenos Aires
• Mendoza (wine country)
• Iguazu Falls

So far, we have not been steered wrong.  Iguazu was the first place we went after BA, so I definitely still had some nervousness about getting around.  We thankfully had a remises (private driver) from the airport to our AirBnB, which was a comforting start.

I wish I would have taken more pictures at the airport as there were some funny/odd things along the way, like the TV/Electronics store inside the airport.  Who is going to buy a 50" TV at the airport? Is this their Best Buy or wherever else people buy TVs these days?

Either way, we arrived, checked in, and got on the plane in the same fashion we would have in the states.  All good stuff.

The City - Puerto Iguazu

The city Puerto Iguazu could not have been more different than BA.  First of all, it's in the jungle.  Like some of the more lush parts of Mexico, it was hot, humid and chock full of trees/bugs/wild animals.

We took a bus into town and got settled into our AirBnB place.  While it was only $34USD/night, it was still pretty "rustic" complete with 2 raggedy dogs (Dr.'s translation = kinda gross). Our host was incredibly nice, welcoming and accommodating.

Our first night in town was pretty low-key. We were strong-armed by our host to eat at this touristy Italian joint, who was most definitely getting a kick-back from the restaurant for his recommendation.  We knew this as he handed us a 10% off coupon and a free drink ticket, for which he asked us to pick up more free drink tickets so he could hand them out to his customers (he is a taxi driver).

When we were walking back to our place from the restaurant, we stumbled upon some pretty decked out cars with outrageous sound systems.

You can see from the photo that this VW Golf sized car had 4 huge speakers on the hatch that were so heavy that they had to have a metal rod holding the hatch open (Dr.'s note - it was bitchin).  It reminded me of how I wanted to hook up my Chevy Blazer when I was 16 with deafening speakers in the back.  Apparently this was how Puerto Iguazu's cool kids spent their Friday night.  And by Friday night, I mean Saturday morning as this started at like midnight.

The Falls

After a fairly interrupted slumber, compliments of the cars that go boom, we awoke at the crack of 7am (the earliest we had woken in our time in Argentina) to ensure we were at the Falls when it opened.  We had read and heard that this was the best time to go, which turned out to be completely accurate.

We got to the falls at opening, bought our tickets and got a really nice low-down from our AirBnB host, who drove us to the falls.  We caught the first train to the top of the park to see the "Devil's Throat."

Garganta del Diablo - Devil's Throat

The "Devil's Throat" is basically the beginning of the falls from the Iguazu River.  It's such a dramatic drop with a HUGE amount of water rushing over (62,010 cu ft/s according to Wikipedia), that it creates this mist you see in the photo.  Below is a photo I shot from our departure from Iguazu to show you how significant this mist is.

You can see the mist from most of the park and the surrounding area.  It almost looks like a forest fire.

Either way, this was a killer spot to take some photos, like the one below, beautifully edited by Derek Fuentes.

We were followed by a group of like 50-70 tourists from Mercedez-Benz (they all had adorable matching back-packs with the logo), so we hightailed it out of there in an attempt to pass the crowd, and took the train down to the "upper loop" to get a better look at the rest of the falls.

Upper Loop

While both the upper and lower loops offer views of rest of the falls, they offer much different perspectives, which you will see in the photos.  The Upper Loop offers views from the top of the falls, while the Lower Loop offers views from more the middle of the falls and viewed from across the falls, rather than on top of them.

While pictures do speak 1,000 words, nothing comes close to being there.  When you are there, you can completely understand why Iguazu Falls are listed as one of the "7 Natural Wonders of the World."  It's powerful, beautiful and thanks to the Argentina park system, very well preserved and relatively un-spoiled.  We walked along all of the upper loop, seeing various viewpoints of the many, many falls, including my own:

There was also a small island in the middle of the falls named San Martin Island.  While the water was too rough for the boat to ferry us over to it, you can imagine what the views would be from there staring right at the falls from the photo below.

Lower Loop

Just like the Upper Loop, the views are pretty incredible, however the lower loop offers a different perspective as you are looking across the water to the falls, rather than from on top of the falls (Dr.'s note - all I could thing was why wasn't an Indiana Jones or Jurassic Park filmed here? Apparently I'm super smart - IMDB told me Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had some scenes here. But what proper Indiana Jones fan actually saw the Crystal Skull? Am I alone here? Shia seems annoying).

It was refreshing walking through the Lower Loop as it was getting a little later in the day (around 1pm) and starting to warm up, even with the overcast skies.  The nice part was, as you get farther on the lower loop, you get closer to the water, and get a little "misting" from the falls.  Ultimately, the loop leads you to this pretty spectacular and close-up view of part of the falls.

There is a particular section that you can go to that is almost underneath the falls themselves.

As you can tell, we didn't go all the way to the falls, as evidenced by the people in the background of the photo of me, but close enough to give perspective of how awesome this place is.

Coati - The Cute Honey Badgers of Iguazu Falls

At first glance, these little Raccoon/Aardvark hybrids are pretty adorable, they really are more Raccoon than Aardvark as they are nasty little guys. With sharp teeth/claws and a hunger for shitty left over tourist empanadas, they can be really nasty if you get in between them and some food.  They are pretty adorable looking though, so from the safety of your computer, you can experience them here:

Cotai getting too close to Dr., Dr. freaking out

Iguazu Falls - Worth The Trip

We talked to several people that did both the Brazil side and Argentina side of the falls, but the overall feeling was that the Argentina side was definitely better as it is the side that the falls are actually on.  Apparently the Brazil side offers a fun and different perspective of the falls, but I was extremely pleased with our experience.  Our advisors were definitely spot-on, if you have a limited amount of time in Argentina, Iguazu should definitely be on the short list.

I encourage you all to check out the photos and videos and keep an eye out for our next post about touring the Argentina countryside.  Definitely a different experience from city living, but very pleasing and a very memorable part of our trip thus far!

XOXO,

AT y La Médica