Swept away by Igauzu Falls

View of the falls from Brazil

Forming part of the border between Brazil and Argentina smack bang in the middle of a semi-tropical rainforest, the mighty Iguazu falls is not exactly convenient to anywhere. It is a 16 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo in one direction and 17 hours to Buenos Aires in the other direction. But it obviously has a lot of pulling power - people endure bus rides of up to 24 hours to visit this magical natural wonder.

The falls can be viewed from both sides of the border. Divided by islands in the river into about 275 separate waterfalls, they gush downwards and are between 60 and 80 metres in height. Its possible to see more of the waterfalls in one hit from the Brazilian side of the border, giving a general overview of the area.

The Brazilian side has several lookout points dotted along a 1500 metre walking track. It culminates with a bridge over the river right in front of the breathtaking Devil's Throat area, a 150 metre wide u-shaped portion of the river where the water rushes through incredibly fast, creating an enormous cloud of mist which soaks you right through when you are on the viewing platform.

View of the falls from Argentina

Visiting from the Argentine side, while slightly more expensive than the Brazilian side, allows you to get more up close and personal with the falls. It has several different walks you can take through the national park which wind their way very close to some of the falls. There is a viewing platform practically underneath the Salto waterfall where you get thoroughly drenched - fortunately the mild climate means you are dry again within minutes. Another trail takes you above the waterfalls so you can watch them crashing down into the lower part of the river.

The highlight of the Argentine side is the track up to the other side of the Devil's Throat. While on the Brazil side there is the bridge that brings you underneath and to the side of it, on the Argentine side the platform walkway gives you a birds eye view. It is almost hypnotic standing at the platform, watching the water crash down into the misty abyss below. We were standing there in awe for about 10 minutes, when suddenly the water current must have increased because we were dumped on by a huge misty cloud of water. Check out our Devil's Throat video.

View of the Devil's Throat from Argentina

There was an amazing amount of wildlife in the park, considering it was pretty packed with tourists. We spotted an endangered Brazilian tapir along the roadside when we were on the bus back to the visitors' centre. We were dismayed to find about 50 tour buses parked out front when we rocked up to the Argentine side at 10am, yet still the park was alive with the chirping of brightly coloured blue birds and there were dozens of coati - a rodent-like creature with a tail like a racoon and a long bendy snout - sniffing around in areas where people were eating. On the way to see the Devil's Throat, there was a decent-sized alligator snoozing on one of the islands in the river.

Alligator!

Although we were incredibly reluctant to leave Brazil - it has been one of the highlights of our trip so far - we opted to stay at Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side, which is a smaller, friendlier (and cheaper) town than industrial Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian side. We arrived in Foz do Iguacu after a 16 hour bus ride from Sao Paulo, took two local buses to get from the bus station to the falls (despite what the Lonely Planet tells you, buses to the falls leave from a different bus station to the long distance terminal) and visited the Brazilian side before crossing into Argentina.

From the falls, we jumped in a taxi to the border post on the Iguazu river, a few kilometres downriver. Once we got our exit stamps, we walked across the bridge to Argentina. The cement siding on the road was painted Brazil's national colours of green and yellow until exactly halfway, when they changed to Argentina's light blue with a white stripe. Apparently the two countries had to share the cost of building and maintaining the bridge, and couldn't agree on the colour scheme!

We enjoyed our stay in Puerto Iguazu - it was a nice introduction to Argentina, a friendly little town and beautifully easy to navigate after our time in the big cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We liked our hostel Residencial Uno, located on a quiet residential street of town, which had friendly helpful owners, a nice terrace to chill out on and five beautiful Alsatian dogs as pets.