South America- Day 11- Iguazu Falls-"Poor Niagara"

Eleanor Roosevelt may have said "Poor Niagara" upon viewing Iguazu Falls, but we definitely agreed with the sentiment upon encountering this magnificent spectacle today. We got up early to hit the Brazil side when it opened at 9 before switching hotels and countries mid day. An easy trip from the town, you can take the 120 bus from the terminal to the park in about 40 minutes. Fortunately this was a site that accepted credit cards as well which was a relief as we're not traveling with lots of cash. A quick bus ride through the park dropped us off at the short trail that parallels the canyon and provides many awesome viewpoints.

Immediately upon entering the path, we saw a few tatus, which to my mind look like brazilian racoons but everyone was very excited about nonetheless. The view from the first point, while beautiful, did nothing to prepare you for the full scope of the falls-- either its length or the bigger falls.

The trail itself does not take long, nut we tried to go at a leisurely pace to both deal with tourist traffic and to take a bunch of pictures (this post will be much better with the visual elements!).

Eventually you get to a set of stairs that goes down into the valley and which takes you to a viewpoint out in the middle around the largest fall, the devil's throat. Definitely get very wet from the spray so make sure to grab a poncho or cover your backpack/ purse at the very least! So neat-

After taking lot of photos, we jumped back on the bus to downtown, grabbed our stuff from the hotel, and took a taxi over to the Argentina side (including passing through border control which was surprisingly easy since we had our paperwork all squared away). We checked into our hotel which was charming after being at the best western, then walked the ten minutes to town to eat lunch and catch a bus to the Argentine side of the falls. The town on this side suited us better than the brazil side; it was still a very small town but there seemed to be more people around as well as more food options, banks etc.

 

Took another bus to the new side of the falls and set about exploring the argentine trails. The main distinction between the two sides seems to be the panoramic perspective from the brazil side since they're across the way and the greater walking trails on the argentine side. There are tatus/coatis on both sides as well! Anyway, we did both the upper and lower circuits but unfortunately weren't able to go to this side of the devils throat or the small island in the middle due to the river flooding. Still had a great time walking around and seeing the falls from a new angle!

Evening was spent relaxing at our lovely hotel (and we may have grabbed a cone of banana dulce de leche ice cream that I am definitely copying) and felt a bit more like a vacation than a trip for a short while!