Iguazu Falls

We took an early morning 1-hour flight from Rio to Sao Paulo, then another hour and a half to Foz de  Iguaçu, on the Brazilian side.  Unlike in the US, security is a little looser for domestic flights.  For example, I was able to bring bottle water with me and going through security, you are not as thoroughly checked.  Definitely, no TSA-equivalent personnel yelling at you.  Our van picked us up and took us to the Hotel Taroba on the Brazilian side of the town.

I was expecting Iguaçu to be a small town,  maybe a few buildings for tourists to visit.  I was surprised while the plane was getting to land, to find that there were several tall buildings.  The Brazilian side of the town is called Foz de Iguaçu and the Argentinian side is called Puerto Iguaçu.  Our plan here is to visit Iguazu Falls, first on the Brazilian side, then on the Argentinian side.

We were picked up at the airport, then dropped off at the entrance to the park.  There is a long platform that allows you to view the falls.  As you get closer, you see more and more of the falls until you are just below the fall itself.  Here you get to see the full view of the fall.

Brazilian side of Falls

Another view of Brazilian side of Falls

It did not take long to see the Brazilian side of the falls.  We had some time so we decided to go to a nearby Bird Park.  The admission fee was not very high, maybe 50 Reals or about US$15,  It was an okay park.  I was expecting to see more with better presentation of the birds but it was not quite up to some other bird parks that I have seen.

Tucan 

Parrot

After checking into the hotel, we first went to dropped of our dirty clothes at the laundromat, located 1 block behind the hotel.  I have accumulated about 1 week of dirty clothes and couldn't be happier to get them washed.  The laundromat was going to charge 55 Reals for a minimum 5 kg of laundry.  Here I did about 2 kg of clothes for 20 Reals.  The clean clothes were cleaned and nicely folded, and was ready the next day.  Nothing makes a traveler happier than having clean clothes.  After a week of heat and humidity in Rio, the laundry bag gets full quickly.

That night we went to a churrascaria restaurant about a block from the hotel for dinner.  This is a traditional Brazilian restaurant where they serve you a never-ending variety of meat - beef (of different cuts), lamb, chicken, pork, etc.  The waiter will come to your table with a long skewer full of meat.  If you want it, he will shape off a piece on your plate.  He keeps coming back with different types of meat until you give up.  As you can imagine, you get very very full.

The next morning we drove across the border to the Argentinian side of the Falls.  Like many border crossings, the bureaucracy take some time.  Our driver and tour leader took our passports and did all the processing for us.  We just sat and waited in the van.  Overall, it took about an hour to go from our hotel to the Iguazu National Park.

Argentinian side of the Falls

A panoramic view of the Argentinian side of the Falls

Most people would agree that the Argentinian side of the Falls is more beautiful.  The part where most visitors see the falls is very dramatic and is called "The Devil's Throat."  A small platform is set up for visitors to have a good view of the fall but it's very crowded and difficult to get a good view.

We also signed up for a trip on a speedboat up river to near the falls and also to get under the fall itself.  It's a very different perspective seeing the falls at the river level.  Three times the speed boat got very near to the falls and in one last thrust, we went under the falls and were totally drenched.  It was like getting under a heavy shower for about a minute.  We were given water-proof bags to store our belongings but everyone was drenched.

We took a similar speedboat to get close to the falls

The speedboat took us under the fall itself

On our second evening in Foz de Iguazu, our tour leader insisted that we go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Coincidentally, it was Chinese New Year's Eve, a traditionally evening for the family to get together.   Christian insisted that the Chinese food is very good and authentic.  I am always skeptical when a non-Asian speak highly of an Asian restaurant.  When we entered the restaurant I noticed that were other Chinese families gathering for their traditional dinners.  Then I spoke to the owner in Cantonese.  When the food came out, I could tell that they were quite good.  Not 100% authentic but good enough for a small town.  We ordered a lot of food and I thought there was no good we were going to be able to finish it.  However, we have some young and very hungry people in our group and we cleaned the dishes.  Best part was it costs us very little money, around 100 Reals or about US$30 each.  Everyone came away happy.

A Chinese New Year's Eve dinner

It was a wonderful experience visiting one of the wonders of the world.  I've now visited some of the biggest waterfalls in the world:  Niagara, Victoria and now Iguazu.