Argentina Day 7 & 8 – Iguazu Falls – Travels With Kris and Dave

Iguazu means “Big Water” in the local Arani language. There are 275 separate falls from a huge horseshoe-shaped cliff on the Rio Iguazu although there can be as many as 350 in the full rainy season. We are here in the wet season when the falls are at their fullest.

Our flight into Iguazu landed just fine but there was a thunder and lightning storm that delayed us getting off the plane for 20 minutes. Welcome to the rainforest! After we collected our luggage we grabbed breakfast at the airport. Kris’ toast was more like huge hard croutons but we had cream cheese and butter to soften it a bit. A quick taxi ride brought us to our beautiful rainforest hotel just outside of the town of Puerto Iguazu.

Naturally, our room was not ready, as it was only 0900 in the morning, so we had a chat with a cab driver posted outside of the hotel. Samuel speaks really no English and we’ve already mentioned that our Spanish sucks, but somehow we managed to arrange a ride into the park with a pick-up later. He ended up being our driver for the next day as well, and a third drive back to the airport! If anyone finds themselves in Iguazu, we have his WhatsApp #!

So we arrived at the cataratas (waterfalls). Remember that thunder storm? Yeah, not finished yet. Rain or shine this place is gorgeous but day one was our wet day.

We had packed sun hats not rain hats. Oops.

One of the many smaller and narrow falls on the Superior Trail

Some of the East falls – Dos Hermanas, Chico & Bossetti (yes, they each have names!)

Looking out toward the catarata San Martin & San Martin Island

This is a ton of water!

Looking up river you can see how wide it is and how much water is flowing.

The tallest of the falls is 200+ feet. The entire falls are taller than Niagara and wider than Victoria falls.

We decided to spend two days here. Our second day was much drier. Day two we had constant sprinkles and the occasional harder shower but no more hard core downpours.

Lots and lots of water going over. Those two trees in the middle (and the ones slightly left) are usually dry!

On the boardwalk at the top of the San Martin fall

On the walk out we almost needed sunglasses.

Queen’s wreath – native to South America

Both days we found a half-decent buffet lunch offering at the restaurant in the park, including a really good reserva Malbec wine!

The Hito Tres Fronteras is the triple point at the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The border is the confluence of the Iguazu and Parana Rivers. There are obelisks in each country kitty corner from each other across the river – blue and white in Argentina, green and yellow in Brazil and red, white and blue in Paraguay.