Rest stage: Iguazu falls

We travelled four days out of our way to visit the Cataratas, otherwise known as Iguazu Falls, but it was worth it. Iguazu has the greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world, and it felt like most of it fell on us, but more on that later.

From Puerto Iguazu the falls a short 10 mile bus ride, or motorcycle ride in our case. It’s best to get there early. You won’t avoid the crowds, but you’ll give yourself more time to complete the various circuits around the falls. We arrived around 10 a.m. and it was already busy.

On entering the national park we headed straight to the expedition booth to book tickets for Adventura Nautica. It costs around $250 ARS per person but it’s certainly money well spent.

Don’t forget to apply lots of sunscreen (it was 39c when we visited), and bring DEET.

On the trail

We gave ourselves four hours to complete the trails starting with the upper circuit. Here you get a great panoramic view from on top of the falls, while on the lower circuit gets you up and close to the water.

Before all that though there’s the Coatis. These curious little creatures are everywhere, and while they look cute and cuddly, we saw first hand how aggressive they get when fighting for food.

Iguazu falls are often compared to Niagara. I’ve not been to the latter, but according to Wikipeaida:

Upon seeing Iguazu, the United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed “Poor Niagara!”^[2] (which, at 50 m or 165 feet, are a third shorter).

And so onto the falls themselves. I was pretty annoyed when part way through the upper circuit I realised not only had I forgot to bring my polarising filter, but I’m also left my 10 stop ND filter back at the hotel too. Grrr!

Photos from the upper circuit:

Photos from the lower circuit

Adventua Nautica

I mentioned that we got soaked earlier. Part of that was on the lower circuit where you can get right up close to some of the falls, but most it was on the boat ride under the falls. It’s just a short 12 minute round trip, but it’s a fun one. I’d certainly recommend it.

Here’s what you can expect: