Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil - Day 2
Monday, March 27, 2023
Today we visited the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls which is located in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. Iguazu Falls is the largest waterfall system in the world, between the border of Argentina and Brazil. Both countries have a national park on each side offering different views of the waterfalls. Eighty percent of the falls are technically in Argentina, but Brazil offers more expansive views across the river.
Andi arranged for the same driver who picked us up at the airport last night to drive us to Iguazu Falls this morning. Our driver is the sweetest man, but speaks little English. Half the time he’s talking, Andi and I can’t tell if he’s speaking in Portuguese, Spanish, or English. It seems like a mix of all three! On that topic, Andi and I aren’t sure if we should be speaking to people in English or Spanish. English is preferable for us, obviously, but maybe people in Brazil understand more Spanish since they border Argentina and Paraguay? We definitely don’t speak any Portuguese.
We arrived at Iguazu Falls around 9:30am. Our driver told us the park would take about 5-6 hours, so we agreed to meet him back at the entrance around 3:30pm. We paid $70 Brazilian Reals/adult (USD $18) and $11 Brazilian Reals/child (USD $3) to enter the park, then rode a double-decker bus to the beginning of the falls. The ride took about 20 minutes.
Several bus-loads of people dropped off at the same time we did, so the entrance was flooded with people. We followed the crowd along the walkway and were immediately rewarded with views of the waterfalls in the distance.
“I thought they’d be bigger…?” Andi said, as we walked along the pathway. There were endless views of the waterfalls, but they were in the distance and sometimes between trees. As beautiful as the waterfalls were, it annoyed the four of us being stuck in such a large group of people. It was hard to really see them between people bellied up at the guardrails. I hoped the pathway would split ahead to give people room to spread out a little.
The four of us tried our best to push ahead of the crowd without much success. We were walking in one big single-file line and it was getting annoying. In my mind, I expected more hiking and nature trails, but this was definitely more of a cattle drive of people moving together along a sidewalk — more amusement park feeling than national park.
The falls were beautiful though, and the further we walked, the bigger they became. What makes Iguazu Falls so special is that it isn’t just one waterfall, but a curtain of waterfalls on various levels spanning over a mile in distance.
Eventually, the boardwalk led directly in front of the waterfalls — our clothes, hair, and sunglasses soaked by the spray of the mist. This part of the falls were really neat! Our family had successfully pushed our way ahead of a big tour group so we weren’t as squished between people on the final boardwalk. This gave us room to stand at the railing for several minutes to take in the massive waterfalls surrounding us. The power of the falls was enormous; a huge roar sounded as water rushed in every direction.
We continued walking to various viewpoints, including an upper deck that not many people had discovered. Iguazu Falls were pretty incredible, even if it turned out to be different than we’d imagined it would be.
It was Noon when we finished viewing the waterfalls — I don’t know how our driver thought we’d be here until 3:30pm! Andi contacted our driver to see if he could come pick us up, but he wasn’t available until later this afternoon. Now it made more sense why he said he’d return for us in six hours. We weren’t going to wait around for him, so the four of us decided to walk across the street to a bird sanctuary called Parque das Aves. We paid $31 Brazilian Real/each ($6 USD) for admission.
The inside of the bird sanctuary was a tranquil space with lots of green plants, colorful flowers, benches to rest, and animals to see. All of the birds in the sanctuary were rescued or rehabilitated birds from the Atlantic Coast of South America. We saw flamingos, ibis, owls, parrots, toucans, and more.
For a couple Brazilian reals, visitors could buy long wooden sticks with birdseed on the end to feed the parakeets. Surprisingly, Aden really wanted to do this so Andi gave him the money and instructed him to go buy the birdseed stick for himself. Aden did not want to do this, of course, because the employee didn’t speak English, but he overcame his fear and secured the bird food. He got to go behind a special rope with park ecologists to feed a flock of parakeets, bravely holding out his hands while the birds flapped around him.
It was 2:30pm by the time we made our way through Parque das Aves. The four of us enjoyed our visit to the sanctuary with all its flora and fauna. Now we were hungry, so Andi called an Uber to pick us up and take us to downtown Foz do Iguaçu for lunch. The owner of our airbnb suggested a restaurant called Bendito. Tory said she wanted steak, so she ordered filet from the kids menu. Aden ordered chicken nuggets, rice, and French fries (called chips in Brazil). Andi and I split a delicious salad for lunch with hearts of palm, tomatoes, olives, mixed green lettuce, and a mustard vinaigrette. We also ordered the Brazilian version of empanadas called pastels, and fried dough balls with various fillings (cheese, chickpeas, and ground beef).
The restaurant had a kids play area which entertained Tory and Aden for quite some time. They were entirely too big for everything inside the room, but they entertained themselves anyway by making up an obstacle coarse through the slides, mazes, and ball pit.
After lunch, we took an Uber back to our airbnb condo. Andi worked for a few hours while I sat outside by the pool and read my book/took a nap. The kids were suppose to join me outside to swim, but they both got sucked into their screens.
Since we didn’t have a car, we couldn’t go anywhere in town without calling another taxi. Andi and I took a walk around the neighborhood looking for a restaurant close-by for dinner, but there really wasn’t any. Instead, he ordered food delivery from Uber Eats. Nothing was open until 8:00pm, so it was at least 9:00pm before dinner arrived. Tory was tired of waiting, so she ended up eating noodles for dinner. Andi and Aden had bbq chicken wings, vegetable kabobs, and salad. I was too tired to eat by 9:00pm, so I skipped dinner altogether. We watched a few episodes of Ted Lasso before bedtime and then called it a night.
Tomorrow, we’re planning to visit the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls which will require us to cross the border. Everything we’ve read says it’s an easy process, so we’ll see.
