Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil - Day 3

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

We visited Iguazu Falls again today, but this time on the Argentina side of the Iguazu River. Andi hired the same driver who took us to Brazil’s Iguaçu National Park yesterday to drive us to the Argentinian side today. Since we’re staying in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil this week, we first had to cross the border into Argentina.

We left our airbnb at 9:00am and drove about 20 minutes to the Brazilian border crossing office. Andi filled out paperwork which stated that we’d only be crossing the border for a few hours. We proceeded through a drive-thru line in our taxi, and gave a Brazilian customs official our paperwork. He scanned our passports, moved us through the line, and we were on our way to Argentina. Simple as that; the whole process took less than 15 minutes.

As we drove across the Iguazu bridge connecting Brazil and Argentina, our driver asked if we wanted to stop to take a picture. “No, it’s OK,” Andi said. Our driver stopped the car anyway. I don’t think he can understand us very well. So, we got out of the car and took a picture on the highway bridge. Brazil, on the right (yellow & green side); Argentina, on the left (blue & white side) with the Iguazu River in between.

Once we crossed into Argentina, we drove through their border control. This took another 10 minutes as the Argentinian officials looked at our passports and checked the trunk of the taxi to make sure we weren’t bringing anything illegal into the country.

At the entrance of Parque Nacional Iguazú in Argentina, we paid a small fee to enter the national park and then an additional cost to see the waterfalls — $6,673 Argentine pesos/adult (that’s $32 USD, or half that price with the current Blue Dollar rate) and $2,085 Argentine pesos/child ($10 USD; $5 Blue Dollar rate). I had high hopes for a better educational experience in Argentina’s Parque Nacional Iguazú. While the waterfalls on Brazil’s side of Iguazu were spectacular to see, there wasn’t any signage or information telling about the falls. The kids and I had to do our own research after we returned to our airbnb yesterday (how big they are, where the water comes from; etc.) When national parks and monuments don’t include signage, they miss a huge chance to educate the public, in my opinion. And for homeschooling purposes, just seeing the waterfalls in person isn’t enough — it’s important to learn about this natural wonder. Maybe this only bothers me because reading the signs is one of my favorite parts of visiting somewhere new.

From the park entrance gate, Andi, Tory, Aden and I walked to the “central station” inside the park. Here, a touristic green train carries park visitors to the biggest waterfall cascade in the park called Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat), as well as to upper and lower circuits of waterfall trails. We waited in a long line for train tickets at the station. The train doesn’t cost to ride, but tickets are used to reserve seats on the train so visitors can get to & from the park’s attractions. Once we obtained our train tickets, we had to wait another 45 minutes for seats on the next train.

Parque Nacional Iguazú’s train reminded me of a visit to the zoo. The open-air train clunked along the metal tracks as it weaved through the Iguazu Jungle. There are coatis, jaguars, toucans, and monkeys in the park, but we didn’t see any wildlife during our ride.

The train stopped at the first station and our family of four hopped off. I quickly noticed that no one else on the train got off at this station, but floods of people from the waiting area rushed into every available seat left on the train. It only took a second for Andi and I to realize our mistake; this was not the Devil’s Throat station and just we lost our seats. I showed our tickets to a train conductor proving we had reservations to be on this train, so he forced a few people to scootch over and make room for us to sit. Ugh! The benches of the train were so tightly crowded now and people smelled like sweat in the hot, humid jungle air. The train lurched forward and continued on toward the Devil’s Throat station.

Fifteen minutes later, the entire train exited in mass at the Devil’s Throat station. This was apparently the end of the train line. We followed the crowd of people to a long boardwalk that weaved its way through the jungle swamps and over the Iguazu River. Eighty percent of Iguazu Falls are in Argentina, while Brazil has a better view of them from a distance. As we walked along the boardwalk, we had a completely different perspective than yesterday — standing on top of the water instead of look at it.

The main attraction, Devil’s Throat, is a giant U-shaped waterfall at the end of the boardwalk. Crowds of people bunched together along the guardrail aiming to catch a glimpse of the waterfall, so we pushed in and then waited our turn for a chance to see it up close. Devil’s Throat was quite the sight! The sheer power of the water cascading down the side of the cliff was impressive. Our hair and faces were instantly soaked with the spray of the waterfall which felt wonderful on this hot, 90-degree day.

Tory thought the most impressive part was all the mist — the bottom of the canyon looked like there was steam rising out of it because there was so much mist and spray generated by the falling water. It surprised me that both Tory and Aden thought the waterfalls on the Argentina side were better than on the Brazil side. Andi and I disagreed — we liked Brazil’s view better. It was nice seeing both sides of the river to take in the magnitude of the waterfalls from different angles.

The four of us started the long walk back to the train station. It was so hot and humid, and we walked directly underneath the sun. Fortunately, most of the crowd was still behind us at the viewing of Devil’s Throat, so we were able to get a head start to the train station. The four of us admired the animals on the walk back — a few yellow-eyed blue birds flew through the trees and we saw lots of butterflies. We talked about how this very boardwalk just reopened a few weeks ago after being completely washed out by flooding in 2022. Parts of the old bridge were still visible in the shallow river.

At the Devil’s Throat train station, we found a place in line for the train. While we waited, coatis darted in and out of the crowd looking for food. Some people were bending down to get a closer look at the raccoon-like animals, but I’ve read lots of warnings that the animals bite. No thank you!

Instead, we diverted our attention to the friendly butterflies flittering all around us. The butterflies especially liked Aden, and kept landing on him. Another family was seated on the train next to us, so Aden shared the butterfly sitting on his finger with the little girl across from him. At least we were seated on a part of the train with other kids who don’t take up as much room and aren’t nearly as smelly as grown men.

Next, we should have visited the upper or lower circuits of trails leading to more waterfalls, but Andi and I were over this park. We were hot and sweaty, there were loads of people everywhere, and we didn’t feel like fighting crowds any longer. To us, visiting Iguazu Falls felt more like an amusement park than a national park. The waterfalls were incredible — no doubt, but our family is not very patient when it comes to waiting in line or pushing our way up to guard railings to see the view. We were all hot, hungry, and overwhelmed so it was time to go.

The taxi driver we hired for the day was waiting for us at the entrance of the park. We asked him to drive us to Puerto Iguazu, the closest town on the Argentina border. Andi asked for a recommendation for lunch, so he drove us to a restaurant called El Quincho. We ordered two burgers, chicken breast, fries, and a salad to share. Hamburgers in Argentina are interesting — they are served with cheese, ham, lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg on top. They weren’t particularly good at this place.

As soon as Andi finished eating, he left the restaurant and walked to Western Union. We needed more Argentine Pesos and Andi wanted to get the Blue Dollar rate when he exchanged our US dollars. The two ways to get the Blue Dollar exchange rate is to either use a cambio (a personal money exchanger) who will trade crisp $100 US dollars for Argentine pesos, or to wire transfer money through Western Union. By using one of these methods, foreign travelers like us get a better exchange rate than if we’d change money in a local bank or get money from an ATM. The only problem with using Western Union is that the lines are typically really long, and sometimes they run out of money to exchange. Our taxi driver was not happy with the idea of waiting around for us to use Western Union. “My friend, he says you have to wait 1-2 hours for money.” Yes, we know. But waiting in line is worth the time if we can get double the value for our money exchange.

Puerto Iguazu’s Western Union opened at 3:00pm, and at 2:45pm the line of people waiting outside was already 20 people deep. Andi waited in line for money while I entertained Tory and Aden at the restaurant. I let them order dessert and we played cards at the table until the restaurant closed at 3:30pm and forced us to pay our bill.

When the restaurant closed, Tory, Aden, and I hopped back into the taxi with our driver. I thought he said he would drive us around Puerto Iguazu while we waited for Andi to finish at Western Union, but then as we were driving I heard the driver say something about visiting Paraguay on the other side of the river. “No! No! Not Paraguay. We need to wait for my husband,” I told the taxi driver. “20 minutes,” he said. “Not far.” Earlier Andi and I had discussed crossing the border to Paraguay after we visited Iguazu Falls, but I didn’t want to cross the border without him. Yikes!

A few minutes later, our taxi pulled into the Hito Tres Fronteras parking lot. Ah, now I saw that this was the convergence of the Iguazu River and Parana River where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. The driver was trying to tell me this is where he was taking us, but I couldn't understand him.

Tory, Aden, and I walked to the look-out point to see where the rivers came together. Our driver offered to take our picture. He really is the sweetest man who I truly believe would do us no harm, but Andi and I both have the hardest time understanding what he’s telling us. My heart was still returning to a normal pace after I thought we were driving to Paraguay!

Tory, Aden, and I followed our driver behind a few gift shops to another marker along the river. It was pretty neat to see the land of Paraguay and Brazil before us.

After visiting the Hito Tres Fronteras park, we drove back to Western Union and waited for Andi. He’d been there for two hours now, and sent me a text that he was almost to the counter. About 15 minutes later, he returned to the car with more Argentine Pesos. What a racket that whole process is! In hindsight, we should have traveled to Argentina with even more $100 US bills than we did because exchanging with a personal cambio was a much faster and simpler way to get pesos.

By now it was 5:00pm. Our driver said it was no longer possible for us to cross the border to Paraguay (which was just for fun anyway) because we needed to cross back into Brazil. That was fine with Andi and I; we were all tired and ready to go back to our airbnb.

It took us 20 minutes to drive to the border crossing in Puerto Iguazu, and another 20 minutes to cross back into Brazil. Since we don’t have a car and there aren’t any restaurants within walking distance of our airbnb, Andi and I decided to stop at the grocery store in Foz do Iguaçu to buy ingredients to make dinner ourselves tonight. Our taxi driver kindly agreed to take us there. “I am your servant,” he told Andi, which was another example of his Portuguese-to-English speak that didn’t quite translate.

Inside the grocery store, we bought a T-bone steak, chicken breast, chorizo sausage, potatoes, asparagus, bell peppers, and charcoal. We returned to our airbnb, thanked our driver for taking us all around today, and then set to work on preparing dinner. Our airbnb has a nice Brazilian grill in the backyard, and the owner was thrilled when Andi asked if we could use it. It was a little challenging figuring out how to light it, but Andi got a fire going and prepared us a nice meal. Believe it or not, this was the first meal we’ve cooked for ourselves since we left home in February!

After dinner, Andi and the kids took a late night dip in the pool while lightening flickered off in the distance.

Tomorrow is our last day in Foz do Iguaçu. Andi has to work remotely, and the kids and I will catch up on school work. Looking forward to a slower day to rest & recharge.