Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Las Cataratas!

Iguazu Falls
The third leg of Argentina 

 Flying into Iguauzu Falls

The pilot told us all to get up and go to the right side of the plane to the see the falls. Yes, we were almost about to land, and the place was tiny, but let's all unbuckle and rush to one side.

Brazil side
You can view the falls from both Brazil and Argentina. I based myself on the Argentine side in the town of Puerto Iguazu and took a day trip to the Brazilian side. Although it says you need a visa (and I do have a Brazilian visa thanks to my last trip), Brazil will unofficially let you go in.

Las Cataratas!
These falls had been so hyped up over the years and also by all the people I encoutered in Argentina. Alas, it actually did live up to its expectations!

Panorama from the Brazil side

Exploring Puerto Iguazu
The town itself is very uninteresting and lacking character. People come just to see the falls. But I did manage to take a 2 mile walk through local neighborhoods to this interesting location.
 
3 points
The intersection of Uruguay (on the left), Brazil (on the right) and Argentina (where picture is taken from)

Argentine side 
While Brazil offered more panoramas of the falls, Argentina allowed you to weave through many planks throughout the falls giving you a more up-close view. It gets crowded though, so go right when it opens. I had the whole park to myself for the first few hours.


Dangerously close

Wildlife
The Argentine side had more of a nature walk feel. I actually went on a 2 hour hike in the middle of the day away from the falls.


The sun!
After 1.5 days of walking around the falls, the sun finally came out!

Headed toward the Diablo Gargantua (the devil's mouth)

The final view
Flying out of Brazil

On the last day, I made my way over to Brazil to fly out of Iguazu Foz, the Brazilian airport because that's where I found a good flight back home. I was happy to take advantage of my Brazilian visa for the second time. The trek home went from Argentina to Brazil by land, stopped over in Rio, got delayed in Houston and then finally arrived in LAX and bussed home. It was long and definitely over 24 hours.

It was a great trip! Although I got a good tour of the country, I'm already planning to use my pricey Argentine visa again to go to Patagonia during a future winter break (so it will be summer over there). Anyone interested?

2 comments:

sharock said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sharock said...

i will work on both visas. very much interested in patagonia.