Iguazu Falls, Argentina, Travel – 16-17 February 2015

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Garganta Del Diablo – The Devil’s Throat

 

Hi there, this is the second stage of my two week trip around Argentina with my partner Daniela.

I knew from my research and many conversations with others who had been that the Iguazu Falls was meant to be one Argentina’s must-see highlights, though one which was perhaps second to the Perito Moreno glacier.  I’m happy to say the falls blew me away and for me were definitely on a par with the glacier in terms of sheer awesomeness.

For those who don’t know, the falls can be viewed from both Argentina and Brazil with each country giving very different perspectives.  On the Argentinian side, you’re very much in & amongst the many falls, whilst on the Brazilian side you tend to have a more panoramic view which have you a better sense of how vast they are.   In case you’re researching a trip of your own, here are a couple of thoughts from me:

  • Allocate a full day for the Argentinian side, it is immense and worth taking your time exploring the falls & taking it all in.    Get there early, they open at 8am and by 9.30/10 the paths are busy with throngs of tourists.  Having an hour of peace and clear views before they arrive is bliss!
  • Do the lower routes first and leave the Devil’s Throat til last, which for us was the highlight.   That whole level of the fall runs around in a giant U shape to the Brazilian side & it seems as though an entire ocean is falling into the abyss which seems bottomless because of clouds of mist.  We spent a good hour there just soaking it up.
  • Do the boat trip into the falls.  Mental.
  • The Brazilian side can be done in an afternoon easy.  We left this to the second day, though it had me wondering whether we should have done it on the first day.  It is less impressive than the Argentinian side so I was initially inclined to think yes we should have done it first, but actually it does provide a nice ‘reveal’ in helping you piece together the geography of the falls so perhaps it is best left to last after all.

Other pointers:

  • We stayed in The Secret Guardian Iguazu B&B, which was a very nice, relaxing and small (I think 4 rooms?) B&B with as the name suggests a little secret garden.   The 7pm mojito’s were a nice touch too, thanks John!
  • Re currency, we took US Dollars (in cash) and bought Peso’s at the unofficial ‘blue’ rate which at the time was 12 peso’s to the dollar, versus the official rate of circa 8.5.  Read more on this here.

Anyway to wrap up, for us Iguazu was in missable and we thoroughly recommend it!   Across the rest of our trip we stopped in Buenos Aires, the Perito Moreno glacier, Peninsula Valdes and Punto Tombo.  You can check out some blurb & pictures via the below links.

Perito Moreno glacier

Peninsula Valdes

Punta Tombo – penguin colony

Punta Tombo – sea lion colony

I hope you enjoy my pictures!  If you do, you might be interested in looking me up on Instagram www.instagram.com/richardisaacmusicphoto, my music photography Facebook Page, or Flickr.

Cheers,

Richard

 

 

Argentinian side:

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Check out the volume of water coming down through that gap – just breathtaking…

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Here’s a challenge – see if you can keep your eyes open as the boat goes deeper & deeper into the waterfall…

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The ‘cute’ Coati’s that live in the jungle and scavenge food left by tourists.  Despite the many warning posters not to feed them with images of childrens’ hands bitten open, people were still petting them and leaving their young children unsupervised around them.  I saw one tourist drop a bag of crisps and a dozen of the critters swarmed from nowhere and tore it to pieces in a frenzy.

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Views from the Brazilian side:

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For a split second I found myself hankering after a selfy stick…

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The Devil’s Throat from the Brazilian side…  ‘I’ll get the perfect shot if I lean over just a little more.…’wpid-20150218_Iguazu_Brazil_018.jpg

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The Devil’s Throat created clouds of mist that went high enough to be seen from the aeroplane’s landing/taking off from the local airport.

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