Puerto Iguazu, Argentina

One of the last adventures on our bucket list was to visit Iguazu Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world. Our AirBnB mentioned that he helps people find transportation to the falls and sure enough, when he saw that we were four, he told us that it would be cheaper to take a taxi than to pay for four bus fares. That is when we met Mingo, our driver for the next few days (It also turns out he was our lifeline when trying to leave Argentina too!).

But first, the falls! There are two countries that showcase Iguazu Falls; Argentina and Brazil. We went to the Argentinian falls first. When we arrived, it was pouring rain, and even though we had our raincoats with us, Mingo insisted that we would need some plastic ponchos, so we picked some up, and we are certainly glad that we did. There was so much rain, and our raincoats were a bit dirty. They definitely need to be treated again to be fully waterproof. So wearing our plastic ponchos we walked through the deep puddles to a train that took us to the trails to the waterfalls. We hiked across what seemed like hundreds of metal boardwalks over rivers and streams that would soon become the Iguazu Falls. 

As we walked across the many boardwalks, Charlie spied some huge catfish!

Our first stop was the “Devil’s Throat” where you can get a view of the biggest part of Iguazu Falls. It is pretty amazing the amount of water that passes through the Devil’s Throat.

It is pretty crazy to think that there are so many places in the world that are in a terrible drought, while here, there is such an over abundance of water at the same time!

The most exciting part of visiting the falls for the children was, of course, the wildlife. There are signs everywhere reminding people not to touch or feed the coatis and monkeys. This is the first time we have seen coatis, which are small animals that are similar to a raccoon.

There were lots of coatis at the Falls! 

They are very sneaky like raccoons and seek out food anywhere they can find it...even out of the hands of unsuspecting guests. We witnessed the aftermath of a coati jumping onto a lady to steal her empanada. I don’t think she was hurt, though they can leave people with some nasty gashes, but she was pretty shaken up.

We also saw some monkeys. I am pretty sure they were looking for a free meal also, but they weren’t as bold as the coatis. There were workers at the park designated solely to chasing the animals away from the guests.

There were a few trails to explore to see the different views of the waterfalls. All of them offering spectacular photo ops.

One of the things we really wanted to do was to ride in a boat that went up to the falls. Unfortunately, the kids were too young. But Mingo let us know that we might have luck on the Brazilian side….

The next day we went to the Brazilian side of the Falls. Instead of a train, we took a bus to the falls, and I think that we all agree that we liked the Brazilian side better. The trails weren’t quite as long, but there was a nice boardwalk where you were able to walk right overtop of a large waterfall with almost a 360 degree view of other waterfalls.

Another reason we liked the Brazilian side better was because Mingo was right, we were able to ride a boat right under some waterfalls! First we went on a small jungle tour where we saw wild pineapple plants and spiders that spin golden webs. Then we boarded the boat! We put on our plastic ponchos and expected to get drenched! And we did! The boat focussed on one waterfall in particular and the driver did a great job at entering at every angle to make sure nobody was left out! It was good that we wore our ponchos, but even so, we still got wet! 

That will be a memory the kids will not likely forget for a while!

After the falls, Mingo suggested we go to the Parque das Aves, which is a bird refuge. It had a lot of local birds in some pretty beautiful enclosures. The videos of the baby birds at different ages that showed how they fed and cared for them in the refuge was definitely a highlight for the kids. There were several enclosures that allowed people to walk through so you are up and close with the birds. One of the most impressive was the macaw enclosure. 

It was so large, and there were so many different kinds of macaws swooping and eating and biting their wooden toys prepared for them right at the refuge. There were a few other animals at the refuge that weren’t birds. We saw an iguana, caimans, butterflies and snakes. Amanda was pretty sure she saw a capybara, but not in a cage, just in the wild.

So many fun photo ops! 

We were pleasantly surprised with the food we found in Puerto Iguazu. We never had time to buy groceries at the store, and really, our AirBnB didn’t have enough pots and utensils to prepare much of a meal so we went for a walk and found Calle Brazil which had restaurant after restaurant that served what we know as charcuterie. 

The kids absolutely loved the pieces of meat and cheese with olives served with toothpicks (so fun for the kids!). In fact the restaurants were right around a small market that sold all sorts of olives. Adeline and Charlie were in heaven! We ended up buying a jar of olives, just for them to eat back at our apartment. It didn’t last long…

The Aussie family from Uruguay gave us a great tip. They had also spent some time in Puerto Iguazu and they found a fantastic ice cream shop called Cremolatti. We decided it was important to give it a try…. And they were right. It was pretty delicious.

Yum! Cremolatti  was definitely a winner in our books!

Other than the falls, Puerto Iguazu is pretty neat in that it is where the borders of three different countries meet up; Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Our next destination we were planning was Bogotá, Colombia, so we decided to fly there, and after some research, David found that the cheapest flights were out of Asuncion, Paraguay, which wasn’t too far away from Puerto Iguazu. So on our last day, Mingo our driver agreed to drive us through Brazil to Paraguay so we could catch a bus to Asuncion.

Los Tres Fronteras; Argentina to the left, Brazil to the right and Paraguay straight ahead! 

It seemed as though it was just not meant to be…. He picked us up and headed for the border with Brazil which was about 10 minutes away only to find that the people of Puerto Iguazu were protesting the Argentine government and had shut down the bridge to Brazil. No problem says Mingo, we’ll take a ferry across the river directly to Paraguay. So we hopped on the next ferry, got to the border only to find that we needed a visa to get into Paraguay! 

Oh no! No visas and only 48 hours to get to Ascuncion to catch out flight!

Shoot, we hadn’t needed a visa to get into any of the other South American countries, and we got a little lazy checking those entrance requirements! And the worst part, we could only buy a visa at the airport in Asuncion or at a consulate! Oh boy! So back on the ferry back to Puerto Iguazu and Mingo took us to the Paraguayan Consulate to buy visas. Unfortunately, it would take a day to process, so Mingo found us accommodation at his pastor’s hotel, made sure we got food to eat and picked us up the next day to take us back to Paraguay. We were told that the visas should be ready by 9:00 am, so we were at the consulate at 8:30 am to make sure we were ready to go! But 9:00 came, and 10:00 came and eventually, some time after 11:00, we finally got our visas and we hightailed it back to the ferry and, hooray, we were allowed in! Lesson learned.

Hooray! We got our visas and made it to Paraguay!

Mingo took us right to the bus station, made sure to find us a good bus line, and took us to the special seating area just for that company. He really took care of us! I kind of felt a little embarrassed having a driver in Puerto Iguazu. That really isn’t our style, but it certainly proved to be extremely helpful, but it probably wouldn’t have been the same if it was a different person. Mingo really was a stand up guy, and we were certainly grateful for that!