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Mind blowing magnificence: Iguazu Falls Iguazú Falls

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Iguazu Falls, an enormous complex of waterfalls on the Iguazu River near its confluence with the Parana River, lies amid the dense rain forest at the boundaries of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. Both Brazil and Argentina maintain national parks around this area, which is a long ways from any major population center. It’s a 90 minute plane ride north from Buenos Aires, the closest large city.

Simply scanning the near-unanimous 5 star ratings given to Iguazu Falls gives a clue: this is an amazing, spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime place. Photos cannot begin to convey the awe that accompanies the sight and sound of horizon-to-horizon waterfalls, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, you can bet that my written description will fall very far short of doing justice to the place.

Nevertheless, no one’s posted a review of Iguazu Falls in a few years, and prices have definitely changed, so here’s an update on some costs you may incur:

Lodging: $25-500 per night

Visitors to the area will find lots of lodging options in the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu or in the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazu. Closest lodging to the falls is at the Sheraton Iguazu Resort & Spa, which is located within the boundaries of the Argentine park and within sight of the falls. It will run you upwards of $250 per night, but is unquestionably the most desirable lodging option. Lower cost lodging is abundant in Foz do Iguacu and Puerto Iguazu, ranging from hostels for $25 per night to full-service hotels that cost between $100 and $150 per night.

Transportation: $1-100 per day

Transportation from either of these towns to the falls is available via public bus (for a few cents) or taxi ($10-15 one way). For $50, we hired a taxi at the Puerto Iguazu airport who took us to the park, waited around all day while we hiked through the waterfalls, then took us back to the airport. For the same tariff, we could have had him drop us in town at a hotel. The park is located about midway between the airport and the town of Puerto Iguazu. Travel time between the airport and the park is about 20 minutes, and it’s another 15-20 minutes from the park to Puerto Iguazu.

Other costs:

If you want to see the Brazilian side of the falls, you’re going to need a visa, which costs $130 per person. Don’t blame Brazil - this tariff is reciprocal and is based on what it costs a Brazilian citizen to visit the US. Although it used to be possible to sneak across for an hour or two without a visa, authorities have recently cracked down on this practice, and there are no more loopholes - if you want to get into Brazil, you’ll need that $130 stamp in your passport. (Ideally, get this before you leave the US, or at a minimum get it in Buenos Aires - you don’t want to spend the better part of a day cooling your heels waiting for your paperwork in Puerto Iguazu).

Yellow fever shot, should you decide it’s necessary: $100-150 per person. (Again, make sure you get this well before you depart - it’s good for 10 years).

Admission to the Argentine national park: 40 pesos for non-residents (about $13). A two-day pass is available for a few pesos more than the daily pass.

So, including the approximately $400 per person airfare from Buenos Aires, a couple could easily end up spending close to a fifteen hundred dollars to visit Iguazu Falls. When we did the math, we decided against visiting - it was just too expensive. After arriving in Argentina and hearing the glowing reports from folks who’d visited the falls, we got to re-thinking and figured out ways to cut costs:

We decided to go for a single long day trip - we took the first flight out of Buenos Aires at about 6:30 and arrived at the park by 9 in the morning. We opted against visiting the Brazil side, thus saving $260 in visa fees, plus additional transportation costs. It would have been great to see a different perspective of the Falls, but seeing both sides would have been challenging to fit into a single day visit. The last flight out of Puerto Iguazu leaves at around 7 in the evening, which allows daytrippers to stay at the park nearly until closing time.

We decided against yellow fever vaccinations - a calculated risk, but since we were visiting in mid-winter we figured - correctly, as it turned out - that we wouldn’t see many mosquitoes, and since we planned to be out of the park by dusk (when it closes) we felt it was a safe choice. Visitors planning to see the park at other times of the year, or those spending more time in the jungle, would be well advised to budget for vaccinations - yellow fever is emphatically not something to fool around with.

And finally, we booked airline tickets via LAN Chile’s domestic website (in Spanish) and were able to secure the Argentina resident fare of about $275 per person, versus the $400 fare on the English language site. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure of the legality of this strategy. Some people have claimed that if a non-resident gets caught doing this you’re obliged to pay the difference, but in practical terms, it’s difficult for me to imagine how that scenario would play out at the boarding gate. In any case, I didn’t tell my wife, figuring that (for one of us, at least) ignorance was bliss. As it turned out, we had no problems whatsoever, so for us it was a good money-saving choice.

Thus, our overall cost for the day trip for two people was about $650 - still not cheap, but considering the magnificence of the Falls, well worth the expense. We could have trimmed costs even further by choosing the overnight luxury bus service from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu (about $50 per person), but such a choice would have lengthened our trip from one day to nearly three, and we wanted more time for other activities.

The Argentine Park:

As noted above, both Argentina and Brazil maintain national parks surrounding the Iguazu Falls area - nearly a quarter of a million hectares of virgin rain forest, home to jaguars, monkeys, tapirs, giant anteaters, and caymans. The Argentine park infrastructure is comparable to what you’d find in North America: a well-maintained and modern visitor’s center (with information, restaurants, and gift shops), well-marked trails, an electric eco-train to ferry visitors between trails, and a spectacular system of elevated metal walkways designed to keep a million visitors a year from trampling the fragile rain forest.

These walkways are divided into three “circuits”, all of which are well within the capability of visitors with reasonable mobility. The lower circuit is the most strenuous, mostly at the base of the falls, and takes guests to spectacular panoramas of the waterfalls and right into the mist of the cataracts. The upper circuit allows visitors to wander at the very upper edge of the falls - sometimes within a few feet of the water on one side of the path and a hundred meters above the booming falls on the other side. The third circuit, known as Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil’s Throat, takes visitors to the very edge of the most spectacular waterfall in the park, where you can stand, drenched in mist and the thunderous sounds of 270 degrees of waterfalls surrounding you - absolutely mind-blowing. Remarkably, the Devil’s Throat pathway is wheelchair accessible - we saw at least two handicapped visitors being wheeled out to this astounding overlook.

Even though we visited in mid-winter, the weather was warm and very humid. Visitors in summer should come prepared for very warm temperatures. Carry a lot of water, or refresh yourself with a soda or other refreshment at one of the many kiosks scattered throughout the park.

Also, note that the volume of water going over the falls at any given time is highly dependent on the season and on the management of dams upstream from Iguazu. Despite what we’d heard, that mid-winter is typically a time of low flow, the falls were absolutely thunderous, with so much water flowing that some of the regularly scheduled boat trips were temporarily postponed. I can’t imagine that the falls are ever anything less than magnificent, but we surely benefitted from the full fury of unrestricted flow during our visit.

Although we economized by seeing the park by foot and in a single day, I don’t think we shortchanged our visit - we got to see all of the most spectacular sights and definitely felt like we got our money’s worth. Nevertheless, visitors with more time and money to spend could easily extend a visit by taking one of the many excursions offered - you can take a jeep ride through the jungle where you’re more likely to spot some of the resident wildlife, or take a boat trip up to the very base of the waterfalls (you’ll get completely soaked, so make sure your camera is enclosed in a sealable plastic bag). There are even short helicopter rides available on the Brazilian side, but these are controversial, as the rotor noise has scared away many of the toucans and parrots that formerly inhabited the area.

Iguazu Falls is, quite simply, the most incredible natural feature I’ve ever seen. The thrill of experiencing this spectacular place stayed with us for days. If you have the opportunity to visit this area, by all means try to budget the time and money to do so - you won’t regret it.

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