I took a bus from Montevideo, Uruguay with their thermoses of mate and metal straws and headed north to Iguazu, Argentina through a countryside where the original “cowboys” once roamed. I’d heard great things about Iguazu Falls and had to go. I was not disappointed. This is raw beauty – adrenaline county. If the rumble of the falls doesn’t get you blood flowing, then the unlimited places one could fall off countless boardwalks or riverbanks into the river above the falls and then slip over the side definitely will. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly safe if safety is your goal – safety is as safety does after all. For the explorers, though, there’s so much to see that it was impossible, for me at least, not to push my luck.
Iguazu Falls, and the rivers below, separate Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. From Iguazu city center, buses will take you, or you can walk, to the park. As amazing as the falls are, if you’re into flora and fauna, they’re not the only beauty. There are plenty of unusual critters crittering about; some more mischievous than others (the raccoonish Coatis), and, for luck, you almost certainly will have multiple butterflies land on you.
A couple things to keep in mind, if you haven’t secured your visa to get into Brazil (ahem, fellow Americans (Brazil charges us to enter their country just like we charge them to enter ours)) then Iguazu is a good place to get one. It can take a days, but there are worse places to be “stranded” while bureaucracy churns. Personally, I’d traveled through Ecuador a month earlier and found that to be a much easier place to secure my visa. The Quitoans even photoshopped a white button-up shirt and tie for free – I must have looked a bit dodgy.
