Iguazu Falls

April 2023

After leaving Ouro Preto, the next 4 days were dominated by driving. With our UK passports, we were granted 90 days in Brazil over 12 months and were on day 71. We intend to return to Brazil in a few months from Bolivia to see the Pantanal, so we needed to get out quickly and save the rest of our allowance! 

There also wasn't anything else on our radar to visit between Ouro Preto and our exit point at Iguazu Falls. We had 1,700km to cover, which involved about 6 hours of driving a day, for 4 days, staying at petrol stations at the side of the highway with basic facilities. 

One thing about Brazil that we have really leaned into recently is self-service restaurants. This is generally how Brazilians eat lunch. They're large restaurants (in cities and service stations) with a very good variety of food, where you pay per kilo. Generally, we get around 500g of food for £5. It's actually hard to buy groceries to cook cheaper than this. In Brazil, many companies offer their employees vouchers that they can redeem at self-service restaurants or supermarkets.

We had a brief stop in Sao Paulo to replace our leisure battery as ours had degraded after a few mistakes on our part. Nothing seems to be straightforward for us though, this being no exception. The space for our battery behind the driver seat is very tight, making it very difficult to remove and replace it with a new battery. There was also some confusion over the type of battery we needed and we ended up with a new car battery as a leisure battery instead. They fitted it for free and fed us truffles while we waited! The technician struggled with ours for a while but eventually it was done, cost £140, and we headed out of Sao Paulo in the sunset to find our next petrol station camp spot.

Iguazu Falls 

The Brazilian side

We arrived in Foz do Iguazu in the blistering heat and went to the best self-service restaurant we've been to so far for lunch. It was also the most expensive but we ate enough to make it worth it and to make us uncomfortable. After flicking through our Lonely Planet guide later, we discovered it was actually the best restaurant in town. After lunch, we found a campsite near the falls that was overrun with kittens and chickens. There was a rather uninviting pool but that didn't stop Em from going hurtling down a rusty water slide into a kiddie pool, nearly breaking the thing, ejecting most of the water out of the pool upon landing, grazing her elbows and choking on the dirty water that had shot up her nose. The shower blocks were full of mosquitos so we used our own next to the van and got an early night. 

The next morning we went to the falls on the Brazilian side for the opening time to make sure we were on the first shuttle bus into the park and to maximise our chances of seeing wildlife on the trails before the crowds arrived. This paid off and we were quickly greeted by Red-breasted Toucans, Agoutis, and Coatis. Iguazu contains 275 individual falls, is 80 metres high and, 3km wide (bigger than Victoria and Niagara Falls). A shocking fact we heard recently is that the amount of water leaving the Amazon River is greater than all the water leaving Niagara, Iguazu, and Victoria Falls combined... x 12! 

The walk to the Devil's Throat was 1.5km and gave us glimpses of the falls all the way down. They're so wide you can't see the whole thing at once. There were plenty of vistas that blew us away, only for us to round the next corner and realise that whatever we were just looking at wasn't anything in comparison to the new view. The final part of the path jetted out across the falls so you could walk with the power of the water below you. On our way out, we shared a lift with a family with a child who was absolutely terrified of lifts. We've never seen anyone be more terrified of anything. He was kicking and screaming "No, no, no, no, NO!" as his family dragged him into the lift. It was of course fine and he didn't meet his maker. 

It was forecast to be stormy and it followed through on that promise in the afternoon. We paid a visit to the 3 borders (where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet) but refused to pay the £8 entry fee and instead opted to spend that money on pretentious coffee and carrot cake while we hid from the rain. 

We went back to the same campsite and the nice lady gave us an even cheaper rate as it was raining! (30 reals instead of 40/ £4.80 instead of £6.80! The campsite was right next to the airport and there were loud rumbles from planes taking off, but luckily they didn't fly overnight. 

Red-breasted Toucan

Coatis

The Argentinian side 

The next day, we were up again at 6 am to head to the border. We parked up and crossed on foot with a plan to get the bus across the 3 km no man's land to the Argentina border. There was no sign of a bus, so instead we stuck our thumbs out and soon got picked up by a guy in a shell of a car. It didn't have any seats, or really any interior, but he was friendly and dropped us off at the border for free. It was incredible how much easier borders were without the hassle of temporarily importing Pedro! We took a taxi from the border to the falls, and set off on a walking trail.


The main trails follow an upper route - where you walk along the ridge of the falls getting up close to the drops, and a lower route - around the base of some of the falls. Both routes take you through jungle and make the Argentinian side feel much wilder than the Brazil side. We spotted a few exotic birds, like Toco Toucans and Amazon Kingfishers. The pathways were pretty crowded with Coatis, trying to steal snacks from tourists, to the extent that the cafes and restaurants have cages for people to sit in and eat without being attacked!


The main attraction was via a 10-minute free train ride to the farthest part of the falls, called the Devil's Throat. This part has the greatest water flow and a platform allows you to walk right over it. It creates so much wind and mist, it was like being in a rain shower and made the platform rumble from the power of the water crashing down. By far this was our favourite part of visiting Iguazu. It took a few minutes for us to believe it was real.


We caught the bus back to the border, got our stamp, and got a taxi across to Pedro. It was a great way to end our time in Brazil, with its biggest attraction, which definitely lived up to our expectations. 

The 'Devil's Throat'

Capuchin

Plush-crested Jay

Toco Toucan

Wildlife we've spotted in Brazil!

A bit of a serious note written by Em

We like to be very honest when we write this blog a) because gross stuff makes for a funny story, and b) because this blog isn't only for our readers but for our own record to look back on and be reminded of everywhere we went, everything we did, and everything we felt. We also reached our 6-month travel-anniversary, which called for a moment's reflection. So, with that in mind, we thought it was important to talk about the not-so-amazing parts of travelling as well.


Travel and mental health don't normally get spoken about in the same sentence, and any online account of travelling for a long period is usually just all the shiny bits that look great and make it seem like everyone's constantly having a fantastic time. But that's just not sustainable 24/7/365. You don't feel 100% all the time at home, and it's unrealistic to think you'd feel 100% all the time while you're travelling.


There have definitely been times when I've not felt amazing. And I've also felt guilty for having off days as you think you should be so grateful to be able to do this life-changing thing that so many people would love to do, and that you've been waiting 3 years to experience. So then you feel bad for thinking about home, people you've left behind, and the mundane parts of your old life. You start to miss making plans with friends that don't involve when to arrange a Whatsapp video call, hanging out with your family, your comfy corner sofa, your big comfy bed, the cold weather, gravy etc. etc.


It was also quite isolating being in Brazil for so long. We ended up spending 3 months there, half of the total time we've been away so far. We had decided before we came to learn Spanish as that is the language spoken in most South American countries, and we naively thought people in Brazil would be able to understand Spanish. It turned out most don't, and we found it really hard to speak Portuguese. Even when we went into a shop armed with a freshly googled phrase, they would still respond with the same blank look as if to say what the hell are you talking about. So, we hadn't had much friendly chat with Brazilians, as we had in the Spanish-speaking countries. Don't get me wrong, everyone was lovely and keen to help us via Google Translate, but it just wasn't the same.


Having been back in a Spanish-speaking country for less than a week, we already feel relieved. Catching up with friends and family via video chat has also given me a new lease of life. 


So, to our friends and family, when we say on the phone or by text, we miss you, we're not just saying it, we really do miss you, and we have been assured that you'll all still be there when we eventually get back!


Here's to the next 6 months, whatever they may bring, and embracing all the feelings that come with the ups and downs of life on the road.   

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