Not far from Pato Branco (171 miles, 275km, but it’s all
relative…) are the famous Cataratas do Iguaçu (Iguassu Falls, Cataratas del
Iguazú in Spanish), a spectacular series of waterfalls along the border between
Brazil and Argentina. Seven years after
my first visit to Pato Branco, I still hadn’t been (combinations of bad weather
and short holidays/busy schedules) so my wife and I decided to spend a weekend
there. My first thoughts were to head
there for the 4-day weekend of a bank holiday (when a holiday falls on a
Tuesday or Thursday, the day between the holiday and the weekend is often
granted to employees as a holiday, known as a bridge day), but we chose to
visit the weekend before to avoid the crowds.
So after work one Friday, we set off to Foz do Iguaçu, a
city on the triple border with Argentina and Paraguay, 15 miles (25km) from the
falls. I wasn’t sure what to expect of
the city; I’d heard that it could be a bit dangerous and generally unpleasant,
frontier towns here don’t typically have very good reputations, but I was
pleasantly surprised. The city appeared
quite pleasant, with trees everywhere, modern buildings and well-organised roads. The top floor of the hotel gave a good view
of Foz do Iguaçu and across the Paraná river to Paraguay.
As Cataratas
We started the day early, with a plan to arrive at the falls
around 9am, when the park opens, which was just as well, as the car park didn’t
take long to fill up. The entrance is
somewhat confusing. You can follow road
signs to the falls from the city, and eventually you reach the entrance to
Iguaçu National Park, but this is not the entrance to the car park. The car park is actually slightly before the
National Park entrance, on the left hand side and not terribly well
sign-posted, there is only one sign on the right hand side of the road with an
arrow that points vaguely ahead and to the left. There was an old woman standing in the road
pointing in the direction of the car park, but with no uniform or ID, she
looked a bit suspicious – as if she was offering some alternative parking or
‘protection.’ It turned out that she
directing us to the right place.
Apart from the poor sign-posting, the visitor centre is
quite well organised. The car park is
kept some distance away from the falls, which are then accessed by regular,
open-topped shuttle buses, helping to limit the environmental impact of tourism
on the area. Before arriving at the trail
to the fails, there are other stops for the Macuco Safari, a boat tour that
allows you to get up close to the falls, and Trilha do Poço Preto, a 9km ‘eco
adventure’ trail through the forest. We
didn’t have time for either of these but maybe next time…
The penultimate stop is for the Trilha das Cataratas
(cataracts trail). From the bus stop, it
is a very short walk to a platform where you get your first view of the falls,
a long curtain that, even from a distance, is enough to take your breath
away. Accompanying the crowd of
sightseers, are the ever present quatis (South American coati), members of the
racoon family. There are constant
warnings not to feed the quatis and to avoid eating near them, as they are
cheeky and fast – they ripped open a carrier bag with sunscreen in attempt to
find food. As you follow the trail
towards the waterfalls, you encounter thousands of butterflies of all colours
and sizes.
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| Inset, one of the viewing platforms on the Argentinian side |
The majority of the 275 falls are on the Argentinian side of
the river and the trail offers amazing views of all the falls, with occasional
viewing platforms. From the trail it was
possible to see trails on the Argentinian side, the tiny people serving as a
reminder of just how big the falls are, even the smaller ones. Soon, the trail turns a corner giving view up
the canyon where massive cloud of continually rising spray partially obscures the
Garganta do Diabo (Devil’s Throat), the U-shaped fall which is the largest of
all the cataracts with the greatest flow.
Even from this point, a few hundred metres from the Garganta do Diabo,
there is a constant fine spray in the air and a rainbow hangs permanently over
the canyon.
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| Approaching the Walkway |
As you get closer to the Garganta do Diabo, the roar gets
louder and the spray increases until you reach a walkway into the middle of the
canyon and the middle of the waterfall.
Some people wore raincoats to protect against the constant shower from
the falls, although (at about 30°C) it was warm enough to dry out your clothes,
so we didn’t bother. The views from the
platform are spectacular, on one side is the immense power of the falls
plummeting towards you and on the other, the river disappears over the edge of
more falls and plummets to the floor of the canyon. This platform isn’t for people afraid of
heights!
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| The platform hanging over the edge of another waterfall |
I could have spent hours on the platform, hypnotised by the
endless torrents and following with my eyes the multiple paths the water takes to
the bottom on the canyon. Eventually we
left the walkway and headed toward the lift that takes you to another platform
at the top of the falls. There is only
one lift with a rather limited capacity, so there is quite a long queue. There is a pathway that winds up the hill to
the platform, but with the heat and humidity, it is more tempting to just wait
for the lift! From the top platform, you
are greeted by a different, but no less spectacular view of the falls! In the distance, through the hazy spray that
is constantly rising, a platform on the Argentinian side can just about be
seen; a flag a host of minuscular people.
It appears to be perched on the edge of a massive waterfall, looking
into the Garganta do Diabo (or should I say Garganta del Diablo?), which must
also be quite spectacular. Looking to
the right, beyond the spray and through the ever present rainbow, the walkway snakes
out across the water, looking tiny and perilously close to the edge of the
falls. This is the grand finale of the
tour, from here, the footpath takes you to a restaurant and array of
snack-shops (lanchonettes) and the bus stop back to the park entrance. It is a pleasant place to sit and watch the
river slowly, calmly edging closer to the falls before reappearing as a cloud
of fine spray.
Parque das Aves
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| The inquisitive toucan |
Directly across the road from the carpark for the falls, is
the Parque das Aves (literally “bird park” in English) which is a sanctuary for
rescued birds, where they are kept in large enclosures that you can walk
through, without having to look through windows or wire fences. To protect the birds, the foot path is
separated from the wooded area by a fence, although this did not prevent an
inquisitive toucan from flying over to curiously nose around my wife’s hat,
which she had laid on a bench! I was
impressed at how fearless the bird was, even as people gathered round to take
close up photos. If anything, I’d say he
was playing up for the camera!
Itaipu
We spent a pleasant hour or so at the Parque das Aves before
moving on the Itaipu Dam. We booked
tickets for the tour online and as we choose the longer tour (that goes over
and inside the dam) there were limited time slots available. The tour starts with a video presentation in
a small cinema before boarding the buses that go up to the dam. The first stop is the spillway, a group of
locks that open when needed to the control the level of the reservoir, leading
to a spectacular deluge down three chutes.
I say spectacular, because the photos look good… The locks are only opened a few days each
year and our visit wasn’t one of those days, so the spillway was bone dry. From our vantage point, it appears relatively
small, it was only when we were told that the gates on the locks are about 10
metres in diameter and the slope is 30 m long that we could put it in
perspective and see how large it really is.
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The desk on the left is in Brazil, the
one on the right is in Paraguay |
From there, the tour bus takes you onto the dam itself. What really strikes you is the scale of the
thing; from the top, you see a panoramic view of the surrounding Brazilian and
Paraguayan countryside, with Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este in the distance
on either side of the Paraná River that marks the international border. This scale is emphasised further as you
descend into the depths of the dam seeing the huge tubes that carry the water
and the massive generators. From here,
the tour goes inside the control centre for the dam, a large building
straddling Brazil and Paraguay where everything is split equally between the two
countries and a yellow line runs through the middle of the building to mark the
border. The tour group is split into two
groups – Portuguese and English – for this part, where the guide tells the
story of the dam’s construction as well as explaining the operation. Everything is exactly equal between the two
countries, although Brazil’s power needs are greater than those of Paraguay, so
Paraguay sells some power back to Brazil – the 50Hz electricity generated by
Paraguay is converted back to 60Hz for delivery to Brazil.
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| Foz do Iguaçu in the distance |
Puerto Iguazú, Argentina
We decided to have dinner in Puerto Iguazú – just across the
Argentine border – in a restaurant that was recommended to us called
La Roeda. I’m not sure whether this is normal or whether
something was going on, but there seemed to be police everywhere after crossing
into Argentina. Inconveniently, one of
the roads on the route was closed, throwing off the GPS and neither my wife nor
I had a data signal on our phones, so we ended up on a bizarre back road tour
of the city. It was strange – it looked
very much like any Brazilian small city, but the back roads were often poorly
lit (if at all) with huge cambers on the road.
Coming out of one T junction, there was a massive dip before a steep
slope onto the road – all of which was obscured by the poor lighting so I
wasn’t driving as slow as I should have – which wasn’t particularly
pleasant. We eventually found ourselves
on the right road, guessing the direction we needed to go, we stumbled on the
restaurant, parked on the street and made our way in.
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| La Rueda, well worth a visit, excellent restaurant! |
I get a bit mixed up when someone speaks to me in
Spanish. I can get the gist of what
they’re saying, but I can’t bring myself to just reply in Portuguese, so no
words leave my mouth! Once I’ve got my
Portuguese to a decent level, I think I’ll need to have a go at Spanish! In reality, I shouldn’t have been too
concerned as the staff can generally understand Portuguese, being on the border,
and our waiter spoke good Portuguese.
The meal was very good and my bife de chorizo was perfect; Argentina is
certainly good for steaks! The staff
were very friendly and the whole evening was very pleasant. First impressions mean a lot and Argentina
left a very good impression.
Ciudad de Este, Paraguay
On our last day, we decided to cross the bridge to Ciudad
del Este, Paraguay. The city is popular
with Brazilians looking for cheap shopping and there is one shopping Centre,
Mona Lisa, which advertises with massive billboards stretching for hundreds of
miles along the highway that leads to Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este. It was a Sunday, but our good friend Google
said the shopping centre was open, so we thought we’d go and have a look.
My first thought, before we’d even crossed the border, was
what a mess! The road that leads up to
the border check point before the bridge is disorganised – borderline chaotic –
and filthy, with litter everywhere. The
traffic becomes a bit more ordered as you drive slowly through the checkpoints,
although I was surprised that neither exiting Brazil nor entering Paraguay were
we stopped to check our papers. When we
entered and left Argentina, we had to stop and show our ID cards (passports if
you’re not a resident of a MERCOSUL country.)
My second impression of the city wasn’t much better; even as
we were exiting the border area, there was a swarm of people standing around
the road, calling out in Spanish (and possibly Guarani, as some of it I
couldn’t come closed to recognising it) and knocking on the car windows. Waving them away didn’t work, they were
persistent, although I had no idea what they wanted! I assumed they were trying to sell something. I realised that by stopping the car, however
briefly, at the junction, it had encouraged them, so I headed off uttering the
odd swear word…
We crossed the roundabout by the border and my wife pointed
out that we had missed the shopping centre, which was on our left and rapidly
receding into the distance. Never mind,
there’s bound to be a turn soon, so I can head back the way I came.
The ordered, slow traffic of the border crossing was just a
memory, as cars came flying past on all sides giving the impression of a
motorway, rather than a main road through a city. Before long, we reached an equally chaotic
roundabout – cars flying around, entering and exiting oblivious to other cars
and lane discipline. As I sat wondering
how the hell I was going to join this madness, a car in the middle “lane” of
the roundabout stopped, presumably to let me out, despite the cars speeding
past of either side of it! I spotted a
gap, stepped on the gas and shot out into the fray. I don’t know how I got round the roundabout,
it’s all a bit of a blur, but I found myself back on the road heading to the
shopping centre and the border. We
turned right to head to the shopping centre and found to our disappointment
that it was closed.
By this point, we had been in the country for about 10
minutes experiencing traffic chaos when moving and endless pestering when
stationary so we decided to just head back to Brazil. To get back to the main road, we had to
follow a narrow street that went through a market and somehow do a u-turn to
get back. In Brazil, it’s not usually
legal to do u-turns, but by this point, I was under the impression that rules
don’t count for much in this city, so I spotted a gap and went. After avoiding one suddenly stopping car and
another one manically overtaking us (on a single-lane road through a market,
remember), we reached the first roundabout whose first exit would lead us to Brazil. As we waited for a gap in the continuous flow
of traffic, a lunatic ran across the road – somehow avoiding the 4 lanes of
speeding cars – to our car, again shouting and knocking on the windows. That was it.
I saw a tiny gap, revved the engine and leapt onto the roundabout to the
relative calm of Brazil.
As we crossed the border, we started breathing again and
tried to make sense of what had just happened.
We spent about 15 min in Paraguay and nothing about our trip made much
sense! We stopped at a petrol station
and told the attendant about our experience.
He told us that they were probably trying to sell parking and that the
best thing was to take a bus across the border, having a car with Brazilian
number plates immediately marks you as a tourist and potential customer. Well, now we know…
Marco das Três Fronteiras
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| Paraguay |
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| Argentina |
Before departing the area, we decided to find the spot where
the borders of all three countries meet, where the Iguaçu River (Foz do Iguaçu
literally means “mouth of the Iguaçu”) flows into the Paraná River. There is a tourist souvenir shop here and,
with an entry fee, the Marco das Três Fronteiras – the mark of the three
borders. The mark is a green and yellow
pyramid obelisk and by looking across the rivers, you can see the busy
counterpart area in Argentina with its blue and white pyramid obelisk and
Paraguay’s quieter-looking area with a red, white and blue rectangular
obelisk. It’s worth pointing out that
the Brazilian and Argentinian areas around located at the corner of their
respective cities, while the area in Paraguay is a little to the south of the
city, which may explain the lack of visible visitors. We had some lunch from the café looking out
over the rivers and three countries.
After the chaos and rush of our brief trip to Ciudad del Este, the
serenity of the view provided a perfect farewell to this beautiful corner of
the country(s).
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| The Brazilian obelisk, with the Argentinian and Paraguayan ones in the distance |
Tips
After all this, I have some tips for anyone planning a trip
to Foz do Iguaçu.
- Go to the cataratas in the morning. This is when the light is best from the
Brazilian side, and you’ll want to avoid the crowds anyway.
- Be prepared to get wet.
If you go onto the walkway, the spray will soak you through. The heat will probably dry out your clothes,
although I haven’t been there in winter to see what it is like then!
- Prepare for the quatis – avoid eating near them and don’t
take anything in a carrier bag, as they will rip it open! I don’t think they pose any dangers to
people, but they can be a nuisance.
- Visit the Parque das Aves afterwards. It’s right next to the entrance so it’s easy
to get to. It’s well worth a visit and
it supports their rescue and recuperation activities.
- Visit Itaipu Dam (on a different day.) We did it all in one day, but that meant it
was a bit of a rush. Far better to take
your time and enjoy your day. Itaipu is
a little further north of the city so the visit will take a good few hours.
- Visit Puerto Iguazú (even if it’s just for dinner.) I’ve heard that the falls viewed from the
Argentinian side are even more spectacular than from the Brazilian side – I
can’t comment, as I haven’t been!
Hopping across the border for a good steak was well worth it! Just be aware of border controls though. As a MERCOSUL citizen, or permanent resident,
it’s easy to go through the border with your ID card, however visitors will
have to ensure that they are stamped in and out of the countries. There is some useful advice in this blog.
- If you plan on going to Ciudad del Este, plan it first. It’s probably best not to drive, some people
walk, some get the bus, I’m not sure which is best, but I don’t think I’ll be
driving across any time soon!
