We can split this trip into four parts essentially - the first quarter was the weekend in Rio de Janeiro - Thursday Night through Saturday Night. The second was a slightly quieter reset through Rio to Sao Paulo. The last quarter in Santiago, an opportunity to replay the hits. The third quarter are these two days in the jungles of Iguazu Falls. Veted one of the seven wonders of the new world, Iguazy Falls was hyped up a lot - both by that distinction, and by my parents who visited back in 2005 on a trip with their friends, a trip notable for it being the first time they went on a long trip without my sister and I. Anyway, it seems in the intervening 20 years, things haven't changed much.
Much like Victoria Falls, where we went two years ago, Iguazu Falls lies between two countries in Brazil and Argentina, and there is a town where visitors can stay on either side - Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, and Puentte Iguazu in Argentina. I chose to stay on the Brazilian side primarily because there is much more connectivity to the airport on the Brazil side, but having spent a lunch and then evening / night in the town, I'm glad I did as the town of Foz do Iguacu is much closer to a real city than the one on the Argentina side.
I had a super early flight from Sao Paulo, reached early in the cute little Foz do Iguacu airport, and by 9:00am I was checking in to my AirBNB in a tall residential building in the city center. The falls themselves are perfect for 1.5 days of visiting, as the Brazil side you can do in half a day, and the Argentina side in closer to a day (especially when factoring in border crossings), so I timed up everything with a certainty that worked well - especially when the weather ended up being much better than I was expecting a few days earlier.
After a quick nap (again, had to get up at 5am and then had little luck sleeping on the 90 minute flight), I arose for an early lunch at Bendito, a fairly middle-end steakhouse (basically the main form of food in town) that opens at 11am and received me at 11:15. The Brazil side of the falls involves a reservation where you pick a time to ride the bus from the visitor entrance to teh falls area, and mine was 12:30 so I did rush a bit.
In the end, their combination of a heart of palm salad, and picanha (portioned for one this time) worked perfectly. I'll say their picanha had just a huge fat cap that I felt bad cutting off 75% of it, but I couldn't really justify it. The remaining 25% was enough fat to make it quite a perfect picanha, and giving me the sustenance for the walks ahead.
After a 20min uber ride, I was out the Iguacu Falls park, where I caught the double decker bus that takes you from the visitors center another 11km to the start of the trail. There are numerous side trails and excursions in the intervening 11k, that require a few stops on the way. Most are trails taht lead to river level (away from teh falls) where most of the boat tours leave from. After about 20 minutes we got to the stop where the main falls trail starts, and within about two minutes from the bus stop you find yourself at the first of about 20 different platform lookouts with the falls on the other side. And it's mesmerizing, instantly.
The trail from beginning to end is about 1.7km, and walked at a leisurely pace with tons of stops to take pictures takes about 75 minutes (a lot of pictures). It's generally flat with maybe +/- 20 meter inclines throughout, and all the while hugging the coastline on the Brazil side with teh falls growing ever larger and wider on the other side. Unlike Victoria Falls which is primarily one large giant sheet of falling water (which has its own advantages), Iguazu Falls is really like a few dozens falls broken up by rock formations and hills and such on the Argentina side - which gives a great contrast. Some areas are the rushing, crashing large sheets like Victoria. Others are these picturesque areas where the falls stagger down to the lower river level in 3-4 stops, creating a bueaitful cascade of falls and rock pools. It's all incredible, and setup really well with the walking path to give a bunch of great spots to take photos and take in the awesomeness.
And then you get towards the back end of the trail and it all ratchets up a notch. That's when the falls finally curve around, and you get to the point where the Argentina side is as grand as ever, and the Brazil side gets into the action, and we reach the Brazilian Devil's Throat - which is just an amazing walkway built on the rock pool that the Brazilian falls fall into. It gets you pretty out there, and it is just mesmerizing. This is the one part where it resembled Victoria Falls in that the mist and blowback from teh waterfall makes it constantly raining. Not drenching as Victoria Falls was, but still you get quite wet - which is nice after a 60 minute walk in searing heat. It's just an incredible way to end a visit to the falls.
At the end is a nice rest station wtih food, wifi, drinks, a full bar, etc. - of which I probably took part in all those before starting a walk back to the start of the trail - going full pace without stopping as much took me about 40 minutes. Why did I do this? For two reasons - frist to just imbibe more views of the falls, and second as a hack because catchign the bus from the trail end back means waiting in a line at least 3-4 buses (they come in about 10 minute intervals), but I can catch a bus from the start (where most people get off), and take it to the end and just stay on. It worked perfectly. Not sure if it actually saved any time, but again - can't put a price on getting more amazing views.
Back in town, I headed to their one out and out local craft brewery - 277 Craft Beer, which is a really nice location and setup. They have a nice selection of like 20 taps, nearly all brewed in house, with a projector screen showing the last moments of Real Madrid's win over Man City, and a great place to spend time after walking quite a bit before. The beer also was quite great, with me trying four different brews going with half portions of each.
Dinner was at Santo Cupim, which seemed to be the most elegant of the various semi boteco's semi restaurants - basically places that serve all types of standard Brazilian fare, and have a full bar with anything imaginable. These places make up seemingly the remaining 50% of Foz do Iguacu restaurants, with the rest being more steakhouse like, but Santo Cupim seemed to be definitely the most earnest about the food.
For a starter, I got a Brazilian Linguica (sausage spiral) with yuca, which was qiute nice, the sausage spcied well and smoked a ton (if maybe a bit too much at first) before grilled on and served on a griddle. For my main I went off the board a bit to what was described as when translated "filet mignon flambeed in cognac with musrhoom and tarragon sauce". I ordered it, wiht a side of raddichio and bacon bits, and got something that was great but completely not what I was expecting. What was served came in a small cast iron dutch oven, and when opened revealed what basically was a brazilian stew. Luckily, it was excellent, the meat very tender and the sauce working well. Not sure what the cognac brought to the table, but it was fine all the same.
Post dinner, there are various night options in Foz do Iguacu. There's one club open Wed - Sun, 10pm - 5am, but from all pictures and a brief dalliance is more a club / hookah lounge / place more befit for Bangkok or that part of the world - which is sad because they had a live music band rather than just a DJ so the music was actually nice. I settled at "Authentic Bar" which was the one notable cocktail bar in Foz, which was excellent and had a nice crowd of locals, and finished the night at Rafain Chopp, a boteco version of the Rafain Churrascaria (more famous Foz restaurant), open till 2:30 (I left at 1:30), serving chopps or cocktails with live music. I've probably done less live music than I could've on this trip, so it was nice to get a little bit of that in an unexpected place in this town deep within Brazil.
