Iguazu Falls

Our next stop was the Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil. We stayed in the Argentine tourist town of Puerto de Iguazu for three nights, which exists primarily because of the waterfalls. Accordingly, there was a lot going on, but after six days in a hectic million city at the beginning of the trip, it was good for us to spend more time in nature. You can take a bus to the national park on the Argentine side and take several paths to different viewpoints of the waterfalls, or take a bus to the Brazilian side and take a path with a different view there.

On the day of arrival, we had enough time to visit the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), the most impressive part of the waterfalls, where you can only see the water falling into the spray. So we already got an exciting first impression. However, we didn't get as wet as we had read in other reports - that also depends a lot on the wind. We had to get used to the suddenly very hot and humid climate, but at least we had traveled a good distance north.

On the second day, we visited the Brazilian side and started with a visit to a bird park, which combines well with the waterfalls. Our bus driver that day gave us the tip to visit this park before the waterfalls, because the organized tour groups always do it the other way around. Apparently, this worked out well, because the park was still not very crowded. There were native birds in the region to see, which covered the whole spectrum of colors, such as flamingos, parrots and toucans. The visit there was also worthwhile and it didn't give the impression that the park was only built to profit from waterfall tourism. After that (while the organized tour groups visited the bird park), we walked along the path that leads past the waterfalls on the Brazilian side. There we got a good panoramic view of most of the large and small waterfalls. So this little detour to Brazil was also worthwhile - even though currently everything in Brazil is much more expensive than in Argentina, like in almost every other country...

We will probably not visit Brazil again on our trip. Whether we are allowed to scratch the country off our map at home is still a matter of debate.

At least we stayed in our accommodation in Puerto de Iguazu in the 'Rio' room. The accommodation was cheap and centrally located near the bus station, where all the buses to the waterfalls as well as the long-distance buses departed from, so we only had to carry our entire luggage short distances. Only the bathroom was no longer in top condition, for example, you had to be careful that the shower wall didn't crash to the floor when you closed it, which on the other hand was quite funny to watch.

On the third day at the Iguazu Falls, we visited most of the other paths on the Argentine side. Judith was so overwhelmed by the pictures that she unfortunately lost the cap of one of her camera lenses. Oh well, better than the camera. In the morning, the climate was even pleasant, and because it rained throughout the afternoon, we drove back to the accommodation satisfied with many beautiful impressions of the waterfalls.

In addition to the waterfalls themselves, another highlight for us during these days was that we saw many animals, not only in the bird park but also in the wild. In particular, there were cute coatis, which also lurk along the paths from time to time, and capuchin monkeys that steal food from tourists. However, explicit warnings are given everywhere not to feed or touch both animals, as they can also bite and transmit diseases. There are also jaguars there, but we didn't meet them, probably to our luck.

When we wanted to book the bus ride to our next destination on site, we realized for the first time and in a harmless way that on such a trip, you also have to be open to unexpected changes in plans: While we reserved the connection offered to us with a transfer, our seller was alerted by his colleague that one hour transfer time would be too risky and therefore we would have to take the first bus 3:45 hours earlier. In this case, we would have preferred to take a connection with another provider that would have given us more of the day, but because we had already paid with a card, we couldn't cancel the booking at this point. At first, we were very upset and the sellers didn't apologize for the fact that we now had to take a connection that was not known to us before payment. But then we told ourselves that's just how it can go here and that the sellers probably didn't understand our very German problem. And if we had actually missed our connection, we would have had much bigger problems. So now we continue with a short stop in the rather unexciting Posadas to the next metropolis, Cordoba!