24th January 2020 – 26th January 2020
What a way to make our journey to the Iguazu falls. We had done some research on forums (and gained great insights from our new fountain of knowledge, the backpackers for South America Facebook page) and discovered that bus journeys in South America could be pretty boss. Given the long distances between Buenos Aires and the falls, we looked at getting a sleeper bus for the trip.
A short amount of searching on Busbud (or bus booking website friend) we found that one service, the Rio Uruguay, had lie-flat sleeping seats for the 17-hour journey complete with meals and snacks. This would come in at 9000 Ars but given this was including a night accommodation (in theory) this seemed too good to pass up.
The bus terminal in Buenos Aires is HUGE. My only real experience of bus terminals at home are the Victoria coach station and the ones that I wake up when I’ve fallen asleep on the bus (this hasn’t happened often, but it has happened). This place had well over 70 … platforms and was a hive of activity. We had arrived a little too early so we waited for our information to appear on the screen.
Around 20 minutes before the departure time, the board stated our bus was at platform 53. We made our way down the terminal and to the bus where we were greeted by the bus team who would check our tickets. They no Habla ingles, we don’t Spanish outside of the basics. So the conversation was not exactly flowing. However, I showed them the tickets and with some multi-lingual hand movements, we were on the bus.
This was amazing. Having not seen a sleeper bus I was amazed at the layout of it! Each seat had an abundance of room and a small entertainment screen on the seat in front. In a plane, this is exactly what you see when you walk past the business class seats. We found our seats and as soon as left we made ourselves comfy in the chairs.
Dinner! 
Breakfast! 
Lay down seat!
The dinner was really good and not something you expect on a bus. The seats were incredibly comfortable and we both managed to get a ton of sleep. This was probably aided by the fact the hostel bed we had been in for the past few nights didn’t provide any support whatsoever and so our bodies graciously awarded us for having some solidity again!
However comfortable though, 18 hours is a long time and we were glad to pull into Puerto Iguazu. We were too early to check into our hotel so we stopped at a nearby place for coffee. Here we got a free WiFi code and we started to check what we could do on the area whilst we were visiting.
We decided that we would visit the falls on the next day, so we had an afternoon to kill. After a few searches, we headed around the corner to our hotel and checked in.
We knew we would like this place as soon as we walked in the door. This wasn’t a fancy 5-star hotel (in fact it was probably more 2w star by all standards) BUT there was a cat, which makes all hotels so much nicer. Whilst I dealt with the formalities Katy played with the kitty who was trying to sleep on the couch.
We enjoyed a post coach shower, as long-distance travel had made us feel slightly grim. Keen to not lose too much of the day we headed out for a walk around the town of Puerto Iguazu.
The main attraction of the town that we found was the viewing platform were standing in on Argentinean soil, you could look out into both Brazil and Paraguay.
After some typical tourist photos, we headed around the roads of the town. We passed boat services which would take you on a tour of the three borders, but this seemed a bit of a waste of time and money as there isn’t more to this cruise than the novelty of boating on the border.
The next morning we got up early and made our way to the bus stop with 5 minutes until the next bus. We bought our tickets and sheltered from the strong sun in the shade of the bus stop. Annoyingly, when the bus pulled in it turned into a free for all with newly arrived people pushing to the front. This, of course, needed up with the bus being full before Katy and I could board. Grumble grumble!
The timetable meant it was only a 20-minute wait for the next bus. Rather than risk the same happening again we stayed by the bus stop and the blaring morning sun. It was only 10 minutes before the bus pulled in and we could sit on board in the very welcomed air-conditioned vehicle.
Arriving at the park entrance we queued and paid our entrance fees of 800 Ars Each. We looked at the park map and worked out what we would do. We thought we would do the long walk first (2.5 hours) to the infamous devil’s throat. However, on talking to a member of staff in the park, they advised us to see other things first as the devil’s throat was super busy. Changing our plan we decided to do the easy path first and work our way up.
Official Website
The first path (yellow) took us out of the tree line and into the view of the Devils Throat, albeit a few kilometers away. The opening from the path provided stunning views and thankfully, now in possession of my DSLR since New Zealand, I managed to get some good zoom shots. We carried out around the path and were rewarded time and again with great views of the waterfalls as we moved under them.
The next path we moved onto was the blue one. This walk was a bit longer and higher up which meant that instead of being under the falls, we spent our time above the falls. This also let us see into the Brazilian side of the falls. At one of the lookouts, Katy had a fun idea for us to take a photo of each other from different viewing platforms. I went ahead and located the platform Katy could see and we waved at each other. A few corny pictures later and Katy made her way over to me.
Not having a sim card whilst in South America means that communication is very limited! Once 20 minutes had passed and there was no sign of Katy something didn’t feel right. This was a bit worrying as we had no way to get in touch with one another. I checked the photos taken and looked at the people around Katy. They were all in my area or had recently left. I made a judgment call and decided that if Katy had passed me, it was likely she would have carried on. Therefore I would do the same and if I didn’t see her I would wait at the exit of the walk.
A few minutes up the walk I saw an unimpressed Katy. It turns out that losing each other in a place where we didn’t have easy communication with one another was quite stressful!
After the walk, we were both getting very hot and bothered. Being out in the harsh midday sun was sapping the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm from us. We were in need of water and ice cream.
Now seems like a good point to mention about the wildlife that lives in the area. The whole park is abundant with non-human lifeforms who also explore the area. Mostly in search of food, it is a little sad to see how easily the wildlife mingles amongst the people in search of their next snack. The park rangers are very hot on the tail of anyone trying to feed the wildlife, which was good to see. Below is a small gallery showing some of the amazing wildlife we saw whilst in the park.
While enjoying our break we got talking to a couple from the states who told us about the train on site. We hadn’t thought about getting it as there always seemed to be a massive queue for it. However, we were informed the queue was not actually a queue and the train itself was a ticketed service, (free of charge, just a guaranteed seat on the train). We got our free tickets for the train in 30 minutes’ time so we sat int he shade whilst we waited.
The train pulled in and the staff started to let us on by checking our tickets. I handed the attendant both Katy and my own ticket but before Katy could make her way through, a large woman barged her out the way screaming the word for pardon in Spanish. Not quite sure what her sense of urgency was for I was left stunned in silence. Katy came through rightfully angry, so we made jokes about it for a while to lighten overcome the rudeness we had encountered.
The cute little train ride (which resembled the minute trains found at heritage places in the UK (or at the IMechE railway challenge)) brought us through the park and up to the location of the Devils Throat, sparing us the hour-long walk it would’ve taken us otherwise.
When we arrived at the station we still had to navigate a long metallic, man-made bridge across the waters at the top of the falls. For what felt like a long time we were ambling with the crowds, slowly starting to burn in the hotter afternoon sun. A few the umpteenth turn on the track we made it out into an area filled with crowds.
As we went to the edge we saw why this was so popular. Beneath us was the most impressive sight we had ever seen. The falls in Indonesia were great but these were on a whole new level. The thousands of liters of water pouring every second down this fall was breathtaking to view and listen to. We paused to take a few photos ourselves (when we could actually get room to do son, the place was very busy). Looking around I couldn’t help but think how many phones had been lost down the falls over the last few years.
Our day complete, we were both slowly starting to gain red shoulders so we headed back to the entrance, onto the bus and back to our hotel. It was a great day out and we’re so glad we had decided to make the trip up to Iguazu! We showered up and headed out for dinner and a few drinks in the town of Puerto Iguazu again.
Our time at Puerto Iguazu had concluded. We sat in the airport departure lounge of a dubiously titled international airport. The building had fewer than 10 gates and a small coffee counter. Whilst we were sitting down there were a couple of power outs which added to the shoddy feel of the building. Still, it was comfortable enough and we killed time until boarding time! Off to Cordoba!