Mighty Iguazu Falls

Thought 1: A friend at the hostel told me she spent 1000 pesos for a tour package to Iguazu National Park (excluding the entrance fee). No, you DO NOT need to buy a tour package. IGNP is manageable on your own. My total expense to IGNP was 235 pesos (bus, boat ride and entrance fee).

Thought 2: There is only a hotel built in the park, which is the Sheraton. It could cost up to USD400-500 per night. Personally I think a hotel in a national park is a gigantic eyesore.

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After breakfast at the hostel, Steve and I walked to the bus terminal. It was about 5 minutes walk. Steve had to catch a flight the same day to Buenos Aires, so he had to carry all his belongings with him to IGNP.

Got the bus tickets for 20 pesos roundtrip to IGNP. There’s bus service running every 20 minutes or so from Puerto Iguazu downtown to IGNP main gate.

Iguazu means “Big Waters”. To the world’s largest waterfalls, here we went!

At the park, the entrance ticket costed 100 pesos. 40 pesos for Argentineans. Some kids tried to jump the queqe to get the ticket, and Steve “politely” rejected them. 🙂

It wouldn’t be wise for Steve to carry a huge backpack with him in the park, so he left it at the locker before going in.

The weather was cloudy and cool. Lucky us. 🙂 There was a chance of rain, but that was out of our control. Let’s not worry about that. 🙂

We stopped by a giant map and made a plan. Since Steve had to leave for airport around 430pm, we had to use our time efficiently.

Iguazu National Park Map

To avoid the crowd, we opted to hike to the Lower Circuit first. We wanted to save Devil’s Throat for the last.

The guide at the Visitor Center told us it would take us 3 hours to do the hike.

Coatis. Roaming around in the park.

Although there were lots of steps and stairs, I found the hike relatively easy. We stopped by each viewpoint to appreciate the falls. I would advise wearing hiking boots or at least a good pair of strapped sandals.

When I first heard the roaring of the waterfalls, I couldn’t help but shouted out, “Oh My God.”, and poor Steve get an ear-full of O.M.G. throughout this trip.

At one of the viewpoints.

There were many viewpoints and walkways which allow close view of the waterfalls.

Here’s a video taken from one of the viewpoints:

Close to the waterfalls, I felt like it was drizzling, but it wasn’t. It was the mist from the waterfalls.

Here’s a video of goofy me introducing the waterfalls.

Next post: Boat ride to the CATARATAS!

Trash. Kids. Soccer.

Breezy night. Amy and I went out for some fresh air and to watch kids playing soccer right outside the hostel.

Amy:”Oh, you see what I mean? This is what I don’t like. There are garbage bins and yet people threw trash bags in the middle of the road!”

Amy:”The cars are going to run over the garbage and it’s going to be dirty everywhere.”

Me:”Amy, there are two more bags over there…”

Amy and I (smiled at each other):”Oh…”

The kids were using the trash as the soccer goal. 🙂

“Goal!!” A kid looked at us and shouted happily. I clapped.

You just need one ball and all the kids in the neighborhood can play. Isn’t soccer the best sports ever?

Would I be able to experience this if I had booked a hotel at the city center? 🙂