This past weekend I had the pleasure of going to Iguazú Falls in Argentina with some of my friends. Iguazú Falls are located outside of a small, quaint little town called Puerto Iguazú, which is an 18-hour bus ride away from Buenos Aires. When considering the best mode of transportation there, we could either take a bus or plane. Considering that transportation within Argentina is bit on the pricier side we decided to look at both of our options because sometimes flights and bus tickets are around the same price. For this trip, it was significantly cheaper to take a bus, so as poor college students do, we opted for the two 18-hour bus trips. Now, some would cringe at the aspect of having to be on a bus for that long, but I was super excited because bus transportation in Latin America can be really fancy. We opted to spend the $20 extra dollars and got seats in first class where the seats turned into beds. This was one of the best decisions of this trip because we slept overnight on the bus; therefore, we only had to spend about 8 hours awake on the bus. Also, because we were sitting in first class, the seats were quite large and plush, giving each one of us enough room to stretch out and relax. After leaving Thursday night at 7 pm, we finally got into Puerto Iguazú at around 2:30 pm on Friday. From there, we just explored the small little town, ate some pretty good tacos, and prepped for our day of hiking and rafting in Iguazú Falls. On Saturday, we all got up at 7:00 a.m. and were actually out of the door by 8:00 a.m. with lunches packed, smothered in layers of sunscreen and bug spray. As this is a very small town in the middle of the forest, there was pretty much no cell service, meaning that we did not have access to Google Maps. As such, we got out our handy map of Puerto Iguazú and began navigating to the local bus station that would take us to the park. On our way to the park we actually found a lookout called “Tres Fronteras.” There, we were able to stand in Argentina, see Brazil on our right, and Paraguay on our left. Naturally, we stopped for a small photo sessions before getting on the bus to the park. After about a 20-minute bus ride from the bus stop, we arrived at Iguazú National Park, bought our tickets for entrance to the park, and then bought tickets for a rafting and jungle tour. Once we got into the park, my immediate was reaction was surprise because it felt as if we were at an amusement park, not at one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The entrance to the park felt very commercialized as there were mini kiosks everywhere, different little train stations that you could take to different trails, and tour guides waiting to answer questions. I was almost a bit disappointed at how unnatural it felt, but was still excited to start hiking to the falls. The first trail that we hiked was one of the most famous trails at the park because it led us really close to the main fall on the Argentine side. The hike took us about an hour and a half to complete and was an absolutely amazing trail. The trail took us over the water in order to take us right up to the falls. Once we finished the trial we grabbed some empanadas (at that point we had already eaten our sandwiches and were starving) and headed to the second hike we wanted to go on. The second hike was even better than the first one because we were able to walk through the forest, see a ton of mini falls, and view both the Brazilian and Argentine falls at the same time. At this point we were all dripping with sweat and looking forward to our rafting adventure, which would actually take us to the bottom of the falls. After gallivanting through the different trails for the remaining of the afternoon, the time finally came for us to go on our rafting adventure. We put all of our backpacks into waterproof bags, took off our shoes, strapped into life vests, and got into the boats. The rafting tour that we went on was my absolute favorite part of our day in the park because the guide took us really close to the bottom of the falls, and through a mini fall. We went up close to both the Brazilian and Argentine falls and just sped our way up the river leading to the falls. It was absolutely amazing because we were able to take in the breath-taking views from the bottom of the falls while on an exhilarating motorized raft. After the boat ride, the tour guide took us on a jungle ride through the forest and we were able to learn about the flora, fauna, animals, and the preservation challenges that the park goes through in order to preserve the park while also making it available to the public. Overall, I thought my entire day at Iguazú Falls was absolutely amazing because I was able to take in the amazing views of the falls while also learning about the park. Compared to the magnitude of nature, we as human beings are absolutely minuscule; however, we need to make it our duty to preserve and protect what was here before us.
Follow Us!