The Falls of Iguazu, Argentina & Brazil.

Jaw-dropping scenery in a lush subtropical jungle spanning two countries.

I came back to Argentina in March 2025, after having visited the country for six weeks in 2023. This is the fourth article of the series. We started our trip by hiking the Tierra del Fuego National Park near Ushuaia, then flew to El Calafate to hike in El Chaltén and see the amazing Perito Moreno glacier. After that, we traveled all the way to the northern part of the country to discover the Iguazu Falls.

After ten days in Patagonia, we were in for a shock as soon as we left the Puerto Iguazu airport terminal. The heat was humid and oppressive. The scenery was everything Patagonia wasn’t. Lush, dense tropical forests surrounded us. The road into town felt like it was cut in the middle of a never-ending jungle, with frequent signs reminding drivers to watch for wildlife crossings. In the US, the sign usually shows a deer. Here, they pictured jaguars and capybaras, which reminded us how far we had journeyed.

The Iguazu Falls are said to be one of the biggest, most impressive waterfall systems in the world. Its name (Iguazú in Spanish, Iguaçu in Portuguese), come from guarani, an indigenous language, and literally means “big water”. It doesn’t only name the falls but also the river bordering Brazil and Argentina that feeds the falls and ends up merging with the Parana river a few miles downstream, where it forms a triple frontier between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.

The Iguazu falls are one of the most famous tourist sites in Argentina and Brazil, and voyageurs drive the economy in the region. We knew we wouldn’t be alone at the falls, but that was a price we were willing to pay to see them.

In terms of comparison, the Iguazu falls count with the sixth biggest flow of water among the planet’s waterfalls, just behind the Niagara Falls, with water jumping off two basaltic cliffs of 115 and 131 feet in height. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013.

A view over the Iguazu falls from the lower circuit path, on the Argentinian side.

Puerto Iguazu is the closest Argentinian town to the falls. It has all the markings of a tourist-dependent, sleepy border town. Street vendors hawking tours to the falls or to Paraguay, store after store of cheaply made souvenirs and plenty of parilla restaurants – I am guessing many Brazilians cross the border to enjoy Argentinian meat.

While it is the gateway to the Argentinian side of the falls, Puerto Iguazu is also home to one of the most popular duty-free zones in Argentina, and many people trek up north to get deals on expensive electronics.

Puerto Iguazu is actually part of a much bigger free-trade zone that spans the three countries whose borders meet where the Parana and Iguazu rivers merge. The Triple Frontier, as it is called, is a major economic engine for the region, but because of its porous borders, it is notorious for being a smuggling point into Brazil.

For this part of the trip, we chose to spend our two days and three nights in Puerto Iguazu. I had already been to Paraguay, so the country was checked off my list, and my parents had no desire to shop for cheap computers in Ciudad del Este. We were also told by locals Puerto Iguazu was a much safer city than the other two on the other side of the border, especially at night.

Part of the falls system from the Brazilian side, looking towards Argentina.

There is a never-ending debate online over which side of the Iguazu Falls is most impressive. The Iguazu river, which provides the waters that create the falls, separate Brazil and Argentina, and the falls are technically Argentinian and Brazilian (with Argentina owning a vast majority of the falls themselves: more than 80% of the cascades are within Argentinian jurisdiction). We decided to check out both sides and I am glad we did. It is often said that visiting the Brazilian side is like seeing a movie about the falls, and seeing them from the Argentinian side is like being in a movie about the falls, and there certainly is truth to that.

In all fairness, if you’ve come all the way to Iguazu, you can probably make it a two-day adventure, at least I would recommend it. Both sides are impressive for different reasons.

It was incredible to feel we had the falls to ourselves.

We started on the Brazilian side. As I explain below in the Practical Information section, we opted to rent a taxi for the day. It helped with crossing the (notoriously slow) border, with going through Brazilian immigration and felt overall easier. The price was worth the convenience.

On the Brazilian side (like we saw later on the other side), the national park’s infrastructure is well developed, with greeters, lines and overhead screens guiding you to the right place. I saw this as a good thing, but a little part of me longed for a somewhat more authentic experience. In Brazil’s defense, the park sees close to two million visitors a year, and is well equipped to handle this amount of tourists. How does this fit in a blog about less known destinations? I wondered if I should include this part of our trip online, for it didn’t really tick all the boxes. That being said, the immense majority of tourists visiting the parks are Brazilian or Argentinian. We saw very few Americans (or Westerners, for that matter) over the days we were in the region, and as such, I felt it could be interesting to report about these natural wonders for a different audience.

The obligatory coati picture, on the upper circuit path, in Argentina.

The Brazilian park is huge, and the falls are just a little part of it, but, of course, this is the part that everyone visits. We had picked a somewhat early entry time of 10.30am (the park opens at 9am but I wanted to have a buffer in case border crossing was chaotic). It was a good time from a light perspective, and it wasn’t yet too crowded – although I would lie if I wrote we felt alone in front of the falls. After a few minutes in line, we hopped in the mandatory, free buses getting us closer to the Iguazu river.

The area near the falls features several trails you can walk at your leisure. The most popular (and most crowded) is called Trilha das Cataratas (the Waterfalls trail) and starts at the bus stop in front of the glamorously old school Belmond hotel (the only accommodation in the park). It takes about one hour to go from one end to the other, and you are offered vista after vista of the 275 cascades that make up the Iguazu falls ecosystem (AllTrails link here).

It's hard to describe the scenery. It’s almost overwhelming how wide and spread out this falls system is, at 1.7 miles. There are cascades as far as the eye can see, and as you go up or down the path, you’ll see more at almost every step.

What makes the Brazilian side so visually powerful is the sense that you’re able to see the full span of the waterfalls in almost one panoramic view.

View over the Devil's Throat observation path from a higher viewpoint on the Brazilian side.

As you walk east, towards the falls, you’ll be able to actually get close to the water (and sprayed by mist at the same time) and see the famous Devil’s Throat, the most impressive falls of the system, from below. For many people, it’s the highlight of the visit and the path over the river getting you to it is fairly busy. I enjoyed it, but I preferred the beginning of the path, with its wide view of all the falls in all their glory. I understood then what people meant by “watching a movie” about the falls. I was happy we started on the Brazilian side, to see the falls in their entirety from a somewhat further vantage point. It felt like a great introduction.

We had a little more time before heading back, and I wanted to try a path less traveled, so we took a shuttle back towards the visitor center and stopped en route to check out the Trilha das Bananeiras (Banana Tree trail). The Alltrails link shows the full trail, but we only walked the last mile or so, where the trail leaves the main road to get to the Iguazu river. We saw less than ten people on the way (and a red brocket deer). The trail is easy, well maintained (it was closed for four years, and reopened after a glow-up at the beginning of 2024) and crosses through quiet, lush jungle that feels miles away from the busyness of the falls trail. The path ends at a small building with a patio over the calm Iguazu river, before the falls. It was a nice contrast to walk this shaded, flat trail and get a sense of the other side of the park, with less people. I’d recommend you check it out.

On our second day, we got up early. We had purchased annual passes to all the Argentinian national parks and could get into the Iguazu National Park when we wanted, but every single guide out there suggested going early, both to beat the crowds and the punishing tropical sun. Therefore, just after 7.30am, we walked a few blocks to the bus terminal and hopped onto the first Rio Uruguay bus we saw that left for the park (I had bought the tickets the night before, more information on how can be found in the Practical section below). The bus dropped us in front of the park entrance, with about a million other people.

If the Brazilian side of the falls was busy, the Argentinian one felt like New York City’s Grand Central station at rush hour on a bad day. Surprisingly, though, the crowd filtered through the entrance quickly and in an orderly manner, and we were in the park before anyone could start complaining.

A plush-crested jay in tree in the Iguazu national park.

Our initial plan was to rush to what everyone calls the highlight of the park, the view over the scary Devil’s Throat, an incredible natural wonder. There, the water falls directly into the canyon below in one single drop of 270 feet (the approximate height of a 30-story building) with a flow that’s both impressive and scary.

We would have taken a (free) train to the end of the park, then walked over the river to get there. However, the first train was full, and we decided to walk. It was a serendipitously good idea, because when we got to a fork in the road just after the Cataratas train station, I asked a park ranger for directions, and he told us it was actually a very bad idea to visit the Devil’s Throat first. It went against the advice of basically every travel blog I had reviewed, but we decided to listen to the ranger.

Devil’s Throat is probably the place where good manners come to die.

His point of view was that all the tours that get a half-day in the park rush to the Devil’s Throat first, to tick it off the list, so it gets insanely crowded in the morning, at a time where the light isn’t perfect for great photos. He advised us to check out the other two famous paths in the park first, the lower and higher circuits, where, he assured, we would be relatively alone.

I am so glad we heeded his advice. We started with the lower circuit, which, as its name suggests, affords a point of view of the falls from a lower perspective, making them even more impressive. I don’t think we saw more than fifteen people on our forty-five-minute hike. Most of the path is shaded by the jungle and fairly easy to navigate. It was incredible to feel we had the falls to ourselves.

All aboard time at the Cataratas station.

We then checked out the upper circuit, which was a little more crowded – but it was nothing compared to what we would experience at the Devil’s Throat later. The upper circuit gets you to the top of the falls, just above the river waterline, and you can see the water from very up close. It’s quite impressive and sometimes a bit scary, but always safe. The park’s infrastructure is top-notch, and the bigger danger is probably getting bitten by a coati while trying to pet one (which is something you should absolutely not do, as many warnings will remind you all across the park).

It was now time to head to the best part of the park. To be fair, we could have stopped after the upper circuit and felt complete – these two paths were incredible and worth a visit for themselves, but we knew the hype was all about the Devil’s Throat, so off we went, by foot, along the rail track.

This specific path wasn’t shaded, and the sun was starting to feel a little intense, but it was perfectly doable. While there was no official AllTrails data for this specific walk, I believed it took us about forty minutes from the Cataratas train station, where paths divide, to the Devil’s Throat station, where everyone gets off to walk the last mile and a half over the river. We were pretty alone walking along the track (we did see a few people, but most tourists traveled by train).

My fear was overcrowding. I am not a big fan of crowds, and the point of this blog isn’t to highlight places in the world that are already so touristy they become travel clichés, but here we were. Not taking the train had one advantage. We avoided the rush of people getting off them and getting on the narrow paths to the falls, built over the Iguazu river waters.

Upclose view of the waters from the upper circuit path, on the Argentinian side.

As we got closer to Devil’s Throat, the crowd became bigger and bigger, up until a moment where it was hard to move forward. The viewpoint above the falls was fully packed and it took us a while to even get to it, let alone move through it.

It’s safe to say I didn’t enjoy this part. Yes, the drop at Devil’s Throat is impressive, in a scary, almost incomprehensible way, and you get to see it from very, very close. Yet, for all the incredible view this afforded us, we were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people and their excitement to be in a once-in-a-lifetime moment, which made them slightly less self-aware.

Devil’s Throat is probably the place where good manners come to die, and this wasn’t fun (on top of that, the mist from the water became annoying quite quickly - we ended up pretty wet, and so did our cameras).

Would we have fared better had we waited even longer to visit this part of the park? Maybe. We had to balance this against the punishing sun, so unless you plan to come to the park in the afternoon, and keep Devil’s Throat for last, you may be better off doing what we did, knowing all what we went through.

Would I go back to the Devil’s Throat now that I know all of this? I am honestly not sure. It wasn’t the highlight of the trip for me – the Brazilian side, with its all-encompassing view, and the Argentinian’s side almost intimate lower circuit were what I enjoyed the most, and I would recommend anyone wishing to visit the falls to prioritize them before anything else.

We got back on the Rio Uruguay bus around 3pm. By then, the sun was almost unbearable, and the air-conditioning blasting the bus interior with freezing-cold air felt like salvation. Forty minutes later, we were back in our hotel and ready for the next part of our adventure, which would bring us to Argentina’s northwest region the following morning.

A portion of the lower circuit path, seen from above, on the Argentinian side.

Practical information (updated as of April 2025)

Getting to the Iguazu Falls area

-       Getting to the Iguazu Falls from the US: there are two airports serving the Iguazu regions, one on each side of the Argentina/Brazil border. None offer non-stop service to the US so any trip to the falls will require a connection in Brazil or Argentina. This is where it gets slightly tricky. Foz de Iguacu (IGU) is the airport on the Brazilian side while Puerto Iguazu (IGR) is its Argentinian equivalent. You won’t be able to fly to Foz de Iguaçu from Argentina and, similarly, it is not possible to fly into Puerto Iguazu from Brazil. From the US, it ultimately doesn’t matter as you’re going to want to visit the falls from both sides, but if you connect in Brazil, you will land at IGU, while if you connect in Argentina, your destination will be IGR. Note that it is a lot easier to find one-stop itineraries form the US that get you to the Brazilian side (IGU), usually with a connection in Sao Paolo’s Guarulhos airport (GRU).

-       Getting to the Iguazu Falls from Argentina: if, like us, the falls are one stop of many in an Argentina grand tour, the easiest way to get there is to fly into Puerto Iguazu (IGR), on the Argentinian side, which you can do from Buenos Aires, both from Ezeiza airport (EZE), where all US flights land and from Aeroparque (AEP), Buenos Aires’ downtown airport. There are non-daily flights to other Argentinian cities as well. It impacted our itinerary because we chose to fly out to Salta, and not Jujuy, after visiting the falls, based on schedule – but at least, we didn’t have to backtrack to Buenos Aires. Check the flights departing IGR on the days you’d like to fly to find the one that’s best for you. Once at the airport, you’re about twenty minutes away from the falls by taxi or thirty minutes from Puerto Iguazu, where you’ll most likely stay. The trip from the airport into town cost us ARS25,000.

Getting to the Iguazu Falls National Park (Argentina) from Puerto Iguazu

-       The easiest option is to get a taxi that will bring you to the falls and wait for you there. It should cost a maximum of ARS50,000. We found many kiosks in the downtown area of Puerto Iguazu with drivers offering such options, and your hotel can also help arrange that.

-       There is a much cheaper option, however, that is almost as convenient: get to the Terminal de Buses downtown (here) and find the ticket booth for Rio Uruguay (you can’t miss it, it is right at the entrance of the terminal getting in from Avenida Córdoba), then buy a round-trip ticket for the falls there. The ticket cost us ARS12,000 (about USD11 but the exchange rate fluctuates a lot). There are many questions online on bus timetables and whether you can pay by debit or even credit card, so here is the latest: the first bus leaves for the park at 6.30am and roughly every 15 minutes after that until 6pm (when the park closes). You can indeed pay by credit card. My US-based Visa worked fine. The attendants in the booth speak English well-enough to make the transaction smooth and easy. You can also hail the bus anywhere on Avenida Aguirre (the main road out of the city that leads to the park) and get on, but you’ll have to pay the driver in cash, in pesos. The bus will drop you at the entrance of the park (here) where you can buy tickets and get in. After doing this, we really felt this was a super easy option, that’s also cost effective as long as there are four people or less in your party. The buses are clean, have air-conditioning and leave frequently. It made trip planning very easy.

A partial view of the whole falls system from the Argentinian side.

Crossing the border between Argentina and Brazil as a non-Mercosur national

-       I wanted to highlight how to cross the border the right way, whether you’re crossing from Argentina to Brazil or the other way round, because online information is conflicting, and sometimes misleading. It’s also important to note that, as of April 10, 2025, American, Canadian and Australian nationals need a visa to get into Brazil so the advice below is even more important in that context.

-       In a nutshell: there is a way to cross the border via bus. It is cheap but will take a long time. You may also rent a car but that will most likely take even longer. My recommendation is a bit unusual for this blog, as I try to be cost-conscious most of the time, is to not try to save money on this, and instead hire a taxi for the day to cross the border, or take part in an organized tour. I’ll explain why: the key is that as a foreigner (not a Mercosur national), you’re supposed to stop at the Brazilian border to get a stamp on your passport when entering and leaving the country. This is not the case for Mercosur nationals, who represent the vast majority of people crossing the border on a daily basis. As a result, buses crossing the border will not usually stop at the Brazilian immigration building, unless you request it, but in any case, they will not wait for you to go through Brazilian immigration. You’re left to wait for the next bus, and, as there is no official stop for them, you’re at the mercy of the driver. I have read tales of people taking the risk of entering and leaving Brazil without going through immigration, and while it can be done, I absolutely do not recommend it (especially for Americans, Canadians and Australians now that you need a visa to get in) because you’d be breaking the law, and while the possibility of a control is low, if it happens, you could be in big trouble. See below for details on how to cross from Argentina to Brazil.

-       I didn’t mention it above, but everyone needs to get their passport checked (but not stamped) going in and out of Argentina, so all buses will stop at the Argentinian border. The issue is the Brazilian crossing for non-Mercosur nationals, as explained above.

-       Finally, note that access to the Brazilian side of the falls via the Parque Nacional Iguaçu is done via time slots of thirty minutes. When you book your ticket, you can pick when you want to get into the park and they can be strict on making you respect your entry time based on how busy the park is that day. You don’t want to arrive too late because you spent two hours waiting to go through immigration, so if you choose to take the bus to get to the park, it would be wise to plan for a large buffer in case immigration is a pain to get through.

Getting to the Iguazu Falls national Park (Brazil) from Puerto Iguazu (with border crossing)

o   Option 1, bus: as I wrote above, this isn’t recommended even though it can be done. You first need to take a Rio Uruguay or Crucero del Norte bus from the Puerto Iguazu bus terminal (here) to Foz de Iguazu’s international bus station (here). Information online about timetables is scarce, so your best bet is to inquire directly at the terminal (I know from experience the Rio Uruguay personnel speaks English, which is helpful). From the Foz terminal, get into bus #120 to the national park. As mentioned above, the international bus will not stop at the Brazilian border for you to do the necessary inspections as a non-Mercosur national, which you absolutely need to do. The driver may say you don’t need to, because most tourists don’t, but you really do. If you do stop, the bus will not wait for you and you’ll have to wait for the next one and pray the driver will stop to pick you up. Not great.

o   Option 2: rental car. There are rental car options available in Puerto Iguazu. While it’s not possible to rent a car in one country and drop it off in the other, you could technically rent a car for the day in Puerto Iguazu and go to the Brazilian side as a day trip. Franchise and insurance are likely going to cost you, in the event the rental company allows this (not all of them do). However, this isn’t a recommended option for a very simple reason: time. There are two lines on the road going into the Argentinian border control from Puerto Iguazu. One is for private cars, the other one for taxis and buses. When we crossed the border, the private car line was more than 100-car long, and our driver told us this would take about ninety minutes to go through, which is fairly common. In your rental car, you’d be in that line too. In contrast, the bus and taxi line went fairly fast – we passed through in less than twenty minutes.

o   Option 3: tour. The nice thing about this option is that everything is taken care of for you. Your tour bus will get you to the park in Brazil and bring you back. The bus will also stop at the Brazilian immigration building and let you get your passport stamp upon entering and exiting the country (we have seen tour buses do this, the guide will come down with everyone’s passports, and hand them over to the Brazilian immigration officer for stamping). One advantage over the car rental option is that tour buses can use a speedier line to cross Argentinian immigration, which is especially important going into Brazil.

o   Option 4: taxi for the day. This is what we chose, for several reasons. As highlighted above, the combination of bus travel being slower, potentially complicated with Brazilian immigration and subject to long waits that could jeopardize getting in on time to the park entrance made us opt for this option, which we deemed safer. For a group of three people, the cost difference wasn’t as much, but obviously if you’re traveling solo, it may not be such an easy decision. You can find many kiosks offering this service in town, especially around the bus terminal, but we simply asked the taxi driver who took us from the airport into town, and he arranged the trip for us. We paid ARS70,000, about USD65 at time of writing, by credit card. The price was similar in all the kiosks we saw, so don’t worry about getting fleeced (unless they quote you ARS100,000 for the day, of course). The advantages of this are obvious: you get picked up and dropped off at your hotel, can cross Argentinian immigration faster since the taxi will use the dedicated lane, get dropped off at the Brazilian border control to get your passport stamped and the driver will wait for you. You also don’t need to worry about procuring Brazilian money just in case, nor worry about having phone service in Brazil if anything goes wrong on the way. For these many reasons, it felt like the right thing to do, and I am glad we did. It made out day trip to the Brazilian side super easy.

Inside the Iguaçu Falls National Park (Brazil)

Both parks on each side of the Iguazu falls have great infrastructure and are set up to accommodate the high number of visitors that get in every day. On the Brazilian side, you’ll see greeters, lines that may remind you of security screenings at airports, and big screens directing you to the right place. It’s a little daunting at first, but it’s only there to help manage the flow of people going in. The Brazil side handles access to the park via timed entry slots, and screens will tell you when to get in line once your slot is open.

We got to the park a little after 10am, and although our time slot allowed us entry between10.30am and 11am, we were allowed to get in right away (I hear they are much stricter with entry times on busy days, like weekends and holidays). If you can get in earlier, do it, so you can enjoy the park with less oppressive heat. I was just worried about missing an early morning slot if border crossing was a mess (and it would have been one had we rented a car).

The Brazilian park is huge, but most people only visit the part closest to the falls. We explored two trails there, however there are a few more listed on the park maps, not all of them open at all times, so check before going (the main trail, providing views of the falls, is pretty much always open). To get to most trails, you’ll need to take a free shuttle bus that does several stops along the route, with announcements in Portuguese, Spanish and English. It’s super well done, and you’ll know where to stop.

The viewpoint at the end of the Waterfalls trail on the Brazilian side.

• Trilha das Cataratas (Waterfalls trail): 2 miles, 60 minutes, 351 feet elevation. AllTrails link here. This is the one trail everyone does, and for most people, the one reason they get in the park. On top of the cliffs over the Iguazu river canyon, this path affords grand views of the whole falls system, and is the best way to understand just how big they are. It is very well maintained, although it can get slippery and narrow at points. Overall, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to admire the falls and take photos, but you will not be alone. Most people start the trail from the west - you have to get off at the bus stop in front of the glamorously old Belmond hotel, then work your way towards the falls themselves. This way, you get a great, all-encompassing view of the falls first, and end the trail at the lookout over the bottom of Devil’s Throat. You can take the shuttle bus from there to get back to the entrance, if that’s enough park time for you.

The view over the Iguazu river at the end of the Banana Tree trail.

• Trilha das Bananeiras (Banana trees trail): 1 mile, 40mn, flat. AllTrails link here - note the link shows the full trail, and we only did part of it. We walked this trail because I wanted to explore a path less traveled in the park, and this one was definitely less crowded. We only saw ten people (and a red brocket deer) while walking among a dense, tropical forest. That’s not to say we felt like Indiana Jones: the trail is wide and well maintained, with signage along the way. After about twenty minutes, we got to a small guard house overlooking the quiet waters of the Iguazu river, teeming with birds and butterflies, before it falls down the canyon. We walked the end of the trail, which technically starts at the visitor center. There is a bus stop for it if you’re only interested in the small portion that we did, so you can’t miss it. I would recommend it, if only to see another, less touristy side of the park.

Inside the Iguazu Falls National Park (Argentina)

Both parks on each side of the Iguazu falls have great infrastructure and are set up to accommodate the high number of visitors that get in every day. As a matter of fact, when you get to the entrance of the Parque Nacional Iguazú on the Argentinian side, you could think you’re about to get into a local version of Disneyland. I am saying this in the best way possible: signage is clear, waiting lines are set up, ticket control is smooth, there is a complimentary train that can get you to other parts of the park. Just like Disneyland, however, it’s crowded. Be prepared to see a lot of people.

We got to the park just after 8am, when it opens. We were told this was the best time to get in, to walk most of the park during the morning, when the heat is just fine, although, of course, that’s when a lot of people visit as well.

There are three main paths in the park to watch the falls from different perspectives. You can reach them via a free, slow train that’s an attraction in itself - again, very Disneyland-like but the train allows to move a lot of people to the end of the park, where the main attraction, Devil’s Throat, is located. The train works on a first-come, first serve basis, with bookings you can make once you arrive at the main station, a few hundred feet past the park’s entrance. In other words, if you come into the park at 8am, you will most likely be able to book and hop on one of the early services, but if you come later, all trains may not be available.

The misty mess of Devil's Throat, from above, on the Argentinian side.

• Devil’s Throat path: 1.3 miles, 45mn, flat. This is the most famous portion of the park, and although it wasn’t my favorite for reasons I described above, it still represents the highlight of a park day for many a visitor (AllTrails link here). The water jumps more than 150 meters in length with a drop of more than 82 meters in height, in a fall shaped like a horseshoe. It is extremely impressive, and the path affords you an incredibly close view, that comes with a terrifying roar as the water tumbles down at lightning speed. My favorite part was the actual path leading to the falls. Recently reopened, it travels just above the Iguazu river waters, mangroves and bird habitat. You’re very likely to see colorful creatures in the trees - we even saw a turtle gently swimming against the current as we walked past. I recommend you leave this part of the park as your last endeavor. Tour guides and their flock go there first thing in the morning, which is peak hour for this natural wonder, at a time where the sunlight works against you for photographic purposes. Instead, focus on the circuits below as a first step, and then finish off your park visit with the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat name in Spanish).

One of the first views from the lower falls in the lower falls circuit.

Lower circuit: 1.8 miles, 45 to 60mn, 229 ft elevation. AllTrails link here. Circuit starts from the Cataratas train station, which you can reach by train from the park entrance, or via a walkable, mostly shaded path, in about twenty minutes (the Green trail, here). A great discovery for us, this was my favorite part of the Argentinian side. An intimate, quasi-solitary walk through lush jungle that offers a lower perspective on the falls. This is where we started our park exploration, and we saw very few people on the trail, making it even more magical. The points of view over the various cascades are beautiful. There are many platforms set up for admiring the landscape and taking pictures. A great introduction to the beauty of Iguazu.

A view of the top of the falls from the upper circuit, on the Argentinian side.

Photos, from top to bottom: the falls seen from the Brazilian side, a view over the Iguazu falls from the lower circuit path, on the Argentinian side, part of the falls system from the Brazilian side, looking towards Argentina, the obligatory coati picture, on the upper circuit path, in Argentina, a view over the Devil's Throat observation path from a higher viewpoint on the Brazilian side, a plush-crested jay in tree, all aboard time at the Cataratas station, upclose view of the waters from the upper circuit path, on the Argentinian side, a portion of the lower circuit path, seen from above, on the Argentinian side, a partial view of the whole falls system from the Argentinian side, the viewpoint at the end of the Waterfalls trail on the Brazilian side, the view over the Iguazu river at the end of the Banana Tree trail, the misty mess of Devil's Throat, from above, one of the first views from the lower falls in the lower falls circuit, a view of the top of the falls from the upper circuit, on the Argentinian side.

All photos are mine.