Iguazu Falls on the Argentina Side
It was a short walk from the bus station to the Toucan Hostel and I met Mariel and her father, Gustavo. They provided me with lots of information about going to the falls. She also told me about the difference between the official exchange rate and the blue rate of currency exchange.
The official rate is what I get when I use my credit card and the blue rate is when I use USD to exchange for Argentina pesos. Right now the credit card or official rate is 158 pesos per USD, and the blue rate is 287 pesos per USD or about 55% more value.
To get the blue rate pesos, people would use USD or go to Western Union to get the blue rate pesos using their debit card/ATM or checking account.
Mariel advised me to pay for the boat ride to the waterfalls with USD so I would get the blue rate and get pesos in change and it worked—instead of paying the official rate equal to $88 USD, I paid the blue rate equal to $49 USD for the boat ride. Plus I got 14,700 pesos in change for my $100 USD.
At the bus station, there were frequent rides to the Iguazu Falls for 500 pesos.
The Devil’s Throat waterfall U-shaped area was closed recently because of the length. The elevated pathway had been washed out from this year’s big floods. Most of the lower routes were closed because of the high water and damage during the floods.
The pathways to the edges of many waterfalls were swollen with rich brown flood waters and not the deep green water I had seen when I was last here back in 2012.
The maximum amount of water going over Iguazu Falls is 450,000 ft.³ per second, and the median rate is 62,000 ft.³ per second.
Currently, there are about 300,000 ft.³ per second going over these falls.
The Iguazu Falls are the largest waterfall system in the world at 3 km wide, and it is taller and twice as wide as Niagara Falls. It’s no wonder it is considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
Upon my return to the Toucan Hostel, I learned that Mariel and Gustavo were hosting all of us to a parrilla—a mixed meat feast. It was great with continuing rounds of offering us more beef—basta, basta—enough, enough. I suffered a meat coma for sure.
We ended the evening with a birthday celebration for Gustavo’s birthday.
I returned to the Argentina side for a second day at half the price of 2,000 pesos and retraced the same walkways so by the time I took the boat ride to the waterfalls it was warmer.
The boat ride cost 14,000 pesos (my blue rare pesos equaled $49 USD) and included a 20-minute guided truck tour through the jungle to the new boat landing.
Here are some of the critters we saw in the park—coatis, monkeys, and several of the 600 species of butterflies.
We were fitted with life jackets and given a dry bag to store our stuff we didn’t want to get wet. It was a wet, wonderful, and exhilarating experience. Some of my waterproof pictures turned out blurry from the water drops. You really have to experience this yourself to understand the immense power of these waterfalls.
The following day, I took the bus to the Brazil side of the falls.
We disembarked the bus for our immigration check and proceeded to the Brazil side of the falls just as it it opened at 9 AM.
The bus let us off at the beginning of the falls and we enjoyed the run-up to the heavy mist as we walked along the catwalks to the very edge of the falls. A unique lifetime experience.
This place is enchanting. I love the falls.
Mariel and her family offered to drive me over to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, but I declined their offer since they were leaving later than I had planned to by bus. I reminded her that the car line to go through immigration was very long compared to the buses that got expedited treatment through the three border crossings—Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
She said they go over to Paraguay quite frequently because the prices of goods over there for the Hostel for their own personal use a much cheaper than in Argentina. Conversely, people from Paraguay come over to Argentina to buy cheaper gasoline. long since gas is cheaper.
I caught this bus for an early ride to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay for just 800 pesos—$2.75 USD blue rate or $5 official rate. It took just a little over an hour to go through three border crossings on the bus.
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