Iguaçu Falls are one of those famed sights people often recommend to visit or talk about. We were lucky enough to visit them just before the pandemic shut everything down. Though I’d seen pictures of the falls before, nothing prepared me for how massive and impressive they are in real life.

For starters, to properly visit them from both the Brazilian and the Argentinian side, you’ll need two days. The (smaller) Brazilian side alone took several hours and we weren’t particularly slow either.

The pictures below don’t do this incredible sight enough justice, because the waterfalls are simply breathtaking. There’s no end to the vastness of the water, surrounding you from all sides. Equally impressive is their height, which makes you feel humbled and grateful to be able to witness them.

The view of the falls from the Brazilian side allows you to see them stretching ahead of you, from across the river. You can also walk quite close to them by visiting Devil’s Throat, the largest of the falls. The path to Devil’s Throat is organised using elevated wooden platforms, which also allow for spaces to pause, enjoy and take photos.

The place is rather huge - it took us about five hours to navigate through it, making short stops for ice-cream and photos. Though you could technically rush through it, but it would be a pity because the place is kind of magic.

We stayed in a bed & breakfast close to the border, which allowed us to have dinner over on the Argentinian side, where there were many cheaper restaurants and wine bars available.

The next day, we visited the falls from the Argentinian side, where you can walk on top of the falls and see their “length” and Devil’s Throat from the top. On the Argentinian side we also met some excessively cute coatis looking for food.

While in the vicinity, we visited also Parque das Aves, a rescue park for exotic birds, many of which were illegally trafficked (or attempted to). The park hosts some of the rarest birds in the world, species that are going extinct.

The site is worth visiting and supporting, though during the pandemic a local panther also thought so and helped herself to some flamingos (many others died because of shock).