TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

THE MAGNIFICENT IGUAZU FALLS

Today was a full day exploring one of the world’s greatest natural wonders from the Argentina side.

That plaque on the right was put up at the dedication of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2011, and says: “Elected by the second global voting campaign in the history of mankind via the internet and telephony marking the beginning of the third millennium and celebrating nature’s diversity.”

While we were waiting for our train, Florencia gave us an overview of the falls and what we’d be seeing — and also spotted a few toucans in the trees! I was excited to see them as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real one at the zoo or anything. One of those birds that truly looks like a cartoon. 😍

Garganta del Diablo (the Devil’s Throat) is the main feature of the whole Iguazu Falls system. It’s a massive U-shaped chasm where about half the river’s total flow pours down a 270-foot drop, creating a constant cloud of mist that can be seen from miles away. You reach it via a long catwalk that hovers over the river before suddenly opening up to reveal the falls, looking at first like a little dip in the water, but the roaring sound is so loud (and such a mismatch with what you’re seeing) you can also tell that it’s a massive amount of water disappearing into the earth.

(…as an aside, I keep wanting to call this Devil’s Pool, which is a thing at Victoria Falls in Africa that’s on my bucket list too. Apparently there’s also a Devil’s Hole at Niagara Falls? Interesting that these massive waterfalls have all been given that devil connection.)

Much as I tried, it’s impossible to capture this particular view in one shot, or even through video. There’s just SO much water, and SO far for it to fall, so the whole area is filled with the mist and spray of the water crashing down below.

As cool as the main “throat” is, looking to the left at the rest of the falls system is really just…breathtaking:

Here are a bunch of clips I strung together of the whole Devil’s Throat view:

After taking our fill of photos (and getting thoroughly soaked – that’s like 90% mist and 10% rain at this point haha), we headed back along the catwalk to the train station to head to the next path. Spotted a pretty wading egret and giant catfish along the way!

Our next stop was the “Superior Circuit” which takes you on the upper path at the top of a lot of the individual waterfalls on the Argentina side, giving you a panoramic, cinematic view of the overall system. Despite the rain, it was so gorgeous! One of those places where every new waterfall you see is cooler than pretty much every waterfall you’ve ever seen.

Video highlights of the Superior Circuit:

Arriving back at the central area that had the cafeterias and souvenir shops, we were given the option of joining Flor for an additional walk on the Inferior Circuit. Even though I think this is normally part of the day’s itinerary, at this point we were all really drenched from the rain and I think some people had had enough and wanted to just relax someplace dry and have a drink.

I was definitely fully soggy at this point, but knew I’d regret it if I didn’t go on the walk, so I joined Jenn, Nadi, Isobel, Marissa, and Carin (along with Flor) as the seven of us headed out on the circuit. I definitely think it was worth it, getting to see the Falls from a different lower POV, often at that middle horizontal ridge part that divides the upper falls from lower.

There were a lot of steep metal grate stairs – definitely held on tight to make sure I didn’t go crashing down in this rain!

Video highlights of the Inferior Circuit:

Coming back to the cafeteria area, a few of us from the Inferior Circuit walk stopped to wring out our socks and get lunch.

After lunch was our adventure for the day: the Gran Aventura boat ride around the falls. This is not Maid of the Mist at Niagara haha – it’s a boat speeding through the choppy waters to bring you directly into the falls. We knew we’d get completely soaked but to be fair we were already pretty soaked from the rainy day, so no big deal.

It starts out with a truck ride to the launch area, with narration along the way. I’m sure on a beautiful day this is a nice leisurely truck ride, but in the open air truck driving fast in the pouring rain, we were getting pretty beat up!

Arriving at the dock, we followed a path down about 200 steps where, towards the bottom, we collected a big dry bag for our stuff, as well as a life vest that they fastened on you before getting on the boat.

Then it was time for our boat ride which was so much fun!! We agreed it’d probably be very refreshing on a hot sunny day, and this day was definitely more… rugged haha, but definitely a fun thrill. Definitely not Maid of the Mist.

This is a combo of the video recap they sell – the beginning setup is the best kind of cheesy – combined with some GoPro footage I took holding my camera (gripping for dear life) off the side of the boat.

Getting back to the shore (and walking back up all of those stairs haha), we changed into dry clothes back at one of the train hubs and then got back on the bus to head back to our hotel.

Two bus things we learned on this trip:

1. Sol kept passing around these gummy strawberry candies, and they were one of the best gummy candies I’ve ever had. If you ever see them, do not hesitate.

2. This sign appeared on all of the buses we took. We chose to interpret it as “don’t put your baby in the suitcase” but it’s really a child trafficking watchout.

But before sitting down for dinner, we had a little workshop and tasting to try fresh yerba mate. I had seen these little cups with straws sticking out all over the place in Argentina (including pictured on souvenirs like magnets and t-shirts), but never asked what it was. It was nice to connect the dots!

Anyway, it’s a central part of daily life and a social thing here, to the point of officially being declared Argentina’s national drink. And the workshop wasn’t in Flash Pack’s itinerary so it was a nice surprise!

Turns out there’s a very specific technique of how you add the dried herb to your little mate (the hollowed out gourd is the same word as the drink). The mates we all had were the dried gourds, but Sol also passed around some of the more common kinds like this leather and metal one.

Anyway, first you fill the mate about 2/3 with yerba – way more than I thought you’d need! Then you cover the top with your hand and tilt it and shake it a little to create like a little slope of yerba. Then while it’s tilted, you add a little bit of room temp/cold water to the lower side and let it absorb, before then adding your bombilla –the stirrer/straw – and sort of plant it in place.

Then you slowly add hot water a little bit at a time to that same low sloped side, and sip through the bombilla.

Sol had us hand our phones to the person across from us to capture our reactions to trying it haha. And it was definitely bitter!

But I think I was overprepared for awfulness and it wasn’t so horrendous? Very earthy tasting… someone described it as like cigarette tea which I thought was spot on.

While plenty of people do drink it unsweetened like this as-is, a lot of locals (and visitors for sure) also add a sweetener like sugar or honey. And the grocery store bottled kind does have similar elements, but is totally different than the fresh stuff.

This tasting actually reminded me a lot of when we did a tea ceremony in Japan – I love green tea and drink it all the time (usually iced to be fair), but when we made it that day in Kyoto it was ultra-concentrated high grade powdered green tea leaves, and was super bitter and unexpectedly grass-like.

And in both cases, it was an interesting look into a ritual so important to local culture. I’m really glad we got to do this!

As a nice added surprise, while we were eating we were treated to a little tango show as a pair of dancers took to the floor nearby!

Finally, after a lovely dinner and a very full day, we headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before crossing the border to Brazil in the morning.