Our first of three destinations in Brazil (mostly in Brazil) was Iguacu Falls. That's Iguacu with the soft c because we're in Brazil on this page. It is worth seeing the falls from both Brazil and Argentina (see the Argentina page for more on that), but it would be very challenging to do both in one day. Regardless, we spent three days in Foz do Iguacu (the city), generally called just Foz. This is Foz from the air, the city center in the lower right. That big suspension bridge is the Integration Bridge and it connects to Paraguay across the Parana river. Just past the bridge is another river that flows in on the left bank, that would be the Iguacu river and everything past it (on the left side of the Parana) is Argentina. The three countries meet here but it's worth mentioning that border crossings can be very lengthy due to traffic and crowds.

Here we are at the Iguacu Visitor Center on the Brazil side. There's a small museum of sorts inside, you can buy tickets and that will get you on to the bus system which runs from here along the falls. You don't need a car to see Iguacu, you certainly could rent one. We used taxis back and forth from the falls/visitor center to central Foz.

So the first thing that should be mentioned about Iguacu Falls is that it is huge. The amount of water in the river is stunning and the falls stretch for literally kilometers as they make a huge elongated J shape. This was our first view of the falls from the first bus stop. We are looking across the river at the Argentine side, and all of these falls are well downstream from the main falls, if that's the right terminology.

Close up compared to the last view, you may notice the boardwalk above the falls, again, that's in the Argentine National Park and we have pictures from there on the corresponding Argentina page. If you're wondering, all of these pictures from all three days we visited the falls involve pretty moderate waterflow levels.

Another view from a little further upstream. This view is notable for the two falls at the lower level to the right of the observation deck. I say that because at the end of this page we will be down there, in a boat, partially underneath them.

Here are Melanie, Alaric, a rainbow and like 40 more waterfalls. Those are all on the Argentine side as well, none of them were in the previous pictures on this page. The sheer number of massive waterfalls is just staggering.

Finally a picture of the Brazilian side. This set of boardwalks between the upper and lower falls on the Brazilian side is really the highlight. It's worth getting off at the first bus stop for the falls and walking along the paths to get to this point but if you have mobility issues, or are really pressed for time, there's an elevator here from the endpoint parking lot. As you can see, that last viewing platform out there sticks out over the edge of the lower falls. At the very top of this picture is the rim of the Devil's Throat, which is the highest, central U-shaped part of Iguacu.

This is the upper falls on the Brazilian side. Again there's a ridiculous amount of water coming over this. During high water events, these boardwalks may be closed. This was one of our favorite spots at the falls, at this water level you get soaked out here from the constant waves of mist. Some of it comes from the upper falls right next to you and there are also clouds of water coming downstream from the Devil's Throat area.

Another view of this shelf area on the Brazilian side. There is an elevator tower here to get you from the parking lot / bus pickup level to here. Also up there is a snack bar.

Here we are out on the end of the boardwalk. That's the Devil's Throat in the distance and as you can see, we're rather wet at this point. Some people bring ponchos or rain jackets. It was a nice sunny day though so a little mist was welcome.

One last view above the falls on the Brazilian side. There's a mighty drop just past the boardwalk equivalent to the falls you can see across the river in Argentina.

There are a number of interesting birds in the National Park, and the dominant mammals are coati, like this little guy. They are more notable on the Argentina side (where they ride the train!).

Across the road from the visitor center to Iguacu National Park, is Parque das Aves (bird park). This is also worth a stop if you have the time. We walked over here from the visitor center and had our taxi driver pick us up here afterwards. It's a nice aviary with a lot of South American birds, like this Curassow.

Also this parrot who came to visit us. There are a number of other attractions along the road to the National Park coming from town, basically everything you'd expect with this many tourists in the area.

We stayed in the center of Foz where we could walk to restaurants and groceries and such. It seems like a very nice city, much of the tour bus crowd mega-hotels and restaurants are along the road to the falls so the city center was relatively quiet. This is an appetizer we had with cheese, salami, pickles, quail eggs, olives and hearts of palm.

This is Foz at sunset. I will also say it was a surprisingly affordable city to stay in and eat and shop. Our other stops in Brazil were in Rio and the Pantanal (which had no services for the most part) so maybe that is why Foz seemed so reasonable.

We came back to the Brazilian national park on our last day in Foz so that we could take the Macuco Safari Tour. There's a few things to say about this besides the obvious one that we saw toucans here. We intended to take the boat tour from Argentina - because they have a better safety record. However, they have a minimum age of 12 for the tour and Alaric was 11 years 364 days old on the day we went (our last in Foz). No they wouldn't make an exception. So we decided to take the Brazilian side tour because it was the only way we could do it.

This tour involves a bus ride, which is fine but not the point of the tour. Then there's a hike through the jungle which is fine, but not the point of the tour. Then you get to a building where you leave all your valuable possessions and ride this funicular down to river level. This isn't the point of the tour either but it's a nice view.

From the floating dock down there you are looking directly at a number of the Argentine side waterfalls. Here you will put on a poncho and a life vest before boarding a boat.

This is the point of the tour. It's going under the falls and into the spray on the boat where you will be utterly drenched. The water is powerful, this is obviously a potentially dangerous activity and these boats have flipped every so often. Having said all that, this is also really fun. It's one of the smaller falls and the boat mostly sits (or tries to) just outside the fall in the heavy spray. You cannot talk to other people sitting next to you because it's so loud.

For obvious reasons, the boats do not approach the Devil's Throat area further upstream (we have good pictures of that on the Argentina side page). You can see that area in the distance in this picture as well as the two-tiered area on the left which is the Brazilian boardwalk area covered above. After your boat returns, you ride the funicular back up, get your dry clothes and belongings from the locker and take a jeep back up to the main park road.