Foz do Iguaçu Things to Do

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The visitors centre which is located at the entrance to the National Park is quite good for a little visit before you take one of the double-decker buses to the waterfalls. There's a lot of useful information and pictures posted on the walls near the entrance plus there's also a souvenir shop.

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The main tourist attraction in the area around Foz do Iguacu is the Iguacu National Park which is where you'll find the spectacular Iguacu Waterfalls. The National Park is split between Brazil and Argentina as the waterfalls lie over the border between the two countries. The Brazil side of the National Park was created in 1939 and it contains an area of 185,000 hectares of subtropical rain forest.

To reach the park, simply take a bus from the city bus station that is marked "Cataratas" or just say the word to someone and they'll point you in the right direction. Once at the park, pay and then get on one of the double-decker buses which will take you to the waterfalls.

Open: Mondays: from 1pm to 6pm, Tuesdays to Sundays: from 8am to 6pm.

The city's cathedral was first proposed in 1916 by the city's first mayor, Jorge Schimmelpfeng, donating a site. It was finally started in 1925, however, a fire started by a rocket from a celebration to mark the finished building completly destroyed it. It was then rebuilt and inaugurated in 1952.

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The Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant is the largest of it's kind in the world. The construction of the huge dam which lies to the North-west of the city, was started in 1974 by a collaboration between Brazil and Paraguay as it crosses the Parana River which separates both countries. The power plant now has a total of 20 turbines each of which generate 700MW giving a total output of 14,000MW.

Today Itaipu is responsible for the energy production of the South, South-west and Central-West of Brazil. Because of its importance as a gigantic engineering achievement and because of its impressive design, the Itaipu power station receives 500,000 tourists per year. Since it was opened to the public in 1977 it has been visited by 10 million people from 165 countries.

To visit take a bus from the bus station and then make your way to the visitors centre.
Open: Monday to Saturday - 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 14:00, 15:00 and 15:30

Having been saturated with the Natural Wonder of the Iguaçu Falls next comes the flora and fauna of the area presented by the Bird Park in this most concise and acceptable form.
Located conveniently just 100 meters away from the Iguaçu Park entrance, this unique Zoo offers variety of local birds in their natural habitat on display.
No need for lowering your voice (comes handy when traveling with children), no need of binoculars and no need for viper venom antidote since all of the reptiles are "behind bars". For the hardened "hands-on" biologist this environment might sound pervert but for a city boy this is a luxury of ultimate necessity.
The populace of the park includes myriad kinds of parrots, many kinds of humming birds (just on vacation from their Canadian hideouts) and of course the omnipresent toucan. Originally I was exposed to the toucan family in Central America, but they were no match for these ones. The size of the body and respectively the beak is three to five times larger. Coming from the mouth of a tourist these superlatives mean something, indeed.
For change, along the course of this predominantly bird show, one can see some local caimans and the infamous anaconda. Enjoy your visit!

Marco das tres fronteiras is a place of political significance and natural beauty. One can stand on the Brazilian side and watch the Argentineans poke their noses or the Paraguayans slurping their terere (cold version of mate in Argentina).
This is the place where exhausted Iguaçu River joins tamed Parana in its slow drift towards the ocean. The right view point will emphasize the distinct water colours that these two rivers have.
At last, you have lots of time for shopping, card writing or just gazing and listening to the silence.

We had already spent a few days in the megacity of Buenos Aires, so we were quite happy to have the sleepy little town of Puerto Iguazu, Argentina as our base for the Iguazu Falls portion of our trip.

It turned out to be a quiet and friendly place with plenty of good restaurants. The relaxed pace was a nice change for a few days, and we could see that Foz was much more city-like with it's traffic and size.

The bottom line is, both places are probably good bets for accommodations, with many more nightlife choices available in Foz. In Puerto Iguazu, we spent one evening at a sidewalk seating restaurant watching the activity of the locals on the street as they made their own fun! See my 'Puerto Iguazu' page for more details on this town.

This photo was taken at a small memorial in Puerto Iguazu where the Rio Iguazu runs into the larger Rio Parana. It was here in 1541 that the first Europeans, from Spain, stumbled upon the Iguazu while headed overland to Paraguay.

Go on one of those rafts that takes you near some of the smaller waterfalls! It's so much fun! The rapids are fun - and they take you right under some waterfalls and you feel like somebody poured you a hundred-gallon-bucket of water ;o). It's so much fun!