For the most part, I’ll be spending the majority of my time in Argentina around the city of Buenos Aires. While there, I plan to sample as much culture as possible, and hopefully spend some of my down time getting private Spanish lessons.
Near the end of my time in Argentina though, I’m hoping to take a week or two off and actually do a bit of exploring around the country. One of the attractions I’ve been told to not miss is Iguazu Falls, which is located right on border between Brazil and Argentina.
It’s quite the trek from Buenos Aires to the border of Brazil, and I’ll probably have to take an overnight bus trip to get there. But I’ve been told it’s a sight that everyone should go out of their way to see, and I think it would be a fun adventure to travel there and spend a few days taking in the experience.
Apparently there is a walkway that takes a person out towards the falls, and while standing at the end he or she will be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfall, which would be really amazing. The falls were also featured in the last instalment of the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Most likely I’ll trek up to the waterfalls sometime near the end of March, which in Argentina will be late summer and hopefully a lot like late spring in Canada in terms of the weather.
Photo by Martin St-Amant on Wikipedia
Canadians need a visa for Brasil (which you can organize in Buenos Aires). Just leave yourself at least a week between your application date and the date you leave BA as the Brazil consolate seemed to have a ton of holidays when I was there (I think they take off every brazilian holiday as well as every argentinian holiday and then some extra days in between for good measure ;)).
I didn’t leave enough time to get my Visa so we stayed on Argentinian side (though I’m happy about that too, as it gave more time to explore the argentinian side). We took a flight up, but it was kind of expensive. I think it would be cool to take a bus too though, and if you’ve got the time, why not?
I’ve read about the visa requirements for Brazil, but the fee seemed rather expensive last time I looked. Do you think it’s worth paying the money, or should I just stay on the Argentina side? What else did you get a chance to see or do in Argentina? Anything else you’d highly recommend?
I needed to get a Visa anyway, since I was going to Rio for two weeks (but that was later) so the $$ didn’t really matter. I believe it was about $110CAD or something. I think you could happily spend two full days on the Argentina side. Any longer and you probably will want to go to the Brazil side. You don’t get that 360 degree view from the Argentina side though, but there’s plenty of other cool things like Devils mouth.
If I went back I think I’d like to spend a bit more time in Uruguay. There’s a ferry that goes across from BA. I only did a day trip there but really enjoyed it.