If you’ve seen the 1986 movie The Mission then you’ll remember the epic scenes where Robert De Niro is climbing up this spectacular waterfall with a giant pack on his back.  If you haven’t seen The Mission you should check it out; you’ll see Iguazu Falls and the music in the movie is hard to beat.

Iguazu Falls. We’d seen it in the movies, but I wanted to see it for myself.

We decided to fly from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls so I could see the falls for myself.  Erica visited the falls several years ago but was excited to see them again.  We booked last minute flights and booked a hotel on credit card points.  Then we just hoped for good weather.

Iguazu Falls is located on the northern Argentina border with Brazil and Paraguay.  You can view the falls from the Brazilian side or the Argentinian side.  We skipped the Brazilian side because we didn’t want to pay for visas.

Our first day at the falls it was a little overcast, but we were still blown away by the beauty in this place.

Iguazu Falls isn’t just one waterfall; there are dozens, and you can easily spend a whole day hiking the Argentinian side of the falls and admiring them.

There were hundreds of bright butterflies at the falls.

All those butterflies had to come from somewhere.

Erica checks out the falls.

In addition to butterflies, this whole area is teaming with animals.  Here are some pictures of what we saw:

Coatimundi stalking the cafeteria.

Colorful birds in the trees.

A monkey hides from tourists.

Giant catfish in the river near Devil’s Throat Falls.

An alligator relaxing in a calm part of the river.

We made our way up to Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat), the most impressive part of the falls where about half of the river water flows.

Devil’s Throat Falls, by far the largest part of the falls, is accessible via at cat walk that runs over the river.

Day 2

Since we didn’t have much sun, we decided to return for a second day at the falls.  If you keep the ticket you purchased on the first day, you can get in on the second day for half price.  We returned in hope of sun and we were not disappointed.  Below you will see some of our photos of the falls in full sunlight.

When the sun comes out, rainbows show up everywhere due to all the fine mist hanging in the air.

Erica hangs out at a smaller section of the falls.

You could board a tour boat that would take you right up under the falls, but you’d get quite wet!

Selfie at Devil’s Throat. A butterfly was hitching a ride on my hat.

Another shot of Devil’s Throat with a rainbow.

Last shot of Devil’s Throat.  So much water!

We ran out of the park in order to catch a taxi to the airport.  Our flight was leaving, and we were out of time.  We would have loved to have a little more time our second day and wished we had booked a later flight.  However, we had seen the falls in full sun and were happy.

Up next: how much steak can we eat in Bueno Aires…