Today we explored Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side. In the longstanding debate about which country has the better view of the Falls, Brazil wins. Hands down. It was still incredible to see the Falls today, but the up-close-and-personal feel of the Argentina side cannot compete with the beautiful panoramic views from Brazil.

We explored all of the paths that were open (the Devil's Throat path was closed, unfortunately) for a couple hours and took a ton of pictures. Our favorites are below - enjoy!

The sound of the crashing water was much louder on this side given how close we were to the Falls! — The sound of the crashing water was much louder on this side given how close we were to the Falls!

According to some of the signs in the park, 1.5 - 3.0 million liters of water flow down the Falls every second (depending on the season). From here, I believe it!

Definitely "up-close-and-personal" as advertised.

After we were done walking the paths we headed back toward the park entrance to eat lunch. Like yesterday, we packed lunch because we heard the restaurants inside the park were overpriced and didn't have great food (both true). We paused on our way back to the entrance for sodas - during which Sarah set her backpack (with our lunches) on a bench. In only a matter of seconds, a troop of Coati had grabbed it and were trying to run away! Coati are these Raccoon-like animals that roam around the Falls on both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. We knew to be careful with our food around them, but it wasn't even unpacked! I was able to get the bag back and we both decided it was wise to walk well-clear of the jungle before really stopping to eat!

Here are some Coati we saw earlier in the day - I didn't have a chance to snap a picture of the 15 or so that descended on Sarah's backpack!

Tomorrow we fly back to Buenos Aires for a day, then on to Rio (our last stop in South America!) on Monday. Hopefully some of our Gringo-Spanish skills translate to Portuguese!

Our last day (well, technically second-to-last since we will be back for one night before flying to Rio) in Buenos Aires was pretty mundane: resting after another 14-hour bus trip back from Mendoza, making sure our laundry was done and hitting up one more restaurant recommendation from a friend.

We headed to Las Pizarras (thanks Jennifer!) for a great meal with fantastic service and great wine. The menu changes daily and is presented on multiple chalkboards, but definitely has a strong Argentinian / French Bistro / hope you love meat attitude. The standout for us was actually the steak tartar appetizer - it was substantial, really well-seasoned (capers!) and very different from what we would have gotten in NYC (small mound of raw steak with an egg yolk). So far, all of our restaurant recommendations have worked out pretty well!

I'm not even a big fan of steak tartar normally but this was delicious.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Iguazu. We had originally intended to take another bus, but after learning the trip was actually 24 hours (!!), we opted for a quick 2 hour flight instead.

We arrived at Casa Yaguarete, a small B&B I had found via Trip Advisor (of course!) and were warmly greeted by our hosts, Lorena and Andrea. Lorena promptly gave us an overview of the property, told us which tours we should take (and on which day), gave us a map of the city and provided hand-written directions for everything else. We headed into the small town of Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (about a 40-minute walk) and took a look around before grabbing a quick meal and heading to bed.

Friday it was time to head to the falls, starting with the Brazilian side as recommended by our kind hosts. A note on the geography: Brazil and Argentina each have their own national park, small tourist town and accompanying airport to provide access to Iguazu. Crossing the Argentinian / Brazilian border via bus and going through customs was actually very easy (thanks for picking up our visas Nick!) and we arrived at the national park in about an hour. From there we took another bus and headed deeper into the park and closer to the falls, which was clear as soon as we heard the sound of rushing water. There were many paths to take to continue observing all of the different falls from various vantage points, but I'll let our pictures do the talking here!

There was actually a line of people to get a photo at this overlook. We saw some other tourists scoff and move on, but figured it was worth a five-minute wait to get this shot!

Sort of the "gateway view" of the falls.

One of the various "platforms" between different waterfalls.

I wondered how many individual falls actually comprise Iguazu.

Given all the mist in the air, there were many different places to see rainbows around the falls!

It felt like the falls just kept on going.

We walked around for a while, taking in the view from each overlook. There is apparently a lot of debate over which side is preferable - Argentina vs. Brazil - but it's hard to imagine the views from Argentina can top the ones we had today. We'll find out tomorrow!

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