Visiting Argentina: Iguassu Falls, Canela & Gramada, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo
By Mike Shaughnessy, traveler - email Mike

Part 1: Iguassu Falls (Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil sides)

Turns out BOTH Thursday and Friday were holidays here in Latin America (Easter) plus Monday is a political holiday so it is a long 5 day weekend for locals.  All of Buenos Aires was at the airport at 6:30 am with me, including the local TV stations that were broadcasting the mass of humanity in long lines trying to get out of town on holiday. 

I flew from Buenos Aires city airport up to Puerto Iguazu airport, the Argentine side of the falls.  Iguassu Falls borders on three countries...Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil...so there are three different spellings for this huge natural attraction.

I was met by a local guide, Lucas, he transferred me to the Panorama Inn hotel in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.   On our way there we crossed the international Tancredo Neves Bridge over the Iguazu River. This is the border between Argentina and Brazil. We made a short stop there to enjoy the wonderful view and take some photos.

After driving through the town of Foz do Iguacu, Brazil we crossed the international Friendship Bridge over the Parana River. This is the border between Brazil and Paraguay.  There is a huge border structure but the economy of Paraguay here lives on smuggling goods so both the Brazil and Paraguay governments participate, meaning the border between Brazil and Paraguay is for show only...no one is at all interested in if you have a passport, what may or may not be in your car...you are not stopped, just drive right on through while they look the other way...if there is even anyone in the booth at all…no stamps in my passport for entering or leaving Paraguay.

I had to stay on the Paraguay side of the Falls because both the Argentine and Brazil side hotels were filled with the 5-day Easter weekend vacationers and the hotels there were asking a minimum of five nights, too many nights for me.  So I checked into the Panorama hotel in Paraguay.  Argentina stamps my passport each time I cross, the pages are filling up quickly, I will need to request extra pages for my passport when I get home just for traveled planned the rest of this year.  The rest of this day was dedicated to exploring nearby Paraguayan attractions.

We visited the Museum of the Guarani Land. It was a perfect place to learn about the Guarani natives that settled in the Iguassu Falls area some 2,000 years ago and named it the "Land without evil".   Then we visited the Itaipu Zoo where we saw some of the native beasts of Iguassu Falls, among them the Jaguar or Yaguarete as named by the Guarani people.   Itaipu is a huge, I think second largest in the world, hydro electric power plant harnessing the power of the Parana River and producing over 25 percent of all the electric power consumed by the huge country of Brazil.  The power plant is shared by Brazil and Paraguay as the river is the border between the two countries.

After buying some fast-food to go, we had lunch at the Monday waterfall located in the outskirts of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. In our next adventure we drove about 19 miles on dirt roads to the Mosises Bertoni natural reserve in the heart of Paraguay's countryside.   We visited the preserved house in the jungle where this Swiss scientist settled with his family in 1880.  I also met some local Guarani children along the road, there are few pure Guarani Indians left, most have intermarried with the Spanish and Italian immigrants creating the Paraguayans we know today.

After this we returned to my hotel, I took a quick shower, put on long pants, and we headed back out crossing two borders again to see the Devils Throat waterfalls at full moonlight.  This can only be done a couple days a month and requires a special Luna ticket.  First though we stopped for dinner of beer, local cheese, salami and olives.  Many of the immigrants here came from Italy so the influence in the food is Italian.  After the viewing of the falls by moonlight we stopped for some homemade ice cream and a coke. I got to my hotel room after midnight and in bed at 1am, it was a long fun filled day of amazing new sites, travels and experiences in three countries.

Fri March 21st 8:00 am. I was picked up again this morning by my guide Lucas. This full day was dedicated to visiting the Argentine side of Iguassu Falls. We walked a LOT and had a fast lunch inside the Iguazu National Park.  First we explored Curious Gorge. We boarded the Green Train of the Jungle in the Visitor's Center and headed to the Garanta Station.  From there we walked the elevated walkway over the upper Iguazu River (nearly a mile long) that put us on a balcony right over the Devil's Gorge, the main waterfall of the Iguassu Falls system where a sea of water is swallowed into a 240 feet deep canyon.  This is also what I saw last night by the light of the moon, but today it was crowded with people.

Ecological adventure in the Upper Iguazu River. For this we boarded a rowing raft and rode down the Upper Iguazu River from Devil's Gorge train station to the Cataratas Station. This was a wonderful ride with a chance to encounter and take pictures and see a little wild life of this part of the National Park, including an aligator. It was a peaceful ride.  The beauty, peace and quiet of the natural surroundings is truly touching. I saw different kinds of birds, turtles and caimans.

Next was a walk of the úpper circuit´. This walkway put us right on top of some of the most important waterfalls of the system like the Boccetti (3rd largest) and San Martin (2nd largest).  We stopped again for another fast lunch on our way to the Lower Circuit.  The Lower Circuit gave us some of the most beautiful and impressive views of the falls.  I took too many pictures! We visited Lucas´ favorite waterfall on this circuit, the Alvar Cabeza de Vaca waterfall.

At the end of our walk of the Lower Circuit we hiked all the way down to the Iguazu River level to board a small ferry and cross the river to reach the San Martin Island.   We stood on the beach with the towering waterfalls all around us and then hiked up a 170 step stairway to the top of this giant rock formation and explored fully the island.  We stood right over the second largest waterfall of the system, the San Martin waterfall; saw the lush vegetation and humid environment of this island and the Escondido and Rivadavia waterfalls which are only visible from there.  One remarkable experience of visiting this island is reaching the place where hundreds of vultures live…do not look up with our mouth open.

Returning from San Martin Island we  waited for our turn to board a speedboat for a hilarious close encounter with the giant waterfalls and a 4 mile ride down the whitewaters of the Lower Iguazu River all the way to Macuco Port. The speedboat got alarmingly close to the Three Musketeers and San Martin waterfalls surrounding San Martin Island. We got completely soaked on this one...and this adrenaline rush adventure was my favorite of the day!  At the end of this adventure we boarded a 4x4 truck that took us 5 miles through the jungle and back to the Visitor's Center where we started our day. After all this I was tired and ready for the return to my hotel for the end of my second day here.

Sat March 22, 7:30 am I again was picked up early this morning by Lucas. After the hotel check-out we headed to Brazil. This morning was dedicated to visit the main Brazilian Iguassu Falls attractions.  My first adventure of this day was flying over the falls!  This flight shows the falls from a completely different point of view, I took photos of the giant Iguassu Falls system from above.

Then we entered Brazil's National Park, parked our car, got our entry tickets and took a double decked bus that transported us 20 minutes into the heart of the jungle.  From that point we hiked the northern shore of the Iguazu River bordering the main 240 feet deep canyon with the majestic falls in front of us. This is an experience with a wonderful panoramic view of the falls only possible from here.

After leaving the National Park we made a stop for lunch before my guide took me to the Foz do Iguacu airport for my TAM flight to Porto Allegre.  I was at Iguassu Falls a short time, 3 days and 2 nights, so I used a guide to be able to see and do the most in the short time available.  I think he is a great guide so if you ever plan to visit Iguassu Falls I would be happy to recommend his web site to you.  He dropped me off at the Iguassu airport on the Brazil side and I flew to Porto Alegre.

Part 2: Canela & Gramada

My flight arrived on time at Porto Alegre and my friend Fernando met me at the airport and gave me a little drive around the city of Porto Alegre.  In Brazil where everything is very huge this town of 2 million is considered small or medium sized.  Fernando lives in a very nice part of the town so it is easy for me to walk around and explore the parks, museums and places near where he lives while he is at work.  We met each other last year when we were both attending the same convention in Washington, DC.

Over the weekend we drove out to the country and visited some truly small towns; there was one called San Francisco.  The country around here is very green and hilly and mountainous.  That made the drive on the two lane roads through the small towns very beautiful.  It is the end of summer, beginning of fall here now.  We had rain on Sunday and the weather cooled off making for very pleasant days and evenings.  It was a very nice drive and visit to the country.

My two favorite small towns we visited were Canela (cinamon) and another city called Gramada (fields).  Both towns look nothing like anything else in Brazil.  Both towns were highly decorated for Easter with bunny rabbits and large Easter Eggs filling the middle of the streets, intersections, light posts, parks, just about everywhere they had space to put them.  Both of these towns are very touristy but not visited by foreign tourists, visited by Brazilians on vacation and are also popular spots for Brazilians to honeymoon.

The buildings and architecture of both Canela and Gramada are all straight out of southern Germany, Bavarian or Switzerland in style.  This area had been long ago populated by many immigrants from Germany and Italy.  Walking around in these two little towns you feel like you have been dropped into that area of Europe, you lose all feeling of still being in Brazil.  Many of the restaurants there feature fondue:  cheese fondue, meat fondue and chocolate fondue.  In fact we had all three of them for dinner one evening.  For lunch we ate at an Italian Restaurant where their specialty is fried baby chickens, a very popular place to eat and therefore a long wait to be seated, but made more pleasant by the free salami and cheeses. 

We stayed in a hotel in Gramada that has been in the same family for generations with a nice old world feeling, friendly staff most likely all from the same family, and beautiful landscaped gardens.  When we checked out the lady at the desk did not have a clue how to operate the credit card machine and after several tries gave up and wrote the info down on a piece of paper.

Part 3: Porto Alegre

I am back in Porto Alegre now, enjoying a couple more days in this nice city in Southern Brazil.  Last night a group of four came over to Fernando's apartment for cocktails, and then later the six of us went out to eat dinner around 10 PM at one of the typical Brazilian grilled meat places, a churrascaria.

This group eats there together once or twice a week so they are well known by the waitresses and so a menu was not necessary, their favorite foods just appeared on the table. I enjoyed a nice steak, some pork, salads and other wonderfully prepared foods.

In Brazil, churrasco is the term for a barbecue.  We finished a little after midnight and it was a very fun evening.  The whole meal including our caipirinha cocktails, appetizers, full dinner, beer, cokes and ice cream cake for dessert, coffee...was just less than $15 per person.

I really enjoyed the visit in Porto Alegre.  Fernando took the day off work on Wednesday to take me on a tour around the downtown center city area.  He had been telling me not to go down there as it was not nice...he must have been joking.  Porto Alegre has a very nice downtown.  We visited the central market, old port area where a free food tasting fair was in progress, several churches and theaters.  The bus system is very clean and efficient...I could live in Porto Alegre.  But I will never leave my home in San Francisco, at least not for good.

We had dinner with a pharmacist lady friend of his.  She was very nice to me too.  We ate at a German restaurant where only the locals dine, fantastic dinner of authentic German Schnitzel and other great things.

The restaurant was actually located inside an apartment of a big building...really two apartments in two adjacent buildings and they had knocked a hole in the wall to make a door way so you could go from one building apt to the apt right next door in the next building.

Can you imagine a business doing that at home?  It was very plane looking place with no decorations, we made good jokes about how we could pretty up the joint...but the German food was excellent and the service perfect...that is all that really matters.

Part 4: Sao Paulo

Wow, a great trip is nearing the end.  I flew from Porto Alegre, Brazil up to Sao Paulo via TAM airlines.  Fernando took me to the airport and we had a breakfast there before my flight.  He said it is customary in Porto Alegre for townspeople to accompany their guests to the airport, which is located close to downtown.  Sao Paulo is the last city to visit on this six week four country tour. 

The big city of Sao Paulo has a population of 20 million.  My last four nights will be in a hotel on Paulista Avenue before I fly home.  Hard to believe this long journey is almost over.

The flight to Sao Paulo was right on time.  The International airport here in Sao Paulo was very well organized and easy to find my way around.

After collecting my small bag I found the Airport Bus Service ticket desk and bought a ticket to take me downtown right to my hotel on Paulista Avenue, a fraction of what a taxi would have cost for this nearly two hour journey.  Yes, it took nearly two hours to get from the airport to my hotel, this is a big city, and lots of traffic but the bus was air-conditioned and very comfortable, only four stops before my hotel.

I checked in and got a room on the 10th (top) floor, but no view, just the building side next door.  I booked this hotel about two months ago on the Internet and it turns out to be an excellent choice.  It is in a great location in the best part of town.  This afternoon I am off for a long walk to see the sites near here.  I am in the tourist area and the major business district.

One thing they are doing on Paulista Avenue is tearing out all of the old original black and white stone sidewalks and replacing them with concrete sidewalks.  The original stones were decorative and much more pretty and interesting but over the years many stones were missing and the sidewalk full of treacherous holes to trip you up.  The new concrete sidewalk is boring but at least it is smooth to walk on without tripping.  I still think they should have repaired the original sidewalk.

I had a great, long journey in South America (Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil) but it is nice to be back home.

Mike was born and raised in a very small town in middle of Missouri… 50% German and 50% Irish, 100% gay. He received his University MBA and then off to work for IBM in NYC and really came out there. Mike was job transferred to San Francisco in the wild 1970s, lived and loved there ever since. He retired in 2000 and have been traveling the world, usually staying home in December to plan his next year’s worth of traveling. He is currently single but would like to settle down (applications accepted) and stay home more in the future.

San Francisco is a great place to live, and Mike also hosts guys from around the world from time to time at his home, which then gives him new friends and new places to visit and stay.