Foz do Iguacu Travel Guide

Iguaçu Falls (Cataratas do Iguaçu) straddles Brazil's Paraná state and Argentina's Misiones province: roughly 275 drops spanning about 2,700 m, the largest waterfall system on Earth. Some 80% of the water falls on the Argentine side, but the Brazilian side offers the definitive head-on panorama. Iguaçu National Park on the Brazilian bank was created on 10 January 1939, covers about 185,000 hectares of Atlantic Forest, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and was voted one of the New 7 Natural Wonders of the World on 11 November 2011. First recorded by a Spanish expedition in 1542, the falls are explained in Guarani legend by the serpent god M'Boi. A boardwalk into the canyon faces the Devil's Throat, roughly 80–90 m high, where spray drenches visitors; average flow is about 1,800 m³/s. Park shuttles link the Cataratas Trail, the Poço Preto track and the Macuco Safari boat jetty.

The Itaipu Dam spans the Paraná River on the border between Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and Paraguay, built and jointly run by the two countries under the 1973 treaty as Itaipu Binacional; its first unit entered service in 1984. With 20 generating units totalling 14,000 MW, it is one of the world's largest producers of clean renewable energy, officially supplying about 8.7% of Brazil's electricity and 86.4% of Paraguay's. "Itaipu" means "the singing stone" in Tupi-Guarani. The Visitor Reception Centre on Av. Tancredo Neves, about 12 km north of town, runs panoramic buses to the crest (225 m above sea level): on one side a reservoir of some 29 billion cubic metres, on the other the spillway and the river valley, whose maximum discharge of about 62,000 m³/s out-roars even the Iguazu Falls. On Friday and Saturday evenings the "Itaipu Illuminated" show takes over the Central Lookout with live music from the triple frontier. The plant sits about half an hour from Iguazu Falls, making an easy one-day pairing with the falls and the Three Borders Landmark.

Parque das Aves (Bird Park) sits at Av. das Cataratas (BR-469), km 17.1, about 300 metres from the Brazilian entrance to Iguaçu National Park. It is Latin America's largest bird park and the only institution anywhere dedicated to Atlantic Forest birds, covering 16 hectares with more than 1,300 birds of some 130–150 species — over half of them rescued from trafficking or injury. Opened in 1994, it is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). A flat, wheelchair-friendly one-way trail of about 2 km threads through walk-through immersion aviaries — the World of Toucans, the macaw aviary, Rivers and Mangroves, Cecropia (Brazil's largest bird aviary) and an air-conditioned butterfly-and-hummingbird house — plus a flamingo lagoon, raptors and reptiles. The park enforces no-feeding, no-flash viewing, and every ticket funds breeding and release programmes for endangered Atlantic Forest species, making it the perfect natural companion to a day at the falls.

The "Devil's Throat" is the most staggering part of the Iguaçu Falls—a U-shaped giant mouth where the Iguaçu River plunges from three sides, about 80 m high, with mist rising all day and a roar heard for miles. On the Brazil side, visitors walk the trail to its end and step onto a walkway reaching into the river to the foot of the throat, viewing this cross-border giant fall up close as it thunders down, mist in your face and rainbows common—awesome. Unlike Argentina's top-down view, Brazil's is from below at eye level and looking up—complementary. It is the undisputed climax of any Iguaçu visit, and you will almost surely get wet.