Iguazu Falls – December 2025

We were meant to be in Antarctica for Christmas so when we realised that wasn’t going to happen it was a bit of concern about where to go. In the end we figured going to one of the biggest tourist towns in Argentina was probably the safest option, since surely things would be open!? We flew in to Puerto Iguazú on Christmas Eve, and despite our B&B host assuring us things would be open, we found somewhat sparse pickings for a late lunch (Christmas Eve is when many South Americans meet with family). We eventually ended up with some fairly average Mexican, but better than nothing!

Fortunately we’d just planned to have snacks and a bottle of wine we’d bought in Cafayate for Christmas Eve dinner, which turned out to be a good decision. Our driver picked us up bright and early (but not as early as we’d asked for…) on Christmas morning. We’d intended to get to Iguazú National Park when it opened at 7am, as it turned out the first train out to the Devil’s Throat didn’t run till 7:30am so despite arriving a bit later than planned, it didn’t really matter. We were the first park visitors out to the Devil’s Throat, which was great. The handful of other people from our train soon joined us, that meant there were about 10 of us, so plenty of room for everyone to get all the pictures they wanted. The volume of water was pretty intense, and we were fairly wet by the time the next trainload of people started trickling in (our cue to move on!).

We’d just missed a train, but there was a family of coatis, including a bunch of babies, looking for food in the forest around the station, so plenty of entertainment while we waited.

We basically planned our day to try and do what we thought would be the most popular things first, to avoid crowds as much as possible. It was a successful strategy. Our next stops were the Upper Circuit, and then the Lower Circuit.

Back at Central Station we tried to have lunch, but a coati got wind of it and come over to investigate so we moved abruptly! The photos around the grounds of the damage the coatis can inflict on humans were a bit sobering, and clearly why they had picnic ‘cages’ for you to eat in. After lunch we did the longest trail, the Macuco Track (8km return).

By then we’d “done” the Argentinian side so Maxi, our driver, came back to get us and we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the pool at our accommodation. For Christmas dinner I’d booked us in the “Argentine Experience” which was a great night.

Boxing Day we had a day off – sort of! We hadn’t booked in our driver for the anything so we didn’t have transport. Rather than try and get a taxi or a bus, we decided walking to the animal wildlife rescue centre was the best option… I mean it was only 4km. In the fricking’ humid, hot, Iguazú summer… We were drenched by the time we got there, but fortunately arrived just as a tour was starting. It was all in Spanish but since we were looking at animals  that wasn’t critical. It was good to see a bunch of animals that had eluded us in other parts of the trip, including tapir, puma, sloth, pudu, amongst other creatures. Unsurprisingly we decided to take a taxi back to the accommodation!

The next day we’d decided to head to Brazil for the day and see the falls from Iguaçu National Park. Maxi, maybe feeling guilty about his late arrival on Christmas day, arrived early and we didn’t take long to exit Argentina. We skipped arriving in Brazil altogether (which I think is quite normal on day trips, though it did look like they were building quite a big new border post so maybe this will change?). We were on the bus into the park before 9am, but so were lots of other people. We got off the bus one stop before the end (along with most others) and walked the 1.5km track for views of the falls. I preferred the Brazilian side as you were able to get a much better sense of scale.

It seemed pretty busy, but based on the size of the bus queues when we left, this may not have been too bad!? We easily got the bus back to the Macuco Safari stop (all the buses stop at all stops regardless of direction they are heading). We put our stuff in a locker (to stop it getting saturated) and then got in the queue for the funicular railway down to the river. It was pretty hot and the queue was in the sun. I started feeling unwell, but then we got to the front of the queue and so we got on the funicular. Part way down I fainted which caused a bit of alarm, when we got to the bottom a medic was summoned, but of course he only spoke Portuguese. One of the other tourists translated for a bit, but then we went back up, and we lost our translator. The medic managed to find a staff member who could speak a bit of English, after I’d downed a couple of bottles of water, he said I could give it another go I wanted.

Hilariously while we were in the queue the second time (and I judiciously stayed in the shade the whole time) a lady said to us “this weather doesn’t suit English people”. To which we had to admit we were from Australia and should be able to handle it! Anyway, we made it down and piled into our 20-seater boat for the trip up to the base of the falls. This was exactly what I needed as we got absolutely drenched going under various falls.

With the delay at the boat ride we were running a little later than planned so headed straight to the bird park over the road. The park was great, and there was no queue to get in (there’d been a very long one in the morning when we’d driven past). The Scarlet Ibis was a highlight – we’re used to seeing Bin Chickens (Australian White Ibis) in Sydney all the time, but the colours on the Scarlet ones were pretty outstanding.

Unfortunately the rest of the day didn’t go quite as well to plan. Despite messaging Maxi to say we were going to be ready to be picked up at 4pm, it didn’t seem like it picked up the message until close to 4pm, and so he didn’t get to us until 5:20pm. We then took 3 hours in gridlock to get back across the border. Maxi said it was the worst he’d ever seen it. By the time we got back to our accommodation I couldn’t be bothered with dinner and made do with the last of our Bolivian snack bag and a cup of tea.

The next morning Maxi picked us up for the last time and we were on our way to Buenos Aires without too much drama, and an unexpected final view of the falls from the plane.

The traffic when we arrived in Buenos Aires was very light, and we were at our AirBnB in Recoleta in no time. We went to a Tango Show in Buenos Aires that night, and walked around many of the main attractions the next day. That was more than enough city time for us!

Our last stop was back in Chile. We flew back into Santiago (for the third time?) and picked up a hire car. It was a beast of an old-ish SUV, and of course I was stuck doing the driving due to Tom’s lack of physical license. It wasn’t the most enjoyable drive, especially when the engine malfunction light came on, but we did make it to Santa Cruz. The power in our house went out part way through the evening, which wasn’t great given it was hot, but it wasn’t off for long. The following day we were driven around a few wineries in the Colchagua Valley – our guide was great. The tastings were quite different to what we’d expect in Australia – very formal and drawn-out. We had a fabulous lunch before a couple of more tastings. A great day out – just unfortunate it was New Years Eve and everything was closed the next day. I don’t think we even bothered leaving our accommodation! We’d been told to ignore the malfunction light by the car hire company, so fortunately we made it back to Santiago airport in one piece. And with the final flight back to Sydney that was the end of a grand trip.