Parque Nacional do Iguaçu Travel Forum

I grasp that you can do adventure tours (i.e. boat trips and rafting) on both the Barzilian and Argentian side of the falls. Is this right? If so which is better?

Also - has anyone done the rafting? is it harsh/scary /safe or relatively ok for a bit of a pansy?

+ I am still unsure whether to stay in the town itself or more towards the falls. We are also planning to go to Itaipu Dam (is this worth a visit?) - so will it be easier to get to the the falls and dam from town (via bus) or do buses stop at the hotels in the coutryside as well (sorry i have asked this before but...)

and my final question - we are leaving Rio at the end of March and then have about 12 days to make out way to the falls - we are planning on going down the coast and stopping at ilha do grande and paraty - but are there any other must dos along the way?

also - is the last stop we can make really curitiba and then its a 9.5 hour bus journey - or is there anything inbetween?

cheers

I can only answer a couple of these points and hope that someone else will be able to answer the rest.

Itaipu dam - I was a bit bored by the tour to be honest. If you're short on time and need to sacrifice something, sacrifice this. If you want to see a bit of the dam, then take a microlight flight above it. Really good fun, and I didn't find it scary at all, although I'm pretty petrified of flying normally.

Adventure stuff - without a doubt better on the Brazilian side.

Rafting - I found it really scary before I did it, as I saw all these rapids that I was going to go down in a rubber dinghy. The actual experience I didn't find scary at all. You only go through 2 rapids, and they're over really quickly. I've now done it 3 times and my 60-year-old mother has done it about 5 or 6 times! After the last rapid you get to jump in the river and have a swim, which is pretty magical.

Lastly - someone in a previous post said Foz was only worth 1 or 2 days. I strongly disagree! There are now quite a few things to do and see, and it would be a real shame to rush through without appreciating it all.

Hey Anna Luise;
Thanks for sharing your rafting experience at Iguazcu. My mom really wants to go there, and she also wants to go rafting (she's 66--check her out--she's the main photo on my home page.) Sounds like she should be able to survive the rafting experience. I myself prefer a bit more rapids and adrenaline rush, but if my mom is with me, the one you describes sounds perfect for her.