Iguazu Falls pt. II
Saturday, October 22nd: Foz do Iguacu, Brazil > Puerto Iguazu, Argentina > Loreto, Argentina
We left our AirB&B with one last stop in Brazil before crossing the border. We arrived at Helisul for our helicopter tour over Iguazu Falls. We waited for 30 minutes, watching the groups before us efficiently come and go every 10 minutes. It was finally our turn and we approached the helicopter pad with the propeller whipping and creating a strong wind as we boarded. The pilot took us up the Parana River and we soared over the falls taking in the aerial views. It was a short ride, but worth it.
After we grounded, we crossed the border back into Argentina. We were stopped by border control and the officer briefly checked out trunk – after we popped it open, he took one glance at the mound of stuff, decided it would be too much effort to pull everything out and sent us on our way. After all, we looked and sounded like tourists rather than fruit smugglers.
We went to the Argentinian side of the park and walked the trails. Everything in the park was well maintained without any opportunity to go off the beaten path. The wooden bridge to Devil’s Throat was washed away by the flooding the week prior, but we followed the upper loop that took us on several boardwalks anchored right on the edge of the waterfalls.
We left the park in the early afternoon and embarked on our five-hour road trip to Loreto. We listened to several podcasts, getting hooked on Chameleon’s narrative about a money laundering conspiracy out of Las Vegas.
We arrived in Loreto after dark and checked into our estancia at Posada de Huellas. We walked a few blocks to one of the only restaurants in town for dinner – it was a real local place ran by a woman that looked like she’d been operating it every day from open to close for the last 50 years. There were no menus… just the same four options served daily: tortas, empanadas, hamburgers and milanesa. We shared the ham & cheese empanadas, beef empanadas and milanesa with fries.
Accommodations: Posada de Huellas, Loreta, Argentina
