Iguazú Falls: Circuito Inferior & Garganta del Diablo

This morning, I took a taxi to Argentina’s Iguazú National Park. There, I walked the Circuito Inferior and out to Garganta del Diablo.

The taxi was a bit weird, and I’m not sure it was a taxi as such, but rather a driver service. I asked for one at the front desk of my hotel. She said it would be 28,000 pesos one way or 55,000 pesos return. So I’d save 1,000 pesos (roughly $1 U.S.) for a return trip. Woohoo! She didn’t ask me to specify, and I didn’t say which option I wanted.

The taxi, which was an unlabeled white car, arrived within five minutes. He drove me to the park. I tried to pay. He wouldn’t take it. Instead, he flashed a QR code on his phone, which connected me with him on WhatsApp.

He then told me in stilted English to WhatsApp him when I was ready to leave the park, and he’d be there in 20 minutes. He said I would pay him at the end of the return trip. Plus, he confirmed that he takes credit cards.

There were marked taxis waiting at the entrance to Iguazú National Park. I don’t know if those take credit cards, which would have been a problem for me if they didn’t because I’m running low on Argentine cash. There was no currency exchange office at the park, and there was only one ATM there that didn’t have instructions in English and didn’t look like it would take my card.

Seeing the taxis, it occurred to me that if I were an unscrupulous person (I’m not), I could have gotten a free ride by taking one of those taxis instead of WhatsApping the driver for the return trip. That being said, the hotel front desk took my room number when they booked the taxi, and I think the driver might work exclusively for the hotel, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten away with it even if I were unscrupulous.

Speaking of credit cards, I was a little nervous about whether I’d be able to use them everywhere here. I’d read that their acceptance can be spotty. That must have been old news. Just about everywhere takes them. I have used some cash, mainly for tipping. (I read that tipping isn’t much of a thing in Argentina, but some restaurants put the Spanish equivalent of “SERVICE NOT INCLUDED” on the check and, occasionally, a waiter reiterates that in halting English. They don’t give the option of putting a tip on your credit card.) Plus, there were a couple of minor attractions that had a fee and didn’t accept credit cards.

But I haven’t yet been to a restaurant, large or small, here that didn’t take credit cards for the check. Not only that, but they all have those wireless credit card machines that they bring to the table, and the machines here accept physical credit cards or Apple Pay. (I prefer Apple Pay because the merchant doesn’t get my credit card number. Apple Pay creates a number that it links to my card.) And I love the wireless machines because even if I have to use my physical card, it never leaves my sight.

I first saw one of those wireless payment machines at a restaurant in Paris almost three decades ago. For the past several years, they’ve been pretty much ubiquitous almost everywhere I’ve travelled. One country is a notable exception, where wireless payment machine adoption in restaurants has been slow. Even still, their availability in restaurants was, in my most recent visits to that country, the exception, not the rule. I’m not naming names, but it is an immediate neighbour of Canada that will never, ever, ever take over Canada, no matter what its president says. Why would we (Canada) want to join such a backward country? But, like I said, I’m not naming names here.

But enough about that. On to Iguazu National Park and the Circuito Inferior.

Oh, before I continue, I should mention that you can try to buy tickets for the park online. Don’t. I tried a few times in a single session while I was still in Salta. I got the link from one of my e-guidebooks, so I assume it was the official one. I sure hope so because someone now has more information than I’d want them to have if it wasn’t.

Every time I tried, it took me through a few screens, then, on the payment screen, it asked for my “document number” in addition to my credit card. There was a drop-down menu for that field that contained several consecutive integers starting with. I forget if it was zero or one, and no description of what they were expecting

I tried not selecting anything. It got upset with that and rejected it.

The site did specify that I’d need to show my passport to enter the park. So, I ignored the drop-down menu and tried entering my passport number. It wouldn’t accept the alphabetic characters that lead it. So I tried just entering the digits. It didn’t tell me the field was invalid, but when I tried submitting it, it rejected the transaction.

I tried a few different things, but they all got rejected.

I then got a text message from my bank saying it detected possible fraud and to text back “Y” if it was me. I texted back “Y,” and my back texted me back to say thanks, my credit card was now ready for use. My transaction still got rejected.

I looked at my credit card account online and saw that charges went through for all my attempts and they were all immediately refunded. I gave up.

When I got to the hotel last night, I asked the front desk about getting a ticket for the park. She said not to bother trying to buy it online, just buy it at the entrance. I told her about my online ordeal. She told me the site rarely works, and that happens to a lot of people.

They might eventually fix the site, but the ticket line at the park was short, so buying one at the entrance wasn’t a problem. That might not be the case during the tourist high season, but it’s not the high season now.

Circuito Inferior

The Circuito Inferior is not an inferior circuit in Iguazú National Park. I would never say that. It might seriously impair Circuito Inferior’s self-esteem and confidence, rendering it incapable of reaching its full potential and leaving it vulnerable to bullying by other circuits.

Google Translate tells me that “circuito inferior” is Spanish for “lower circuit.” There are two circular trails in Iguazú National Park—circular in that they begin and end at the same point, and you walk along them in only one direction, but they’re quite ragged circles. I read that one is fairly level and stays near the top of the escarpment that Iguazú Falls tumbles over, and where h of the park is. That’s called Circuito Superior or, in English, Upper Circuit. I didn’t go on that one today.

The other trail, the one I was on this morning, dips down closer to the river level downstream from the falls, but still well above that lower part of the river.

The trail is quite civilized. At first, it is an interlocking red-brick path through a lush jungle. Once the trail proceeds down some stairs, and until it climbs back up to the top again, it’s a metal-grate path, raised somewhat above the ground.

The metal grate can be slippery when damp. I think some portions are perpetually damp; at least, they were today. It was very humid today, and at points, I could feel a faint mist from the falls. I didn’t hit the ground due to the slipperiness, but there were times when I had to right my balance quickly, or I might have fallen.

There are signs employing icons to warn about the slip hazard. Heed them off you go.

It wasn’t far along the lower portion of Circuito Inferior when I got my first sight of Iguazú Falls. I should note that, despite “falls” being acceptable as singular or plural, synonymous with either a single waterfall or multiple waterfalls, here it’s more appropriate to consider it to be plural.

The falls pour over a broad swath of an escarpment. The flow of the river is broken up at several points by rock outcroppings and islands, creating several separate falls.

The Iguazú River forms a boundary between Argentina and Brazil. I think the first waterfall I saw was on the Brazilian side. At least, it was in that direction. I’m not sure where the border is, but I know there are both Brazilian and Argentine falls, and I didn’t see any others farther toward the interior of Brazil. So, I’m fairly confident I’m right about that.

It was a particularly thundering waterfall.

Walking farther along the Circuito Inferior, I got to see a lot more waterfalls and got quite close to some of them. I think these were all Argentinian. They include one small, almost hidden waterfall.

Circuito Inferior was gorgeous for pretty well all of its only 1.4-kilometre length. Stand tall, Circuito Inferior. Stand tall! You shouldn’t take a backseat to Circuito Superior. Then again, I haven’t been on Circuito Superior yet. If I do go there, I’ll let you know if an inferiority complex is warranted in your case, but considering your incredible beauty, it’s hard to believe.

Garganta del Diablo

Garganta del Diablo translates into English as Devil’s Throat.

Iquazú National Park has an old, narrow-gauge, open-sided train that makes three stops within the park. The first is close to the park entrance. The next is close to the starting point for both Circuito Inferior and Circuito Superior. The final stop is close to the path to Garganta del Diablo, at the top of the escarpment.

The distance between the first two stops is short, so I walked from the park entrance to Circuito Inferior because there was a long wait for the train at that hour. But it’s farther from the second stop to the Garganta del Diablo, 2.4 kilometres, and there was only a few minutes’ wait for the train, which is free.

(Despite being free, you have to get a timed ticket for the train at the station. Nobody checked the tickets. Go figure.)

I said path above, but it’s a bridge. The floor of it is the same metal grating as was on much of the Circuito Inferior trail.

The bridge goes over channels of the river as they pass between islands. The bridge is more than a kilometre long. The end of it is Garganta del Diablo, or, as I said, Devil’s Throat.

The views of the flowing water seen along the bridge were beautiful. And, following the gaze of some people who stopped at one point along the bridge, I saw a big turtle by a rock in the river.

Garganta del Diablo is a choke point in the flow of the river that concentrates the water flow and creates a particularly powerful, thundering waterfall. The lookout at the end of the bridge gets very close to the top of that fall.

It is a gorgeous, breathtaking sight. Expect to get damp if you go because the spray of the falls is thick there.

At a few points in the morning, I got to make some new friends. You can find them in the pictures above in the order in which I met them.

I stayed in the park for a good portion of the afternoon, but I’ll save my afternoon activity for another post, which will probably come soonish.