These are probably the most magnificent falls in the world, I can't concieve of anything grander, and they're definitely worth the trip. I took over 1200 photos over two days. OK, I have a digital camera with lots of memory, and am of the "if you take a lot of photos, some of them are bound to be good" school of photography, but 1200 is still a lot.
I visited Foz on November 11-13 2007. I was there to be the keynote speaker for Latinoware 2007, an Open Source software convention, and was able to take a few days to play tourist. Fortunately, the weather cooperated - indeed, it was wonderful. I was told that it had rained the entire previous week.
The falls are much too big to fit in a photo, unless you have a helicopter and an Omnimax camera (the kind that sees in all directions at once). I think I did see an Omnimax movie of these falls once. You could put Niagra falls in one little corner. The Iguacu river defines the border between Brazil and Argentina, more of the falls are on the Argentina side, and more good views are on the Brazil side.
All tourists start at the falls visitor center. Pay 21 Reals per foreigner (Brazilians pay less). From here you catch a double-decker bus for 5 kilometers through the national park to the start of the falls observation walk. The walk is 1.2 kilometers long, with some stairs but nothing bad. Expect to spend about two hours on this walk, I had to stop several times just to look at the falls from one place for 10 minutes and appreciate the whole thing. There are a few stops with ice cream, refreshments, and bathrooms.
I did the walk twice, and the second day was just as fresh and impressive as the first. The falls are also different every day and every season, due to changes in water flow, wind direction, etc. During the walk there are a number of platforms where you can be photographed against a dramatic falls background, or just enjoy the view, and there are more wonderful views from the trail.
At the end of the trail, a steel boardwalk takes you into the middle of a group of falls, and on top of another two falls - at the same time. One day this was a very wet walk, as the waterfall mist was blowing right across the boardwalk and most tourists were wearing disposable rain ponchos. You should put your passport in a zip-lock bag for this trip, to keep it dry. If you can't bear to get your camera wet, seal it away at this point. I got thoroughly soaked and had to wipe droplets off of my camera lens between shots. I came back the next day with a Gore-Tex jacket, only to find the wind had changed and there was just a little mist where I'd had a soaking on the previous day. On hot days, you'll appreciate the coolness and linger at this point.
Once you have had your fill of the boardwalk, walk up the ramp to the higher platform, where you can get another, closer look at the falls and a diffeent angle. After that, take the elevator to the top, and get a look at the river and the top of the falls. There's a restaurant with a falls view and a good buffet, one of my tours included lunch there.
Those wishing more adventure can leave the trail to do a rope walk in the tree canopy, a rappel down the cliffs to the river, or a rafting ride down the river. You may have to arrange these in advance, and for an extra charge. I joined the "Macuso Safari" at one of the bus=stops. This is a short walk and a ride through the forest with some looks at plants and butterflies, no other animals were in evidence when I was there, and then a ride on a motorized raft to the falls, and into the falls. Your guide drives right into one of the smaller cataracts, and positions the boat so that your head is in it. The signs before the tour say "you will get wet", actually you will get soaked right through. Passports and wallets in zip-lock bags, folks, cameras will need to be protected if you don't want to risk destroying them. If you risk sacrificing one of the older digital cameras, the memory card will generally be fine and you'll get the pictures, and you can buy one with more megapixels when you're done. Mine got wet, but was wrapped in a jacket during the worst moments, and was fine after it dried out. If you have one of those waterproof diving enclosures for your camera, use it. There is a video photographer on the raft, a copy of the video costs 50 Reals and it's pretty good. It consists of a dramatic video about the falls (not linked to here because it's copyrighted) and then a film of your own party's experience so that your friends and family can see you with your head in the waterfall.
I stayed in the city of Foz do Iguacu, but next time I'd stay in the Sheraton at the falls on the Argentina side, which has a dramtic falls view from your room; or the Iguacu Falls hotel, which is right across the street from the start of the trail and a falls view. There really isn't much of interest in the city other than a trip to a churuscaria restaurant, so it makes sense to stay near the falls attractions and bother with the city as little as possible. Shop prices are high compared to the US, and it's all the same stuff you'd get at home. There's a souvenier shop at the falls visitor center, and another at the Macuso concession, so you won't miss that. The city, indeed, is the ususual depressing Latin American venue, with nice homes and hotels, sometimes surrounded with electric fences, and some not-so-nice places with people picking garbage and living in shacks. I walked around town a bit and nobody bothered me. But it's evident that not everybody gets to share in the tourist windfall.
I ate at Buffalo Bronco, a churrascuria restaurant in Foz. It was well operated and immaculately clean, the meat tasted perfectly fresh and excellently cooked, the staff was helpful, it's definitely recommended. They feature 24 different cuts of meat, the familiar beef cuts make up most of the bill but there is also chicken, and some unfamiliar (to my US tastes) stuff like chicken hearts and turkey testicles. They were out of turkey testicles that day. Lots of tourists were in evidence and I didn't get a read on whethere locals dine there much, but it was much less touristy than the "barbacue shows" that were offered by two venues just outside of the city, or the "Foz Boardwalk", which appears to be a food court cum bowling alley but I did not visit it.
I didn't get to the Argentina side of the falls, it appears that the "Macuso Falls Explorer" takes you there for a stroll on a boardwalk above the falls - apparently without border control. Or you can drive to Argentina, it's just across a bridge. USA citizens should get a visa in advance if they intend to visit Argentina, you should get this about a month in advance or longer. Since Argentina will probably also want to hold your passport for a week while processing your visa application - like Brazil - you should have your visa company do both countries for you in sequence.
I took the van to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay (25 Reals). It was fun, and cheap, but most tourists can forego this unless they want to add another country to their brag list. This is where folks from Brazil and Argentina buy electronics, which are more expensive in their own countries. Also bras, perfume, tobacco, liquor, knives, in-line skates, etc. But the prices are better in the US, and indeed some of the venues referred to themselves as "Miami stories", claiming to offer value as good as a buying trip to that nearest US city. The van drops you off in a raucous shopping mall, and collects you there two and a half hours later. There is time to walk past the worst of the buying mania and get a glance of the rest of the city. The preferred currency is US dollars, but they also accept the currencies of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. Few vendors accept credit cards. There are no ATMs. Bring cash, in small bills.
Notable were two shops that sold lots of ham radios, but none of the other paraphenalia of radio hams was evident (callbooks, repeater directories, grid-square maps). It's easy to assume that their main clientele are unlicensed operators, a problem for hams worldwide because the radios have global range and unlicensed operators don't even understand the harm they cause. Indeed, we hear South American taxi dispatchers leaking into some of the ham radio satellites - these folks belong on commercial frequencies where their operations would not leak into a %i spacecraft. Prominent at one of the shops was a sales award from Vertex Standard, a well-known amateur radio manufacturer. Hams really should lobby national and international regulators to get tough with manufacturers that pander to unlicensed operators.
Speaking of unlicensed operators: on that short shopping trip I entered Paraguay illegally, because I didn't have a visa. The van driver told me not to talk if we were stopped at border control. Until I identified myself as someone from the US, it would be assumed that I was from Brazil and did not need a visa. But we were just waved through without a stop. Ciudad del Este is a sort of lawless zone, and being there without a visa was risky because I might have ended up as a victim of crime and needing the police, then becoming evident as an interloper in their country, etc. I don't recommend that anyone else do this.
I got to the Itaipu Binational, because my conference was there. This is a five kilometer circle around the hydroelectric dam that is shared between Brazil and Paraguay. It has its own border control. The entire area is startlingly manicured, no agave plant is out of place, and obviously no poor people are living there (and in its defense, the rich people probably live outside its borders too). The dam provides 100% of the power for Paraguay (with 7% of its output) and about 25% of Brazil's power. It's huge. There's a tour. I got the VIP tour (I was their keynote speaker) and thus got inside the facility, right up to a spinning generator shaft and two different control centers, etc. Most folks will see less.
I applied for my Brazil visa a week before my departure, which was really the last possible second that I could have done it, in person at their Consulate in San Francisco. Expect to wait for hours. I was able to pick my passport back up from the Brazilian Consulate on the morning of my departure, and only because I arrived an hour early to be at the head of the line. This was a rather uncomfortable situation, as it wasn't clear that I could depart at all. I'll know better next time.
The Consulates and Embassies of Brazil don't offer express visa service. If you don't have a visa, they tell you to alter your travel plans. I appealed for assistance from the Brazilian Foreign Minister through the kindness of his wife, who is a fan of Open Source and was participating in my conference there. The Foreign Minister granted me a long-term visa, but this came too late for their consulate to speed up the return of my passport. There is much bureaucracy in getting a visa, as a quid-pro-quo with the United States, which bestows an equivalent amount of hassle upon Brazilians who wish a US visa. You should use one of the visa services (I wished I had), but these require extra time and about $120 more money, and include the uneasy process of mailing your passport around, and even more delay if there are any problems with your application. Most of the visas granted are only good for 30 days, this again a quid-pro-quo with the USA.
There are wonderful handicapped accomodations at the falls, weelchair tourists should make arrangements in advance, but you'll do fine.
I was dependent on tour guides and taxicabs for transportation. This is sometimes frustrating, because you're on their schedule and the transportation is pricey, and you don't really a guide once you've entered the national park with its buses and facilities. I think next time I'd try renting a car, although I thik the falls visitor station charges for parking.
My bank ATM card was not accepted at most ATMs in Brazil, most ATMs there are not on Cirrus and the other ATM networks. This is a very uncomfortable situation for the tourist who is used to using ATMs everywhere. There are Citibank branches in some cities with ATMs that honor the cards of most US banks. I generally avoid money-changers, because their rates are worse than those offered by bank ATMs. This time I had to use them, and found that they can't help you unless you have your passport at hand - at one point mine was in the safe in my room, and I had to go back for it. I guess I should never allow my self to be separated from my passport in South America.
Credit card acceptance is very spotty. Many stores and restaurants in Brazil take Visa but not MasterCard, a surprise to folks from the US, where the two companies share acceptance operations. I didn't see many signs for American Express. Some restaurants accepted Diners Club.