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Brazil adventure in the Iguassu Falls? It’s absolutely unforgettable!Brazil adventure? This short but most important chapter of our family vacation getaway in the Iguassu Falls is one of our favorites. This is the Brazil adventure in the Iguassu Falls and Brazilians have carefully prepared every detail to make your adventure memorable. The Brazilian side of the Iguassu Falls gives you the big view of all the waterfalls (some 275 in total) that make this place one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. Before we start there's something many people ask us. How to explain you the difference between watching the falls on the Brazilian and Argentinean sides? Imagine you are staring at a great city from the city harbor, you can see an impressive view of the city’s skyline from there. This would be how you can stare the Iguassu Falls from the Brazilian side. If you want to see the city from the inside viewing it standing on the skyscrapers terraces this is how you see the falls from the Argentinean side. Both ways of viewing the Iguassu Falls are necessary so you can say “I’ve really seen this place”. So let’s start our Brazil adventure in the Iguassu Falls. Our Brazil adventure begins arriving to the Iguassu Falls Visitors Center only a few minutes away from Foz do Iguassu (Brazil), Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) and Puerto Iguazu (Argentina), you may be lodging in any of these cities when coming here. The Iguassu Falls are located inside a National Park with restricted entrance. Nobody enters and exits the Iguassu National Park without passing through the Visitors Center and the Falls actually are a few miles away from there driving on a paved road that zigzags through the virgin forests of this natural reserve. You cannot drive on this road with your own car; only authorized vehicles enter so the first thing to do is to park your car and head for the Visitors Center building where you buy your entrance ticket.
The Visitors Center is an attraction in itself, a large rustic brick and wood construction with Spanish tile roof. Inside this building are some interesting shops where you can buy impressive semi-precious stone sculptures and jewels that are real works of art. Don’t miss taking a look at them! There are also some snack bars just in case you are hungry.
If you buy a tour package to the Falls you may be transported directly to the spot of the Falls in a private and authorized vehicle bypassing the Visitors Center but in this case you will miss part of the fun. Visitors departing from the Visitors Center are commuted to the Iguassu Falls riding on open double-decker buses in middle of the exuberant vegetation of the Iguassu National Park, this is an experience we enjoyed and kids certainly love it! Buses going from the Visitors Center to the Falls depart and arrive every 15 minutes and the round trip is included in your entrance ticket. Long lineups to buy your entrance ticket sometimes happens, it’s the only ugly part of the Brazil adventure. I recommend you bring exact change in the local Brazilian currency (Real) to buy your tickets and avoid currency exchange confusions and mistakes. The entrance costs 20 Reales per person (that’s about USD 10 depending on the current exchange rate).
So here we are ready to embark on the bus that will take us in this Brazil adventure into the deep jungles of the Iguassu Falls. These people are a group of Chilean visitors who are as exited as we are!
Can you notice people bathing on the San Martin Island’s beach and a fast-boat heading strait to the giant waterfalls? But those are adventures to be told in our Argentinean Falls chapter. 
Going on with our Brazil adventure it’s time to continue our walk. This group of French tourists is walking ahead of us down the stairways…
…and that put us right in front of the Three Musketeer’s and Two Musketeer’s waterfalls that cascade down a cliff of the San Martin Island.
A little further ahead in our Brazil adventure and walk towards the heart of the Iguassu Falls we stop on a strategic spot where you can see for the first time the ‘Garganta del Diablo’ or Devil’s Throat, the largest of all the waterfalls that make up the Iguassu Falls.
Looking down from this point is also impressive, you are staring the 80 m (262 ft) deep canyon of the Iguassu River with its roaring rapids heading westward to find the Parana River. This section of the Iguassu River is especially fit for river rafting activities. Can you see the river rafters’ way down there? Whitewater rafting in the Iguassu River is an unforgettable adventure you cannot miss! 
We have to continue walking our Brazil adventure in the Iguassu Falls, our destination and mission? A very, very close encounter with the Devil’s Throat, so close that we are going to almost take a shower under the mountain of water falling beside us. Here’s a birds view of the bridged walkways built to make this extraordinary experience possible. 
And the climax of this short but very exiting Brazil adventure is when we walk this pedestrian bridge that has a balcony hanging over the cliff with an impressive view of the Devil’s Throat. To your near left is the Salto Floriano and on the background the mighty Salto Union where the called Devil’s Throat is located. To your right my two sons Santiago and Pablo staring down the cliff of the Salto Santa Maria on which the bridged walkway is built.
What does it feel like being here? I guess each person has his own special experience when standing here. At first it’s a deep excitement fallowed by a more calm state of contemplation. Contemplation of a natural wonder that you know does not exist anywhere else. At this point you already know for sure that the Brazil adventure in the Iguassu Falls was worthwhile.
What comes next? The elevator that will bring you up some 20 m (65 ft) to a higher level of the terrain for a more panoramic view of the main waterfalls.
This spot is ideal for a family photo with the incredible Iguassu Falls as background. Here you also have access to resting areas, bathrooms, snack bars, shops and the bus station to bring you back to the Visitors Center where our Brazil adventure started.
One important recommendation for this Brazil adventure is that during the warmer months (November through March) it is better to visit the Brazilian side of the Iguassu Falls during the morning when you have the sun on your back. This way you will suffer less the warm climate of this place. Morning hours also are better for taking pictures. But the excitement of this family vacation getaway has just started. There is much more to discover and do! To continue your journey please return from our Brazil adventure page to our Family Vacation Getaway page where many more interesting things are awaiting you! If you have just entered this site I recommend you going to our Iguassu Falls home page, the right place to start and get the most information out of this site.
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