The Falls and the Consulate

(Written about two weeks ago)

In Paraguay we were told that each Brazilian Consulate creates their own rules for giving out visas. The consulate in Ciudad del Este has a general policy that all visas for the US (for me) and Australia (for Eduardo) take at least three days to be cleared. We decided that would be too long in that shopping haven border town so we decided to check out the smaller of the three border towns back in Argentina.

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina is a small border town with a few major tourist sights. Located near several nature reserves as well as the ideal viewing spot of the "tres fronteras" and of course the highlight Iguazu Falls!

Tres fronteras is where Paraguay(left), Brazil (right) and Argentina (front center) come together.

The falls are shared by Brazil and Argentina and it is recommended that tourist see both sides for the full experience. Unfortunately we were only able to see the Argentina side due to a number of unforeseen difficulties obtaining a visa and crossing the border. 

The Argentina side was incredible.

And in the national park we saw lots of these guys. 

The park warns that though they seem friendly(unscared of humans) they are actually quite dangerous. 

The argentine side of the falls was great, but we hoped to quickly cross the border so we could see the Brazilian side.

Unfortunately we ran into issues.

The first issue was being prepared for the consulate. When we got there we found out that the consulate did not have the application form on paper, instead we were required to fill it out online and bring a printed copy of the verification. Unfortunately they didn't have internet. So we had to leave and go fill out the form at a place with wifi. We also needed a printer... For some reason no one in Puerto Iguazu has a printer. Two hostels, and the photocopy shop didn't have what we needed (internet AND a printer). We ended up putting all the files on a jump drive at the hostel and taking it to the photocopy shop(that didn't have internet), but all this took several hours and a few walks back and forth through town in the hot sun, so by the time we got back to the consulate they were beginning close for siesta (2pm). The very strict consulate guy who had already yelled at us in Portuguese and spoke no English or Spanish then told us we had 20 minutes to pay him the consulate fees for doing the visas. We got our money out and he yelled again that it had to be in argentine pesos. 

If you have been reading my posts about Argentina´s money issues, then you know exchanging is both a necessary and very complicated process. 

In Puerto Iguazu we were told there were NO money changers who would give us a good rate. Fortunately though we found out that that was untrue. There were many money changers who were very secretive and Eduardo had figured out who they were, so we rushed out of the consulate hoping to exchange just enough money to get our visas and not have too much because Argentine money is worthless outside the country. 

Eduardo found the money changers and we ran back to the consulate with about 5 minutes to spare. The cranky guy said ok come back tomorrow.. And we sighed with relief and exhaustion. 

We worried all night long that they would reject out applications, but the next morning they were ready and waiting for us.  

We crossed the border without a hitch, but the process took so long that by the time we got to Foz de Iguacu, Brazil the park was about to close. We opted to head to São Paulo and you can read about that in the next post.