There are two border points , the Brazilian one and the argentine one about 5 minutes down the road .
Stopping and stamping in and out is mandatory at the Argentine , while stopping at the Brazilian side is entirely at your discretion . In other words you will have to tell your taxi driver specifically to stop at the Brazilian side so your group can get stamped out of Brazil and in again later , otherwise he may just whiz right by it .
Its the same story with the bus ....the bus driver asks if anybody needs to get out at the border , no Brazilian residents then exit the bus and have to stamp in or out and wait for the next bus...
Apparently if a tourist is found to have left Brazil without stamping out and then tries to return , or worse , gets in without having stamped in and it gets picked up by PF at the airport it can be a problem.
The border control for Argentina was fairly organized you get in line pass some desks and get stamped quickly , it took out whole bus about 10 minutes.
As for the parks , unfortunately we did not have the money to do the more costly activities , but I'll tell you my experience....Also permanent residence pay Brazilian prices at both parks so show your RNE's
It's 100 percent true when they say the falls are in Argentina , while Brazil looks at them...
The Brazilian park is very small(at least the part you are allowed to explore freely) and has an almost amusement park feel to it , you do a quick walkway (+-45 min) which gives you a Panoramic view of the falls and lefts you stand at the bottom of the famous Devils throat and look at it . Don't get me wrong on it's own it would be great , but you only need about 3 hours to do the viewpoint and lunch attractions there and a bit more time if want to do any of the adventure activities.
If you want to do any other trails there you have to pay for extremely costly guided tours. You get around by a hop on , hop off bus service in the park , the busses and nice and quite fancy , but also add to the disneyland resort feel of the place.
The Argentina side on the other hand feels like a true National park Nature reserve.
It's much bigger than the Brazilian side, in my opinion much more impressive and has three or four spectacular trails with incredible views . Do them all !
You can easily spend the whole day , or even two days there. The whole place just has a much more eco friendly and more tranquil atmosphere than the Brazilian side and the trails put you right over the river and falls on long walkways as well as a few beautiful panoramas . Make no mistake though , it does get crowded and you will get wet ,totally soaked standing above and in front of the falls .
There is a selection of restaurants here , all expensive and water is ridiculously expensive here too , although I think the quality of everything is better and the boat trips and activities are cheaper too....I think , not 100% sure , best to double check.
You get around the park by a sort of eco steam train , very nice ....there is a hundred meter shortcut you can do to skip the first station and arrive at the second to go straight to the trails which saves you a lot of queuing and waiting around at the main station.
It's pretty obvious as there is a big sign board and everybody is walking up a little green path.
Although everyone should do both if they get the chance , I honestly felt that the Argentine side is so much better that you could almost miss the Brazilian side and it would not be such a big deal.
I feel sorry for all the People I've met who only went to the Brazilian side and could not be bothered to go to Argentina .They have no Idea how much they've missed out.
The boat ride is a must I hear ......not sure about the zip lining.
I believe the helicopter ride is amazing but very pricey .
As for the bird park , it's right outside the Brazilian national park , most people do both in one day . We went there , honestly I was not super impressed , although I suppose it is pleasant enough. It's just a medium sized bird park , very green , but also lots of cages and wire , not to mention mosquitos . Honestly I was not very impressed , it's just slightly better than your average modern zoo , I've been to much better , more open and natural bird parks , like monkey land/birds of Eden is South Africa ....although that is 5 times more expensive too. I think it's worth going if you like looking at pretty birds and a few other reptiles and things .....it's not too expensive , although I still thought it was a bit pricey for what it is.
Theres also the cidade del Lestie in Paraguay , it's like an extension of Foz de Iguazu on the Brazilian side and the border control here is practically non existent .
Most people just hop a bus or taxi here , although there are warning to go through customs/immigration and possible consequences but no one does.
We went here for a few hours , I found it pretty over rated . It's a dirty ugly little city
with a few large american style shopping malls selling very expensive designer goods , great selection , but honestly same price or more expensive than Brazil.
There are also lots of low budget "malls" with dingy stands selling questionable branded electronics and other products . The classic scam here is they charge you in Guarani and trick you with exchange rate , put it onto the credit card and the buyer only realises he was confused when he returns home and sees the bill. All the numbers are in the 1000's upwards so it's easy to get confused , plus I'm sure everything outside of the fancy malls is fake or worse.... lots of armed guards with Shotguns too.
Also there are lots of homeless people laying around , street kids and hawkers watching you and shoving junk in your face ....most people come for two hours walk around confused and then leave again.I'm sure it's dangerous off the main roads , although nothing happened to us, but you have to watch your back .
I think it's only worth it if you find that kind of wild west atmosphere interesting and want to see South Americas smuggling hub up close for yourself or if you have a a particular lust for overpriced counterfeit electronics .
We really loved our trip to this part of Brazil , it's super interesting with the three borders and the city of Foz de Iguazu is pretty cheap by Brazilian standards too . We did the whole four day trip on a super low budget and it's the first place in Brazil I've been to that has a true international traveller/back packer/independent traveller feel and market, which is something I've felt is missing in most other places i've been in Brazil and I've travelled here quite extensively . It seems every other place caters exclusively to Brazilian tourists or is a tourist trap like Rio , but Foz is different!
