The main attractions of Foz are the waterfalls, from the Brazilian as well as from the Argentinian side, and the Itapu Dam. Guidebooks and locals all say, that the Argentinian side is much more beautiful for different reasons. The Brazilian for example say, it is more spectacular because you see Brazil from the there. We will find out!
You can go by your own, using public transport to go to the Argentinian side, but you have to get out at the customs to get all your stamps and wait for the next bus to come. To have more time to spend at the falls, we went on a tour offered by our pousada. The good thing about tours is, that you always meet new people. Your fellow travellers were a German and a Japanese-Brazilian couple. Since we were all about the same age, we decided to also walk around together.
The falls are located in a park and they did a nice job building all different kinds of trails to get you really close to the falls. There is even an island in the middle you can reach with a small boat to get closer to one of the falls. Next to the falls there are tons of crazy butterflies. They seem to like sun cream or soap – never saw so many butterflies landing on people and staying there for a long time.
The next day we visited the dam. It is build on the river between Paraguay and Brazil and in their 1973 treaty they stated to divide everything; 2 CEOs, 10 turbines each, 5000 employees each and so on. Although they have destroyed and relocated a lot to generate the huge lake for the dam, they also have done some pretty impressive good things. One is the dam itself, it is huge in every dimension, than there is their engagement for the nature;, they build an extra fish wandering river and have a zoo. Also they build hospitals, schools and invest generally a lot in the local communities around. The tour and their self marketing is pretty impressive too…
On our last day we went to see the famous, non-spectacular Brazilian side of the falls. Honestly I do not understand why they bash this side so much. It is not that big but you get a great overview of the falls and get a feeling for the dimension. Maybe because the park is smaller, who knows?
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