What to do in Puerto Iguazu at night??

Someone just asked me what does one do at night in Puerto Iguazu? Like most places that is situated close to the jungle, there isn’t a ton of things to do? Pffffffttt yeah right!! I was amazed at the fact that on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night there were bars that were open to 5 or 6am. It really makes Toronto look damn shameful, well in fact most North American cities are pretty shameful in this respect, with all our liquor laws and zoning regulations. Of course, one can argue that with the insurance rates, drunk driving, alcohol abuse etc blah blah, that we should have all these laws to keep us safe. Of course, the whole safety thing is just an illusion anyway, closing bars at 2am doesn’t stop drunk driving, it encourages binge drinking .. take a look at the UK for examples on binge drinking. I digress, this is a travel post, not a political waste of time.

The first thing about hanging out in Puerto Iguazu at night, is to never stay at the Sheraton! It is a great hotel, and wonderful if you want to see the falls and have all the conveniences of a modern hotel in the jungle. That being said, the food is decent but nothing comparable to the quality of the food that you will have in the town. The Sheraton’s cuisine is catered for the baseline affluent white tourist – of course absolutely nothing is wrong with this. One pays for consistency across the world and the Sheraton delivers consistently! That being said, the prices of food are stupendous in comparison for food in town. Bife de Chorizo is Bife de Chorizo regardless of whether it is at the Sheraton or at La Mujerda or Color Parilla Pizza, and paying 40USD for a steak vs 9 USD for a steak of similar quality is a bit of a rip off, especially in Argentina.

However, if you want to eat fantastic meals at night, with music and good wine for ridiculously cut rate prices, then I would recommend that one stay in Puerto Iguazu. There are a number of great hostels and medium range hotels in town itself. If I did this trip again, and I didn’t have the hotel points from work, then I would surely stay in town.

Places to eat .. well I can only recommend Color Parilla Pizza and La Mujerda, which are decent places by any standard. The food quality and service at these places is definitely high end.

The train station is also a place to grab food in evening, the pastas are all cheap ($5 CDN) for a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese sin Manteca 🙂 and a soda. So a great deal there, or one could go to any nearby empanada place and grab a fist full of empanadas @ 2 pesos each (.60 cents CDN) … for me, 7 plus a soda was a bellyful, regular people should be fine with 3 🙂

After eating at one of the local joints, you can have two options for nightlife… you can go drinking in the local bars which are all open till dawn or hit the casinos 🙂