With a population of 82,227 (2010 census [INDEC]), it is the fourth largest city in the Province, after Posadas, Oberá, and Eldorado.

Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became, in 1542, the first European to discover what are now called Iguazú Falls.

Lezama funded a scientific expedition to explore the territory, enlisting Carlos Bosetti and Jordan Hummel for that purpose.

Those two explorers later organized the first tourist trip to the falls; Lezama sold the land in 1888 to Martín Errecaborde and Company.

Territorial Governor Rudecindo Roca established Iguazú Department, one of 5 initial subdivisions in Misiones, in 1882.

The firm of Gibaja y Núñez opened the town's first hotel at this time to serve the growing numbers of tourists visiting Iguazú Falls.

The cool season runs from late April to mid September, with daily highs reaching an average of 21 °C (70 °F) and a low of 11 °C (52 °F) in June.

Apart from the Iguazú Falls, other tourist attractions of the area include Three Frontiers, where the Argentine, Paraguayan and Brazilian borders meet.

Most of the streets of Puerto Iguazu are unmetalled, red dirt, with gutters on either side (canalitos) that have grassy banks in which eels and a variety of freshwater fish, including knifefish (gymnotus) and catfish, inhabit.