The Iguassu Falls

We had 2 days to explore the natural wonder that is the Iguassu Falls. Our first was on the Argentinian side, which began with a 4X4 ride down to the river. Here we were given lifejackets and waterproof bags, the importance of which soon became very clear as we zoomed up 6km of the white water in a jetboat, getting a great close-up view of the falls and absolutely soaked at the same time. The Argentinian´s have really made the falls wonderfully user friendly and have somehow managed to make it feel like there are only a few people there, which is most certainly never the case. There are numerous walkways and many viewpoints and even the included attraction of a short train ride up to the top of the falls. From there, you walk a short distance to a huge flag of Argentina (just in case you happen to forget which side you´re on) and a magnificient viewpoint of the most powerful section of the falls, the Devil´s Throat. To end the day, and to make sure that we had used almost every form of public transport possible, we paddled down a quiet section of the river, taking in a bit of the fauna and flora and processing the whole experience.

The name Iguassu means ´Big Water´ in the Guarani language, which is pretty fitting if you consider that they consist of around 270 falls along almost 3km of the Iguassu River, with most having a height of around 6om and some approaching 90m.

The Brazilian side is essentially a single walkway to various viewpoints. Combine that with a lot of slow-moving, stupid people and you have a serious test of ones patience. They do however offer a more impressive panoramic view of the falls and you definately get a better impression of just how much water is involved.