Today was the big day – the reason we had trekked this far north and endured that overnight bus journey.
A visit to the awe inspiring Iguazu Falls.
These incredible waterfalls emerge out of the jungle at various points around a wide basin, and plunge into the river below. It’s the biggest waterfall system in the world, and is shared by Argentina and Brazil, with the border running right down the river. Most of the falls are in Argentina, but from Brazil you get a wider view of them all – while in Argentina you can get up close to many of the falls. I had visited the Brazilian side 20 years ago (I don’t feel old enough to have done anything 20 years ago….) and was keen to share the experience of the Argentinean side with Lauren.
There are various islands and many different waterfalls, with the biggest and most dramatic being the garaganta del diablo or devils throat, where about half of the water falls.
Its hard to describe Iguazu falls – and even harder to capture in photos – just how enormous and spread out the falls are. From the fairly slow moving river spread over a vast swathe of rainforest upriver, cutting through rocky outcrops and small islands and boulders, with huge catfish lazily swimming around and occasionally grabbing a fly, to the increasing urgency as the water reaches the top of the falls, still spread over an immense area, to the intense power and drama of the cliff edge around a huge semi-circular bowl in the earth, as the water swirls and pulses and turns in on itself, throwing mist many metres into the air, at many points along the edge, before plunging down to the river below, dividing round a big island and once again slowing down into a wide and fairly placid mud-coloured river strewn with boulders.
I can’t do it justice in words, and the pictures try, but convey more ‘pretty’ than ‘immense and awe-inspiring’ – so you will just have to visit one day yourselves!
As I say, if you get the chance, do visit – its one of those wonders of nature that truly needs to be seen to be believed.
Remarkable photos! Lauren is so lucky to get to see such sights so early in her life.
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Yes, but she is learning a lot from it as well – and not just the amazing highlights, but the long bus journeys and having to make herself understood if she wants a particular combinationn of helados in the cafe!!!
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