Iguazu Falls, Argentina: Number 181 of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die

Growing up as a child I always had the desire to visit each of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the 7 ancient wonders of the world and the 7 industrial wonders of the world. And so it was rather exciting to be visiting what is widely billed as a given inclusion in the forthcoming new 7 wonders of nature. ... albeit a review of the finalists for this had some inclusions Id never heard of as being "must see's""...the Bay of Fundy? Je Ju Island? Cliffs of Moher?

I had endured a rather tortuous 17 hours of flying from South Africa before I finally landed at midnight at the small airport servicing the falls in Brazil. Having heard from other travellers that it was cheaper and better to stay on the Argentinian side and see the falls from there (as an aside two-thirds of the falls are on the Argentinian side), I clambered into a taxi, crossed another border, got another country in my passport and headed for the hotel. I was staying at the rather lovely Panoramic Hotel- which- according to the website had an amazing pool overlooking the falls. Reality- it did overlook the Iguazu river that the falls were situated on but it was spring cleaning time for the pool so that was shut. 


Nonetheless the breakfast was a real treat- aside from the usual items youd expect in a 5*, there were some- I presume Argentinian usuals- dulce de leche for your toast, ricotta torte, chocolate brownies, pear tarte, fruit bread, almond croissants. Yummy!! Sadly Id been wiped by plane flu, was desperately hoping I wasnt going to wake up sweating as then Id need a malaria test from my trip to Botswana, and hadnt been exercising for two weeks so it was fruit salad for me.


snookum bears aka brazilian aardvarks



Having entered the national park containing the falls I decided first stop would be to have a look at somewildlife. I meandered down a jungle path, skipping alongside fluttering butterflies, jumping over some amazingly ferocious large ants, watching some rather odd tree climbing raccoony looking animals (found out later they were coatis- a brazilian aardvark but I prefer their slang name of snookum bears), whistling a care free tune, rounded a bend and came face to face with......well, hard to describe it really given that I was in the middle of a tropical jungle.

 Picture some rather exotic animals on mass, white luminescent skins, tribal markings on some bodies, chattering away quite excitedly next to a boat....and wearing bikinis for the female species and Bonds underpants for the male species. Homo sapiens Australis.
 

homo sapiens australis




Before.....

 I had inadvertently stumbled on the departure jetty for the boat ride to the falls...being Australian however I felt no fear joining this motley group of naked tourists and clambered on myself- fully clothed of course. Im half English!! What followed was 45 minutes of laughter as we roared along in a hovercraft up to the falls- first stop...Devil's Throat- the most impressive of the waterfalls- 82 metres high, 150 metres wide and 700 metres long. The grinning captain floored the hovercraft right underneath them.......ah...now I understood the various stages of naked undress in the boat!! Thoroughly soaked he then whipped us backwards and.................repeated the exercise again as if the first time was not enough!

After!!

By now, thankful that I was at the very back of the boat as I was definately winning the wet t-shirt competition, we then roared around the other side to another set of waterfalls. Again the insane captain repeated his madness....and just in case we hadnt been fully finished off then did it again.

Bedraggled, cold, and with fully wet clothes I clamboured back on dry land to find a sunny spot to dry off. Sadly it was raining so there was only one thing to do....hike along to the one hotel in the park- the Sheraton- and treat myself to the hand dryer in their toilets, before dripping up to the bar to order a caipirinha and a toasted sandwich. Excellent!!

The next day I decided to brave the park again and do the choooochoooo train tour and a jungle adventure tour. The latter was not really that adventurous- a stick shift truck roaring along a well cut path in the jungle while the tour guide pointed out various trees such as wild papaya and palms...oh and a few toucans lazily flying overhead.

The chooochooo train however was great fun...meandering through the jungle between food stops and the kilometre long walkway right to the top of Devil's throat. Given that you could see the power of the water rushing underneath the grills of the walkway as you traversed to the edge of the largest waterfall in the system, it was a rather slow and nervous crossing. 

 

On one side, slowly rusting in the water, you could see an earlier walkway that had been condemmed. This new one however went right out to the edge of the waterfall...crossing several smaller waterfalls on the way. The roar of the water was deafening- some 1800 cubic metres of water go over it per second.....and in peak floods its been recorded up to some 12,800 cubic metres a second. Perching on the edge of this waterfall you can see why no Harry Houdini has ever tried to go over in a barrel!!. While Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe has the largest amount of water, Iguazu is wider but hampered on taking the water volume prize as it is split into about 270 separate waterfalls. Taller and twice the width of Niagara Falls, it is reported that the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said "Poor Niagara!" when she first saw it.

The waterfalls were first discovered (at least by Europeans that is!!) by a Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541 but were not rediscovered until the end of the nineteenth century by the explorer Boselli. Hard to believe that a 3km width of waterfalls at that height, creating that amount of noise, could be swallowed by the jungle for so long.

Ending the fantastic two day visit, I wondered into the information centre and was told that tribal legend says that a big snake called "Boi" lived in the river. To calm its rage, aborigines sacrificed a woman every year as an offering. However one year a brave aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from death by escaping through the river. Boi burst in anger, curled its body and split the river forming the cataracts to separate the man and the woman. Lovely!

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