Iguazu Falls (Arg/Brazil) - Week 32

21st to 23rd April

We cannot believe we are finally at Iguazu Falls. It seems a long time ago in Reading when we were planning our trip and really looking forward to seeing what is thought of as the most impressive waterfall in the world - and now we are here!

These photos says it all really...

We decided to fly from Sao Paulo to Foz de Iguazu as it only worked out 10 quid each more for a 2 hour flight verses a 15 hour bus ride - easy choice. The falls are shared by Brazil and Argentina, and so the first day we visted the Brazilian side. The Brazilain side has a better overall view of the main section of the falls, the Devil´s Throat. The Argentinian side has a large section of forest you can walk through, looking at the falls from many angles. You find yourself ooohing and aarrhing every few minutes when you see the falls from another angle.

The Devil´s Throat from the Argentinian side.

So a few stats. The waterfalls comprise 270 falls along a 1.7 miles of completely flat plateau with the Iguazu River discharging over. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 metres (269 feet) in height, The Victoria Falls in Africa are a little higher (108m to 82m) and discharge more water in flood (9.1 million litres per second versus 6.5 million), but the overall spectical and shape of Iguazu is unsurpassed.

On Monday we were on the 8.30am bus to cross the border into Argentina to see the Argentinian side of the falls and carry on our travels from Argentina. Bye bye Brazil! It was quite sad - Brazil was excellent, we're already planning a holiday back for Carnival in Salvador - anyone want to come?!

As said before there were more things to do on the Argentinian side. One of the things was to take a boat along the lower level into the waterfalls. The boat went right under the waterfall so you couldn´t see anything, a complete white out. Needless to say we got soaked through to the pants but it was lots of fun.

At the end of the day, we took the local bus from the park to the centre of Puerto Iguaçu to find out if there were any buses that night. There was one going in 3 hours time at 9.30pm, great, that meant a super 26 hour bus journey without having had a shower after sweating all day. Never mind, nothing to stay in Puerto Iguaçu for so we might as well get straight on the road...