Iguassu Falls - or, "I will never be dry again!"

This is the end of my time in Argentina, it's had some highlights and some lowlights but I'll get to those in a few days when I'm hauling across the Atlantic.  Anyway, the last days in Argentina have been at Iguassu Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, you can see why........

2.7km long, falling from a height of 80m at its highest point.  The sight and the sound of this place is almost overpowering.  

The falls themselves are on the Iguassu river which runs between Argentina and Brazil.  Paraguay is also near but doesn't have any of the falls.  Actually, you can see what they call Hitos, or boundary markers in each country from a certain spot.....

Paraguay

Brazil

And........

Argentina.  Well, actually I think they're putting a new one in, here's the one that's there now.......

Anyway, back to the falls, really the main attraction.  As with Niagara the falls are actually in two countries, Argentina has the largest portion of falls while from Brazil you can see the whole length of it, both have viewing platforms that wind around the falls and give you different viewing platforms.  Let's start on the Brazil side.

This is one of the main complexes of the falls seen from Brazil, on the left is San Martin is one of the biggest.

This is only fall on the Brazilian side and from here going up river is the 'Devil's Throat' but I'll get to that from the Argentina side.  As you can probably see there's a lot of spray and keeping everything dry is nearly impossible, it's actually really impressive how close you can walk to the falls on both sides.....

So that's from Brazil, as I said it's more of a panoramic view than anything else but gives you a good feel for the overall size of the falls themselves.  So now, over to Argentina.

They have three trails there, upper, lower and then out to Devil's Throat.  First up the upper trail which, surprisingly enough leads you out over the top of the falls, about 650m.  Apparently they are working on extending this by am additional 1km in the next two years.

Oh, while I think of it.  As you walk around you need to be a little careful where you put your hands on the railings........

And where you're walking.....

This is in the middle of sub-tropical rainforest so there's plenty of things that will bite if you're a little careless.

After the upper trail, the lower trail, letting you get right up close and personal with the falls.

I know I look pretty soaked in that picture but it's not all from that waterfall, more on that later.

And finally, the Devil's Throat......

This is a narrow area with, I think, 7 falls emptying into it.  What the wind is doing defines how clear a view you get.  The viewing platform looks like this from the Brazil side.

So now to the highlight of the day.  Similar to the Maid of the Mist at Niagara you can take a boat trip right up to the falls.  This one is a little different however and with a certain amount of Latin flair.  For a start it's a lot smaller boats and able to ride the rapids up to the falls.  Second, they park you really close in to get a great view of the falls up close and personal.

You get given a waterproof bag for your stuff (including your shoes) and then once everyone has taken their photos you wrap everything up and they drive you right in and under the falls.  If you want to experience anything like this you simply have to go down to your nearest fire station and ask the nice people there if they wouldn't mind pointing three of their hoses at you and turning them on full blast.  It's just incredible the way you get battered around, forget opening your eyes, just not happening.  Oh, and I had a great idea, I had my waterproof jacket with me, so that will stop me getting too wet, right?  

Wrong!

No matter how tight you think you seal those things up there will always be an opening and with that amount of water and pressure it forces it's way inside the jacket.  And the thing about waterproof things is that it works both ways.  I ended up with my own personal swimming pool wrapped round me.  It's a great cure for a hangover though!

So that's it, the end of Argentina and just three more days to go.  Today it's a flight up to Rio de Janeiro and then off to South Africa.  With a bit of luck there should be a couple of people to meet up with in Rio that I met along the way.  While I'm sure Rio is an amazing place, again I stand by my statement that a city is the people you know there, not the physical place.