It's surprising that I hadn't heard of Iguazu Falls until several years ago. I guess because it's not near a major city it's not as well known.
The Iguazu Falls form a portion of the border between Brazil and Argentina. We arrived there after a flight from Rio. This was our first view of the falls at a scenic overlook.
There are national parks on either side of the falls in both Brazil and Argentina. We stopped first at the Brazilian side of the waterfalls.
The Iguazu Falls are not just one waterfall, but a series of 275 waterfalls!!
One third of the waterfalls are on the Brazil side and the other two thirds are on the Argentina side.
The first European to discover the Falls was a Spanish explorer in 1541.
Around every turn was another breathtaking view of the waterfalls.
There are walkways crossing over the water to get the best views of the waterfalls.
These next couple of pictures are to show how crowded it was on the day we went.
This was the best picture we could get without other people in the photo with us.
After spending several hours walking around, we boarded our bus to drive through the border from Brazil to Argentina.
Our tour guide was from Argentina so he was happy to introduce us to his country.
Our first meal in Argentina was a delicious steak, which is what they are famous for in that country.
The next morning we were at the Argentina National Park bright and early.
We boarded little trains to take us out to the waterfalls.
We had quite a hike through the jungle (on very nice, paved paths) to get out to the waterfalls.
Here's an example of what we walked along.
There were some raccoon like creatures found on both sides of the waterfalls, which were almost tame, and not afraid of humans at all.
There were lots of pretty birds and butterflies that we saw along the walk.
One butterfly thought Kent's face was a safe place to land.
The first waterfall we came to was the largest one, called the "Devil's Throat."
It has the largest volume of water going over the edge of all the waterfalls in Iguazu.
There was a lot of mist because of all the water.
Another photo to show how busy and crowded it was, even first thing in the morning.
It was tricky to get any good pictures with so many people around.
After seeing the Devil's Throat we walked around the park for several more hours.
It was so amazing, and we had perfect weather. Not too hot and a sunny day.
I'm pretty sure that between the two days we were there we saw all 275 of the waterfalls.
Iguazu Falls doesn't have the tallest waterfall in the world, that's in Venezuela.
It doesn't have the widest waterfall in the world, that's in Africa.
But in terms of the most waterfalls in one place, I think Iguazu is the champion.
Just when we thought we'd seen all the amazing waterfalls, we'd see another stunning sight.
We saw lots of rainbows being created by the water droplets in the air.
We had lunch at restaurant in the park, and I had the best mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had in my life. The chocolate was more like large shards as big as my fingers, not puny little chips. YUM!!
I think that Niagra Falls is rather puny compared to Iguazu.
We went back to our hotel, which overlooked the river that separates the three countries of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
That evening our tour guide wanted us to sample some traditional Argentinian meat pies. They were pretty good.
After dinner we went to the town and walked around a bit. The marker below is one of the three country markers, representing Argentina. There's one across the river in Brazil and one in Paraguay.
At the plaza they had a dancing waters show, which was really cool.
Here's a map showing the three countries.
The same view as above, only during the day time.
I have traveled to many, many countries and seen some incredible sights, but I'd have to say that Iguazu Falls tops my list of the most spectacular natural wonder that I've ever seen! I'm so glad we were able to see it and to spend two days enjoying every aspect of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment