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Published: June 25th 2009
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We left BA on a Saturday morning on an internal flight up to Iguazu. We were flying in a type of plane we had never heard of before (McDonnel Douglas - dont they make burgers!) and we werent quite sure about the durability of the plane as it made some really strange noises that even Joe thought were odd. Having landed safely though we headed to our hotel. The Iguazu falls are on the border between Argentina and Brazil (and the Paraguayan border is also just next door). We had opted to stay on the Argentinian side as the town of Puerto Iguazu is quieter and prettier than the Brazilian equivalent of Foz do Iguassu.
We had booked on a tour and visited the Brazilian side of the falls on the first afternoon, which meant we were there at sunset, making for some stunning views and photos (not that we can show you them right now, annoyingly). The Brazilian side affords a panoramic view of the falls, kind of the bigger picture, versus a more up close view on the Argentinian side. The falls are really stunning, comparable to, if not better than Niagara. There is a main horseshoe shaped
fall, known as the Devils Throat, and many smaller falls.
The name Iguazu is Guarani (the local indigenous tribe) for "Big Water", and it certainly lives up to the name. On day two on the Argentinian side we got up close and personal with the waterfalls. First stop was to walk to a platform overhanging the Devils Throat - we got soaked by the spray, but this was nothing to later on in the afternoon when we took a boat ride that we thought just got close to the falls so you would again just get wet from the spray. Instead, it actually just went right under the falls so we got however many thousands of cubic litres of water dumped right on top of us. Luckily they had handed out waterproof bags for our cameras etc, but we did have to walk around for a while with that "i have wet myself" feeling. Joe was a bit of a doofus with his waterproofing anyway, leaving his zip undone at the top of his mac - so not the best protection when water is coming down at great force from above. We may as well not have bothered with
the macs and just got on the boat in our swimming cossies. The boat ride finished off with a trip down some "rapids", which were more like minor swirls, but all good fun.
The falls are really so beautiful and we really enjoyed visiting the two national parks. Sarah took about 100 photos, including some footage of the rainbows created in the spray at the bottom of the falls, just a shame we cant show you a few yet. Its a must see destination and I think it is in running for being one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World.
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