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Published: February 18th 2009
From Salta it was a 20-hour trip across the pampas to one of the chief destinations in South America, Iguazu Falls (pronounced Ee-GWAH-soo) consisting of 275 separate waterfalls stretching 2.7 kilometres along the Iguazu River on the border between Argentina and Brazil. The highest is 82 metres while the majority drop about 64 metres. The annual peak flow of water is calculated to be 6 500 cubic metres per second. By comparison, Niagara Falls' annual peak flow is less than half of this at 2 800 cubic metres per second. Only Victoria Falls in Africa is greater than Iguazu.
You can visit from both sides of the border. The Brazilian side offers a more panoramic view of Devil's Throat, which many consider to be the highlight, while the Argentinian side lets you get right up beside many of the cataracts, including standing directly beside Devil's Throat.
You could easily spend a day here as it's not just a waterfall but also a wildlife and nature preserve with plenty of plants and animals to see, such as coatis, monkeys, crocodiles, birds and butterflies. A narrow-gauge railway of open carriages with wooden benches takes you up to Devil's Throat through dense
Timbo Posada
Where I stayed in Puerta Iguazu.jungle. For those who like broad walks, flush toilets, snack bars, wheelchair access and lots of comfort and security, this is a very good setup. Those who like nature to be a little more natural, a little less tamed should look elsewhere.
You don't follow dirt paths here. You cross steel-grated walkways with wooden railings that stand above the ground. I followed one to the edge of the gorge. Peering through trees at first, then through open spaces, I could see the falls pouring white over the escarpment. A series of falls, actually, stretching away into the distance, one after the other in a row. There are several viewing points along the way with tourists elbowing each other like hockey players to take photos of the falls and of themselves grinning before the panorama behind them.
Garganta del Diablo, or the Devil's Throat, is the main attraction and it got me to wondering about taxonomies for natural phenomena. Hell's Gate in the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia, Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya, Hell's Gate State Park in Idaho, The Devil's Pool at the foot of Victoria Falls in Africa, Devil's Pool in Australia, The Devil's Mouth in
Young coati
They're very used to humans and will come right up to you looking for food, but signs warn you they'll bite. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, and so on. The opposite applies, of course: Angel Falls, Paradise Island, Heaven's Whatever. It's probably a good thing we're not discovering these places in today's scientific and unpoetic world as they'd likely just get geospatial coordinates as a name.
Water comes down the Iguazu River in a smooth, wide sheet to pour over the Devil's Throat, turning from blue to white in an instant, casting up spray so thick you get drenched in a few minutes. Mist obscures a great deal of the more distant view here. That doesn't matter as you stand there amidst the thunder, the spray, the unbelievable power of the cataract, the hypnotic pour of water and try simply to take it in, to see this force of nature not in scientific terms but as an awestruck human, as someone from a more primitive era who would seek explanations among giants and gods.
I stayed for a while, then returned to Puerta Iguaza to pick my backpack up at the hostel and cross the border into Brazil to go to Rio...my final destination before the end of the voyage.
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