Iguazu Falls

After thirty hours travelling on three different buses we finally arrived to Puerto Iguazu. This is the town which is located beside the Argentinian Iguazu National Park containing the one of the seven natural wonders of the world; The Iguazu Falls. It is also where three countries meet at a T junction of a river. This is where we headed first on the evening after arriving. We walked ten minutes out of the town to the Hito Tres Fronteras. There is a pillar standing on each country painted in their country flag's colours. It was cool to see three countries in such close proximity to each other.

The Iguazu waterfalls are actually a little bit downstream in between Brazil and Argentina and it is advised to see the falls from both sides. We started with a drive through the national park's rainforest followed by a boat ride up the Iguazu river to the waterfall. We saw a lot of vultures gliding in the air above the rainforest and a colourful toucan sitting on the top of the tree's branches during the Jeep drive. The boat was a type of speed boat. They gave us lifejackets and a large wetbag each to put our shoes and belongs into before we embarked. We realised then that we were going to get very wet. Luckily we were wearing light quick drying clothes and not jeans like some other passengers. On the boat we got our first glimpse of the waterfall. Iguazu falls has 257 individual waterfalls that spread over a 2.7 kilometer width and combines to form this magnificent nature wonder of the world. The most spectacular part is a section called the Devil's Throat where a huge amount of water cascade down the cliff front and produce a large amount of water spray as the water hits the surface below, it looked amazing. After getting a few pictures the boat drove into some of the waterfalls. It was the strongest shower I've ever experienced. Una took a video on her GoPro, we haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure our facial expressions are hilarious as we got drenched by the large quantity of water. The fun didn't stop there as the boat went through rapids as it headed back to the start and again we got showered with waves of water.

After drying off in the sunshine for twenty minutes we walked the trails of the park and got to see a different view of the waterfall. It is amazing at the top of the waterfalls as you see how flat the river is and how slow flowing the water is before it tumbles down giant cliff. To get a better view of Devil's Throat we had to get a train through the rainforest. From this viewpoint you can take beautiful photos and also appreciate the loud noise of the waterfall. As most of the waterfall actually falls on the Argentina side of the river we had to go to the Brazilian side of the river to see the wide view of the whole waterfall. This meant crossing the border into our twelfth country of the trip and getting our passport stamped for the few hours were on that side of the border. Here there was a platform that extended out over part of the river and we got slightly wet again from the spray of the water.

Every part of our trip to the Iguazu national park was worth the thirty hour bus journey to get here. I agree that it is important to see the waterfall from both sides of the river as both sides have wonderful viewpoints of the waterfall and we got the opportunity to take some stunning pictures. It was a beautiful sunny day when we went to the national park so we saw rainbows extending from the waterfalls which added to it's beauty. However I think the best part was the boat ride as I think we got the best view of the waterfall from the boat and getting saturated was half the fun.Read more