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Iguazu Falls

Having already seen one of the worlds most spectacular waterfalls when I visited Niagara, I thought it would be rude not to pay a visit to Iguazu seeing as Val and I were in the area. So we made a quick ovenight trip up to the Argentina/Brazil border to see what the falls were all about. Turns out they're kind of a big deal.
The river is the border between the two countries and you can view the falls from either side, with very different perspectives. We started on day 1 with the Argentinian side, as we were there already.

First thing we noticed was all the wildlife. It's jungle territory up here and there were millions of amazing butterflies flitting about, vultures flyng overhead and all these litle racoon type things knocking about - which I later learned were coatis. They kept trying to nick everyone's food.

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I don't really know how to describe the falls. Niagara was incredibly impressive, and the first view we had of Iguazu was equally spectacular. We'd followed a system of boardwalks over large parts of the river until we came to something known as "The Devils Throat" (or rather "La Garganta Del Diablo"). The biggest single cascade at Iguazu was awe inspiring and you can get right up close from the boardwalks, although you get soaked from the masses spray well before you get there. That part is probably comparable to Niagara (although with major differences like Iguazu is in the middle of the jungle and was 30 degrees, whereas Niagara is in the middle of the Canadian equivalent of Vegas and was covered in ice). However - that was just the start of Iguazu. As we followed the other trails here we realised that the Devils Throat is just one of absolutely tons of separate, massive waterfalls. They go on for literally miles, with cascade after cascade shooting over the cliffs. The scale is just indescribable, so I won't bother trying. From the Brazilian side (which we went to on day 2) you get a very different viewpoint, as you're seeing most of it from the other side of the river, and from a distance. You really get to see the big picture.
As I can't really put into words how awesome this place was, I'll just stick a load of the pictures in here. It was truly magnificent.

La Garganta Del Diablo:

270_Rainbow_Devil.jpgVal_Devil.jpg

Some of the other falls:

large_270_Other2.jpglarge_Others.jpg

And another:

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And here's some views from Brazil (Note that none of these are showing the same falls!):

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And here's a quick vid of the Devil's Throat, just because I did one for Niagara and I like to be fair!

Posted by Matt Cocken 20:09 Archived in Argentina Tagged argentina iguazu

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