In 1938 a hot blistering sun shone high and brightly in the blue afternoon sky. Below, the famous Iguazu river, widely snaked through the lush rainforest and fell over the steep ginormous drop crashing below into a rising mistful abyss just like it had done everyday for thousands of years before and just like it would do for another thousand years. The colourful tropical birds were singing in the trees but their songs were drowned out by the hefty roar of the waterfall that devides three nations. This was Iguazu Falls.


But on this particular day there was another noise fighting against the sounds of the water, the noise of voices. Heavily accented German voices to be specific.


"Row Pedro, row uz closer to ze edge" said the first.


"Yes Pedro vee need to be closer, vee vant ze best view possible" demanded the second.


"But Señor Hans and Señor Herman, the current..It is too strong!" The third voice pleaded back.


"Nonsense Pedro, vee demand you row uz closer. Vee are German and know exactly vot vee are doing. Now row man, before I remove my leather glove and vhip you around ze face" Shouted Señor Hans as he stood up balancing on the front of the small rowing boat.


Poor Pedro sighed as he rowed closer to the edge and to their obvious fate.


Nobody knows if they screamed as they fell to their deaths because the roar of the falls was so deafening...


And that is why you can no longer take boat trips to the top of waterfall. Luckily for us there's still lots of other means of seeing this natural wonder.


Iguazu Falls is on the 'must see' list for anybody travelling to Brazil or Argentina. Scientists 'believe' with their wacky theories and evidence that they were created by a volcanic eruption leaving a humongous crack. Whatever. The true reason they are there is because an evil forest god became obsessed with a beautiful woman called Coroba, but she already had a fella called Naipur. Naipur and Coroba tried to flee the forest in a canoe, but the evil forest god wasn't having any of that and he caused the riverbed to collapse in front of them. Caroba fell to her death and turned into a rock for some reason, and Naipur turned into a tree that still overlooks the falls today, towards his beautiful rock shaped lover.


The only annoying thing about the falls is their location. They lie directly on the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Its pretty much impossible to get their from anywhere in the continent without at least a 12 hour bus ride. For us, it was actually 18 hours from Buenos Aires and to the small and nice(ish) town of Puerto Iguazu in Argentina to explore the falls firstly from that side of the river. The following day we caught the bus over the river border and ten minutes down the road to the ugly(ish) city of Foz in Brazil. Neither town is too interesting and just offers a base to see the falls from their respective countries.


Simply put, the falls are one of the most visually stunning and most powerful natural attractions we have ever seen! They are massive! Honestly, really, really, really big! Taller and twice as wide as Niagara! It takes 2 full days just to see them from all the viewpoints. They have the largest yearly average amount of water passing over them in the in the world. In 2011 it was declared a UNESCO site and was voted as one of the new 7 wonders of nature in the world.


The Argentine side offers views up close of some but not all of the sections of the falls. So close that you get very wet when stood at the bottom of some of the falls. We say falls but it is kind of just one really long one, broke into sections. Due to the wetness it was such a good job that we packed the waterproof camera (There was a lengthy discussion before we left the UK about whether we should bother bringing the waterproof camera as we had just bought the new fancier but totally not waterproof camera. David opted to bring it and has been consistently reminded that he hasn't yet used it once in nearly 6 months of travelling.). Argentina offers varied views around the falls, as well as getting pretty much under them there is a walkway which goes right on top of them, probably around the point that Hans and Herman plummeted to their death. Due to our own bad planning we arrived mid morning along with everybody else it seemed, at certain points it felt like we were in China again with the hundreds of tour groups clogging up the narrow boardwalks, but fortunately the railing is quite small and as the majority of tour groups were either elderly or children we easily pushed people over the railing and over the falls to their deaths. We don't tolerate slow walkers.


After a full day of exploring all the hikes on the Argentine side we considered saving some money and perhaps skipping visiting the Brazillian side. We felt like we had already seen a lot of waterfall action and couldn't really see the point of paying to see some more of what was essentially the same waterfall but from the other side of the river. But, everybody says to see both sides, and its unlikely we will ever be here again, so we thats what we did. And we're sure glad that we listened. The Brazillian side gives you a full panoramic view of the falls (well as near as possible with out flying over them - they are that big).The park allows you to walk along the river each turn gave us a better view allowing us to fully comprehend the enormity of the falls. It all led up to a platform which headed out into the midst of the falls close to the 'gargantua del diablo' (the devils throat). From here we were surrounded by the roar of millions of litres of water crashing past us. We were soaking wet (But that's ok, because we had the waterproof camera. Again.) as the sun came out and produced a colourful rainbow right in front of our eyes - perhaps it was the spirit of Naipur saying hello.


As well as the falls there are thousands of insects, hundreds of tropical birds, a few mammals and some lizards, adding to the Amazonian rainforest surrounding. The best animal for us though was definitely the Coati, a relative of the raccoon but with a pointier nose. Unfortunately the parks have to put up false signs asking people not to touch the coatis or feed them, they even go as far as to put obviously faked pictures of some of the injures that have been supposedly caused by these little creatures. We 'played along' following the rules and didn't touch any, but we know that it's only because they want to keep all the Coati cuddling to themselves. They were super cute!


Following what was a great trip to the falls we headed back to Foz where David chose (though he blames the tourist information for lying ) the wrong bus. We managed to see a full tour of Foz as we spent 3 hours on a local bus touring round a rather dangerous looking favela. It put Claire in the best mood!


Things we have learned

1. Butterflies like landing on Claire more than David


2. Packing a waterproof camera is a good idea


3. If ever in the siuation of choosing which side to see a waterfall from, choose both


Transport stats


Planes used - 11
Buses/coaches used - 59 (+13)
Trains used - 25 (+1)
Metros/subways used - 41 (+2)
Cars used - 9
Minivans - 10
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 17 (+4)
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 2
Tuk tuks/autorickshaw used - 31
Scooters used - 6
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 5 (+1)
CycleRickshaw - 1
Bamboo HouseBoat - 1
Tour Boat - 1
Combi Van - 2
Huge 4x4 Truck Thingys- 2