Poor Niagara!

"Poor Niagara!" is what Eleanor Roosevelt supposedly said when she first caught a glimpse of Iguazu Falls. Sitting on the border of Argentina and Brazil, it is located where the Iguazu River flows over the Parana Plateau. It is on the same caliber as both Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls (which we just saw a few months ago in Zambia). Although Iguazu Falls is a third taller than Niagara Falls, Niagara has a greater flow of water in the course of a year. Victoria Falls on the other hand has the single greatest sheet of water falling at one time out of all of them.

Since we were coming from Buenos Aires, we visited the Argentine side of the falls first. We had to spend a few days in Puerto Iguazu (the nearest town) anyways to apply for Brazilian visas. The bus ride into the falls is only a short 20 minutes away. We couldn't believe the masses of people that were headed in the same direction, but once we were there we could understand why.

Walking along the lower circuit, Argentine side.

The Argentine side of the falls has two main circuits, and we started with the lower circuit first. The highlight of lower circuit was the boat ride to the small San Martin Island, which is right up against one of the major falls. We hiked up a short way to the main lookout and were instantly misted with water. We had a perfect view of the a rainbow against the backdrop of the water. From below, we could see all the different levels of the falls. This differs from Victoria Falls, which create almost a straight line of water falling from the same height all the way across.

The rainbow from San Martin Island.

Getting drenched at Garganta del Diablo.

The upper circuit was just as exciting, as many catwalks took us over the top of many of the falls right into the heart of the falls, called Garganta del Diablo in Spanish. In English, it means "Devil´s Throat." Here, water is spilling over the falls in three different directions all in one place. Again, as soon as we reached the end of the catwalk, we were getting soaked from head to toe. Somehow, Sam still managed to shoot a few pictures.

We saw a rainbow on the Brazilian side too!

More of the fall!

After a full day of walking in the hot sun, we were exhausted. Luckily, we secured our Brazilian visas without a hitch and were planning to across the border the next day. We still hadn't decided on whether to visit the Brazilian side of falls. We felt like we didn't know if the experience could get any better, but everywhere we read told us we needed to go for it.

The Brazilian Garganta do Diabo from afar.

And we were so glad we saw Brazil's version of Iguazu the next day. On their side, there is one main walkway that extends the length of the falls. We saw them up close on the Argentine side, but Brazil gives you the panoramic shots from further away. You can't really appreciate just how great the falls are until you've seen it. The walkway on the Brazil side also ended at the Garganta do Diabo (Portuguese), so we still didn't walk away dry.

Up close and getting misted.

After seeing the natural beauty of the falls, we were gearing up to head back to the city. Rio Carnival is coming up next! We went directly to the bus station to wait for our overnight ride to Rio. Somehow, both of us missed the fact that Brazil is actually an hour ahead of Argentina. So even though we only drove 20 minutes across the border, the time had changed on us. We were sitting at the bus station when our bus left without us that evening. Luckily, they put us on another bus the next day without an extra charge, but it still meant we needed to find a place to stay that night. I don´t think we´ve stayed in a real hotel the entire trip so far, but we splurged that night on one nearby. We didn´t take for granted the whole room to ourselves with two double beds and our own (very nice and clean) bathroom. Sam took advantage of the pool before it became dark outside. And we feasted on the best breakfast of the whole trip so far the next morning before finally boarding the bus to Rio!

One small section of our buffet breakfast before heading to Rio de Janeiro!

(Written February 9th)