Spectacular. Purely awesome. Breathtaking. These are the only words that I can think to describe the experience of visiting Iguazu Falls. Ever since I saw Iguazu Falls featured on Planet Earth I have wanted to make the trip down to South America to see it in person. This was both our first time being in South America, and we knew we couldn’t visit Argentina without making the short plane ride to the falls.
When we arrived we were both amazed to find that our hotel had a spectacular view and we spent most of our first day on the outside patio enjoying it .The next day we booked a boat tour into the falls. {aside: One thing I love about traveling overseas is that things always seem a little extreme and dangerous but nobody seems too concerned. I am fairly certain that if in the U.S., we would have had to sign our lives away before taking the boat tour or walking the overlook platforms.}
Both Josh and I had heard stories about the boat trip and were eager to see how close we could actually get to the falls. Much to our surprise the boat, which was an inflatable-raft motorboat thingy, took us up the raging rapids of the falls stopped for everyone to take pictures and then took us right underneath the falling waters. Needless to say we were thankful that someone warned us to bring our bathing suits because you get drenched! It was exhilarating to say the least.
The rest of our time there was spent traipsing through the various upper and lower trails and taking a train to the “Throat of the Devil” or “Garganta del Diablo “where we were able to walk right on top of the falls and stare down into the mouth. I have attached a slideshow of some of the photos of our trip but none of them really capture the true beauty of what we saw. Next we are off to Sydney. Stay tuned.
Interesting Facts about the Falls:
*Iguazu Falls consists of some 275 separate falls during the river's seasonal low. That number is halved during the rainy season when small rocky islets on the rim of the falls become submerged.
*Falls are the result of a volcanic eruption, which left yet another large crack in the earth.
*Upon seeing Iguazu, the United States, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara!" Iguazu is Four times the width of Niagara Falls.
*The falls have been featured in several movies including The Mission, Happy Together, Miami Vice, Mr. Magoo, Moonraker, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
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