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| The Devil's Throat |
The
Iguazú Falls is one of the
great natural wonders of the world. It marks the point where the Iguaçu River, which meanders westwards across the Paraná Plateau, cuts a gorge
through the flood basalts along a series of geological faults, before finally
joining the River Paraná – at the triple border between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.
As a global tourist
attraction, it is served by international airports in both Argentina and Brazil,
with luxury resorts and hotels dotted around the area. On a modest budget, we travelled 300km on the overnight bus from
Asunción to Ciudad del Este, where we were met by our driver.
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| The Iguazú Falls in Argentina |
His
greeting was much warmer than the chilly morning - something that I had not yet
experienced in the Paraguayan winter - and for the rest of the day we were
accompanied by an overcast sky; however, the lack of sunshine took nothing away
from this once in a lifetime experience.
Starting in Argentina, we passed
through a forest on a narrow gauge railway that is not too far away from the
water’s edge. Alighting from the train, a 1 kilometre long walkway took us to the Devil's Throat.
Before cascading into a gorge, the Iguaçu River spreads out over the impermeable basalt to form a wide, shallow lake, where a series of small rapids reminded me of the scene in the African Queen - a taste of what was to come.
The only waterfall that I had been to before was High Force in England but there are up to 300 individual cascades seen here, depending on the water level in the river. My photographs simply don't do justice to the beauty of this place, nor can they give any impression of the sensations that you feel, all over your body, when standing right next to the Devil's Throat.
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| The Iguaçu Falls in Brazil |
In Brazil, a bus takes to you a drop off point, where a walkway along the river provides a good opportunity to see the distinctive step like topography, where the thick flows of basalt have been eroded away.
Another walkway takes you down into the gorge, where the air is full of water spray, and from here you get a real feel for the scale and power of the place - I didn't even notice the soaking that I got.
With my trip to Paraguay being mainly city based, apart from the hummingbirds that I saw in gardens everywhere and the mango trees in the streets, I only had a chance to take a close look at the fauna and flora at the zoo and botanical gardens in Asunción. Here, I was extremely surprised to see a great flock of swifts - flying in and out of the waterfalls - and, on the bus back to the visitor centre, I saw a flash of colour on a toucan as it sped by.
Having had my passport stamped many times in the day, my return to Paraguay coincided with an extended passport check. Nothing was said by the driver, but I suspect that a bit of bribery and corruption might have been involved and, with Ciudad del Este not being considered the safest place to explore at night, we were very happy to retire to our hotel for the night.
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| Scott and Sara in Brazil |
