Iguazú Falls

Saturday 14th May 1988

We laid in bed for a bit and got the 10:00 hrs. bus to the Cataratas. This cost ₳13 Australes for a return ticket and ₳7 Australes for entrance to the national park. We met Hugo, another Swiss guy, on the bus. The bus stopped outside the exclusive hotel by the falls and we got our first sight of the waterfalls from what looked like a lighthouse on it’s plush lawns.

Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls (Guarani: Chororõ Yguasu, Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú; Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná.

Together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the world. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the heart of the city of Curitiba. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil; however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the border between Argentina and Brazil.

The name Iguazú comes from the Guarani or Tupi words "y", meaning "water", and "ûasú ", meaning "big". Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to record the existence of the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541.

We had coffee by the two sisters, two waterfalls which on their own would attract tourists in Europe but here were only a minor side show. We got an overall view of the massive line of waterfalls which spanned the Iguazú river. Rainbows appeared and disappeared in the spray around the bottom and our cameras worked overtime.

The staircase character of the falls consists of a two-step waterfall formed by three layers of basalt. The steps are 35 and 40 metres (115 and 131 feet) in height. The columnar basalt rock sequences are part of the 1,000-metre-thick (3,300 ft) Serra Geral Formation within the Paleozoic-Mesozoic Paraná Basin. The tops of these sequences are characterized by 8–10 metres (26–33 feet) of highly resistant vesicular basalt and the contact between these layers controls the shape of the falls. Headwater erosion rates are estimated at 1.4–2.1 cm/year (0.55–0.83 inches/year).

Numerous islands along the 2.7-kilometre-long (1.7 mi) edge divide the falls into many separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 60 and 82 metres (197 and 269 feet) high. The number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the water level. About half of the river's flow falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo in Spanish or Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese).

The Devil's Throat canyon is 80–90 metres (260–300 feet) wide and 70–80 m (230–260 feet) deep. Left of this canyon, another part of the river forms 160–200 individual falls, which merge into a single front during flood stage. The largest falls are named San Martín, Adam and Eva, Penoni, and Bergano.

About 900 metres (2,950 feet) of the 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles) length does not have water flowing over it. The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains into the Paraná River, a short distance downstream from the Itaipu Dam. The junction of the water flows marks the border between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Some points in the cities of Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, have access to the Iguazu River, where the borders of all three nations may be seen, a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the three cities.

We took a boat across to the beach on San Martin Island for ₳9 Australes and ascended to get closer to the roaring falls on the spray showered south side. We also got a distant view of the turbulent horseshoe of the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo).

Next, we walked along walkways along the top of the falls disturbing basking lizards and being swooped upon by multicoloured butterflies which would settle on your hand. A wealth of photographs later we stopped for a liquid lunch of white wine and then took the bus to Puerto Canoas (inclusive ticket).

From here a walkway led out to the Devil’s Throat. Spray obscured the bottom of this U-shaped turmoil of churning brown water. An awesome, powerful, roaring cascade. Cameras clicked and groups posed all around us. Sightseeing helicopters chuntered about above us.

We returned to the town and Hugo booked into Residential Arco Iris where we were staying. I was starving so I nipped into town and returned with a tin of corned beef (only ₳3.5 Australes) and a loaf of bread for a snack.

We ate dinner later, a handsome steak dinner with red wine in a nice parrilla. A parrilla is a simple iron grill barbecue and they’re everywhere. Now that spring has sprung in Argentina, you can literally smell the chargrilled chorizo smoke rising from the terraces, whether from local restaurants or home-cooked asados.

After a hearty meal we drank coffee and watched Tom and Jerry cartoons on the television. I stopped for a Pepsi Cola on the way back home, at a kiosk where the owner was fiddling with a dodgy radio to try and get a sensible volume of sound between really loud and distorted or off.