If you mention the name “Iguazu” (pronounced “ee-gwa-soo”) to most people outside South America, it’s likely you won’t get much more than a blank stare in return. For those who actually live on this amazing continent, however, Iguazu conjures up something completely different.
People from countries like Argentina, Brazil and Chile dream of one day visiting it, in much the same way that North Americans fantasize about taking a trip to the Grand Canyon.
During my past visits to those countries, everyone I met along the way always asked me, “Have you been to Iguazu?” Not once, though, did I ever meet someone who had actually been there.
The reason is that Iguazu is a long way from anywhere, and airfares within South America are very expensive. You won’t find any high-volume discounters or grab-a-seat specials, and if you book very close to departure you can expect to pay some quite ridiculous prices.
For instance, I tried to find a flight from Montevideo, in Uruguay, to Buenos Aires, for the next day, and was quoted a price of US$250 per person. The price might not seem exorbitant until you realise that Buenos Aires is only about 140 miles away. If there wasn’t a big bay in the way (the mouth of the giant Rio de la Plata, or River Plate), it would have been far cheaper to take a cab.
With air travel out of the reach of many South Americans, the transport void has been filled with buses. But lest you think this means old, rickety GMCs that might have had previous lives as yellow school buses, with broken-down seats and chickens running up the aisles, let me assure you that bus travel in this part of world has gone through a magical transformation.
Long-haul buses in southern South America, at least, now resemble something akin to business class on an airplane. There’s space for only about 30 passengers, on two levels, and the giant over-stuffed seats recline to either horizontal (if you pay a small supplement), or to about a 160 degree recline.
You’re supplied with fresh blankets and a pillow, can watch good quality movies (Avatar in Spanish loses very little of its dramatic appeal), and your stewardess (!) is happy to serve you red wine, a hot meal, and an ample tumbler of Johnny Walker as a sedative.
But the best part, at least as far as the budget traveller is concerned, is that you save yourself a night’s accommodation, since many of these buses depart at a time that ensures they arrive at their destination not in the middle of the night, but at a reasonable hour the next morning.
ooOOoo
What this all means for seasoned travellers from overseas, of course, is that Iguazu has an almost mystical allure. It’s off the well-beaten track of supposedly “world famous destinations”, and is therefore certifiably “intrepid”. After all, no one wants to just visit places all their friends have already heard of. Where’s the fun in that?
So on this trip, my first real tourist one to South America, it was right at the top of my list. And since we were already (sort of) nearby, it was an opportunity not to be missed.
I boarded an over-night sleeper bus, and travelled from Asuncion to the town of Foz do Iguaçu, right where Portuguese-speaking Brazil meets the north tip of Argentina and the east end of Paraguay. It’s the point where the Rio Parana (Parana River) combines with the Rio Iguazu, forming a triangular natural border between the three countries.
Finally, to the let the cat out of the bag, it also happens to be where 1746 cubic metres of water (61,660 cubic feet) cascade every second over the edge of the Parana Plateau, creating one of the most spectacular cataratas (“waterfalls” in English, or more correctly “cataracts”) you’ll find anywhere.
It’s almost churlish to make comparisons, but Iguazu is the widest falls on earth, and has an average flow second only to Niagara. It does, however, also hold the world record for the most water volume ever recorded, when during a major flood some 12,800 cubic metres per second (or 700% of normal) deluged the place.
Iguazu also has several advantages that make it a far more interesting natural wonder to visit than Niagara. First and foremost is its setting. There are no towering hotels or tacky souvenir strips at Iguazu. Both the Brazilian and Argentinian governments have ensured their sides of the falls and canyon approaches will remain sub-tropical forests and wetlands.
Like some of the great National Parks in the US, they have even required visitors to park kilometres away at the park entrance, and take mass transit (a train on the Argentine side, and buses on the Brazilian) to the falls themselves.
Second is the actual environment. Iguazu is right at the point where the more temperate regions of southern South America give way to the tropical. It therefore has a wonderful range of warm weather plants, and unique animals (with just as amazing names, like capybara, tapir and toucan).
I especially enjoyed the coatimundi, a curious creature that looks like a raccoon with a much longer snout. The coatis, as they’re called, are utterly unafraid of people, and range over the more wooded areas of both parks, as well as foraging around the several outdoor cafés.
There is also a species of bird with a lifestyle that I would never have believed possible if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. You often see swifts and swallows playing around waterfalls, presumably to catch insects. But at Iguazu there are Great Dusky Swifts (Cypseloides senex), quite large as the name suggests, and they have the seemingly impossible habit of making their nests inside the falls themselves.
When you first see the birds, you think your eyes are playing tricks. But then you notice more and more of them, and you realise they’re not only flying out from behind the cascade; they’re flying right back through the torrent as well.
Iguazu also has a series of walkways that are really unparalleled, at least for something as spectacular as 275 cataracts spread over some 2½ km (1.5 miles). Here the two parks are very different, which makes it almost mandatory that visitors spend two days, one on each side of the falls.
The Brazilian trail works its way along the side of the downstream canyon, and affords views of four different falls faces, giving a wide perspective, as well as some indication of just how much of a drop the water actually takes.
It’s also the side where you can most easily take an outboard-powered inflatable close to the falls themselves. I had never been all that keen on these sorts of “adventure” excursions, but thankfully my friends convinced me. As it turned out, it was one of the most exhilarating (and wet!) things I have ever done in a boat.
The Argentinian walkway, on the other hand, is much more like an estuarine boardwalk, although in this case, instead of using wooden structures, they’ve chosen stout and very secure galvanized sections, set on top of strong reinforced concrete pillars. It’s just as well, since the walkways handle non-stop hordes of people, and also take you right along the edges of some of the major cascades over the plateau.
Here you get wet without even having to roar around in a motorboat, since of course the mist generated by that flinging mass of water rises up to cover you like a gentle spring rain.
And along with mist comes rainbows. It seems that every time you turn a corner, or drop down a set of stairs, you are greeted with another amazing view, framed in twinkling arcs of red, yellow, blue and purple. It’s one of the most magically beautiful settings in nature I am sure I’ve ever seen.
~originally composed in October, 2011~