Argentina, South America
Argentina facts and history in brief
Iguazu Falls, a large horseshoe
shaped cataract carved in the River
Iguazu, which surpasses the Niagara
Falls in Canada/U.S.A. and the Victoria
Falls in Zimbabwe in size, and is
one of the great natural wonders
of South America.
A spectacular series of nearly 300 (The number
varies with the seasons) individual
falls interspersed among rocky islands
along an escarpment of approximately
5 km long, each drop 60 m and more,
at the frontier between Brazil
and Argentina and Paraguay.
There are about
twenty major drops.
Walkways go over and around the falls in the
surrounding lush, semi-tropical
forest with many different rain forest
trees, orchids, bamboo, pine and palms.
A wide variety of birds and
butterflies are found everywhere
in this dense National Park.
The roar of
the falling waters and the mist
and rainbows above the falls can be heard
and seen from miles away.
On the Argentinean side and on the
Brazilian side as well you can walk
on miles long walkways over the
falls which provides a spectacular
view of Garganta do Diablo (Devil's
Throat).
There are
observation towers at the Santa
Maria and the Floriano Falls.
Most of the falls are on Argentinean
side, but they are best viewed from
the Brazilian side.
You can also take a boat tour
or a helicopter ride to see the Falls
up close.
Iguazu in Guarani language
(The local Indian Population) means
big water.
The crest of the falls is more
than 60 m high and the water
falls partly in a large double
drop or in a series of cataracts.
In the dry season two crescents
of water are formed, each 732 m wide; in the wet
season the two merge into
one vast fall nearly 5 km wide.
No words or
photos can do proper justice
to the Iguazu Falls.
The river originates in
the Serra do Mar Mountains and
is joined by many tributaries on its way to
the falls.
It joins the Parana River about
22 km to the southwest and
later receiving the Uruguay River
to form the estuary of the River Plate.
The Iguazu National Park in Argentina
and Iguaçu National Park in Brazil
together protect the Iguazu Falls
and about 2,300 square kilometres of
tropical rainforest around it.
Soon after
our arrival at the Airport we were
accosted by one of the agents (Bayardo
Hornos) of Four Tourist travel and
a very attractive picture of our
sightseeing trip was presented to
us.
We were promised everything
until we paid up.
In reality we ended up very unhappy
and feeling fiddled, cheated and
short-changed.
These sales
people have wide knowledge of various
countries visitors are likely to
come from.
They endear themselves to you by
praising your country and call you
by the nickname of your country,
(Kiwis in our case) also rattling
off numbers of people they dealt
with from your country etc.
Now the promises and the unkept promises.
We were very interested to take the
trip, after all that's what we came for,
and the sales talk and promises
sound very good, but very soon we
got our first disappointment, he would
not accept our Visa (Cost too much
commission and rampant inflation, he
claimed).
As New Zealanders we have to buy
U.S. dollars of which we only
had a limited supply, to last
another 6 weeks.
We were to go on a jungle
safari, a boat ride up to the falls,
(We did get these two and thoroughly
enjoyed it them), then we were
to be transferred to a regular free boat to
go to the island where another
boat would have taken us to the Devil's
Throat.
Arriving at the landing we were
promised a video of our boat trip,
to be delivered to our hotel but
we never received that and we were told
the free boat to the island was not
running, neither did the boat to the
Devil's Throat.
From the landing site now we had
to walk to catch a little
train to take us near the
walkway over the falls.
We got lost, because the
people promised to meet us at
arranged places just weren't there.
Our walk over the falls was
terrific, thoroughly enjoyable.
Next day the continuation of our
tour was just as troublesome.
I desperately wanted to
explore Foz do Iguacu, the Brazilian
Iguazu town, but our driver only give
us a glimpse of it, claiming we had
no time, but we had to spend 5 hours
at the Airport waiting for our plane.
Iguazu town, our Hotel the Los
Helechos (Telefax(03757)4-20338, was
reasonably priced and quiet adequate)
and the spectacle of the falls were terrific.
Please be careful with the choice of your
tour companies, the unkept promises
can be expensive and disappointing.
Iguazu, (Puerto Iguazu) is a small
town 18 km from the
entrance to the park and bears the
name of the river and the famous and
spectacular falls.
Famous for the falls and most
of the inhabitants work
or service the tourist industry.
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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