Iguazu Falls
It’s one of those places somewhere in South America that most people have at least heard of and know a little about: Iguazu Falls. Similar to how a majority of people around the world know the Grand Canyon is a giant canyon somewhere in the American West, Iguazu Falls is a massive water fall somewhere in South America.
But once you go, at least for me, these places become so much more than a giant hole or a lot of running water. Spending time in the green jungles of northern Argentina and seeing the million gallons of water rushing over a bunch of rocks was so much different than I ever thought prior to experiencing Iguazu Falls.
Us at the entrance.
The UNESCO World Heritage park is located in Brazil and Argentina. We visited from the Argentina side.
What surprised me the most was how many layers of water falls there were.
Waterfalls fan out over 2.71 kilometers/ 1.67 miles and comprise of approximately 275 falls.
Currently Iguazu has the greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world. In the peak flow, it has a surface area of about 40Ha (1.3 million ft sq) compared to Niagara Falls, which has a surface area under 18.3 Ha (600,000 ft sq).
A view point of the lower falls.
Directly in the middle of this photo is San Martin Island where you can take a boat ride to. Tip: The island isn’t open every day and only the first 500 people are allowed to get a ticket, so if your there and the island is open, go there!
View from the boat, which the boat transfer is included in the price of your ticket.
Andre Reboucas, an engineer started a campaign for the preservation of this pristine environment for future generations in 1876, when Yellow Stone National Park, the first national park in the world was just four years old.
Iguaza Falls was the first proposal for a national park in Brazil.
Upon seeing the falls for the first time, it is reported that Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Poor Niagara.”
View from the upper falls.
The park service built these walkways over the river leading to the upper falls.
Lots of people could move about on the walk ways.
I had no idea these walkways would lead us so close to the falls.
The roaring falls just got louder and louder as we walked towards the giant cliffs.
This aerial view is by photographer Claudio Elias. On the right hand side, the line you see at the upper falls, that’s the boardwalk! What!?!?
Look at that! We were right on the edge. It was incredible.
You can see how shiny our skin is glistening in the sun. We got so wet standing there.
Spray would burst up and obscure the view of the falls.
We walked back from the upper falls.
Included in the price of the entrance ticket, visitors could ride a small train to the upper falls.
But there were so many cool things to take photos of we had to walk every chance we got.
We saw a lot of rainbows.
Iguazu Falls National Park was like its own special pot of gold.
There was such diverseness with the trickles of falls compared to the raging waterfalls.
Neat rock formations shaped over the ages.
The colors were so lush I felt like I was living in the animation movie Rio.
We kept staring at the falls.
These mighty falls just keep on roaring.
The conservation of these falls begins so far upstream. When the falls were running very brown it was a result of deforestation upstream, which then lead to erosion, which led to the river carrying way more sediment than it would have normally. So many factors include the health of a river and how much water is running over those cliffs.
Let’s hope the Iguazu Falls continue to flow for many years to come.
* * *
If you go:
Everyone knows where Iguazu Falls is and finding transportation there is not hard. There are plenty of buses going to and from, just make sure you don’t cut yourself short on time, say for example you’re leaving Iguazu back to Buenos Aires to catch a flight. All the buses pretty much go on one main route and if there is an accident or road damage, you (and everyone else) will be waiting until you can get through. It was $1280 ARS for both of us to Puerto Iguazu from Buenos Aires.
We stayed at Camping Maristo, 175 Maristo Street (walking distance from bus station). It’s a place you can sleep. Here’s the deal, after our second night of staying there and deciding it wasn’t worth our time to move, Chris and I both started to talk at the same time: Can you think of any immediate family member we have who would even consider staying in this place? Without hesitation our response: No.
We concluded that if most of our family had to choose between staying in this dirty campground or taking their chances with a zombie apocalypse, they would choose to take their chances with the zombies.
An older lady runs the campground, who deep down, is nice and probably a little lonely. She loves to say NO! and has rules with giant NO! signs all over the campground. We stayed four or five nights there, and it was a place to sleep, but it was not the cleanest campground we’ve ever stayed at.
There’s plenty of places to eat, sleep and shop in Iguazu and you can find decent internet in town. We really enjoyed:
Jack Bucks Coffee and Friends
235 Missiones St., www.facebook.com/jackbucks, three dudes formed together to run this place and it’s cool, funky, has great wifi and great coffee.
El Mariachi Loco
257 Missiones, great Mexican food, but salads were not their thing.
Park entrance: $170 ARS pp. Get your ticket validated before you leave the park that day, and the your second day visiting the entrance is half price. Most people go two days to comfortably see everything in the park. We went three days, but on the third day you have to pay full price again.
A regular bus runs back and forth from Iguazu town and to the park about every thirty minutes: $35 ARS pp.
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An UNREAL waterfall and river system! Was never aware of the full scope of this area until your article. Very nice!
Thanks! Yeah, I had no idea how extensive Iguazu Falls was prior to going. It just blew me away, hence why we went three days! There is so much to see in that park!
wow, this is totally awesome!! Great story-telling, I get to live vicariously through you! Great pics! I love it!!!
Thanks, well I live vicariously through your wood working too. So many amazing things to see in the world and Iguazu is one of them.
Holy cow! This is astonishing, it is a freak of a lot bigger than Niagara! I had no idea! Ignorant N.American thinks we got the biggest….great photos! Love it!!
Well, there’s always so much to learn. That’s why we love traveling so much. As far as tallest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, Angel Falls is the winner. Niagara Falls are the most powerful falls in North America and are also awesome to see – although everyone says the Canadian side is better! 😉
Spectacular falls. I think you could just spend hours and hours collecting the energy and beauty from the falls. Best waterfalls I have ever seen. Lucky duckies you guys got to see it in person!
We are lucky ducks. Iguazu Falls National Park was so well set up and managed. We were really impressed not just by the falls, but also by how good a job the park service did with the planning and implementation allowing thousands of visitors to come to the park in a controlled manner. From staying in town, to the bus transfer, the park and the falls, everything was so enjoyable and easy.We are so thankful we got to go!
Such a beautiful natural wonder and positive article! Your photos are such a help for me to comprehend the size of this fantastic waterfall. I did not enjoy that the brown color to the water was caused by run off from deforestation. Hopefully there are conservation efforts that will engage the complete river system and not just Iguazu Falls.
Thanks Suzanne. There has been some increased conservation upstream, so there is at least a growing awareness of how much life in the jungle (and everywhere) is so interconnected. So glad you enjoyed this post, as we too had no idea about the magnitude of Iguazu Falls.