View larger map and furrther details
The river Iguaçu (Portuguese) or Iguazú (Spanish) is a tributary of the much larger river Paraná. The confluence is just a few km downstream of the waterfalls on the Iguaçu and of Itaipu dam on the Paraná, at the triple boundary of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Both the Brazilian and Argentine sides are national parks, with tourist access by bus from the towns of Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) and Puerto Iguazú (Argentina). There is also a cross-border bus service linking the two towns.
The river goes round a wide bend and is almost 4km wide above the falls. Below the falls, the river flows in a narrow gorge formed by erosion of a geological fault. At the tip of the fault line is a long horseshoe shaped fall (Garganta do Diabo/del Diablo) in the middle of the river, taking most of the water of the Iguaçu. The remaining water drops off the southern (Argentine) side of the gorge in a straight line of cascades crossing an intermediate plateau known as Isla San Martin.
These pictures show various sections of the straight line of waterfalls which take the excess water that bypasses the main fall into the fault line.
The first glimpse of the narrow trench of Garganto do Diabo at the tip of the geological fault.
Isla San Martin. The island is surrounded on two sides by the river branch that forms the intermediate plateau, and on the other two sides by the trench that comes from Garganto do Diabo and by the branch that falls off the linear section, respectively.
Looking along the whole length of the straight section of the falls.
This closeup shows the crumbly rock inside the fault. ->
At the entrance to the Garganto do Diabo trench, looking upstream. The fall in the foreground is the edge of the upper level on the Brazilian side, curving around into the trench in the centre. The opposite side of the trench can be seen in the distance.
These pictures are taken from the river walkway on the intermediate level on the Brazilian side, whose tip is just at the downstream entrance to the Garganto do Diabo trench. It's wet and windy down here: the masses of fast flowing, turbulent water trap a lot of air.
This is not a wide angle shot; the fall really has this convex shape.
<- Looking down from the platform at the end of the walkway. This is a section from a nearly 360o rainbow, indicating that the observer was placed almost exactly on axis with the light source. In southern Brazil, the midwinter Sun gets as high up in the sky at noon as it does in mid summer in Wales...
A rare opportunity to picture a double rainbow.
These pictures are taken from various heights on the observation tower...
...including this sideways shot 'along the curtain'. ->
These pictures from the top of the observation tower probably give the best impression of the topography. The fall in the foreground is the short section of straight waterfall onto the intermediate plateau on the Brazilian side (where the walkway is), then follows the Garganto do Diabo trench, curving towards the left background. The opposite side of the trench fills the middle ground across the picture.
This row of pictures shows the deceptively calm, wide river just above the waterfall. I imagine the horror of an explorer who, coming round the river bend, discovered the falls...and never lived to tell...
Hotel das Cataratas, the posh hotel inside the Park.
There were loads of different kinds of butterflies (even more so on the Argentine side) and other wildlife including egrets, eagles, cormorants and quatis. Unfortunately I didn't get decent pictures of any of them.
The remaining shots are random plant life pictures along the National Park road. It's not allowed to walk by yourself into any of the forest trails, and there wasn't enough time till sunset to go on a guided tour (which seem a bit overpriced anyway!), so a walk along the road seemed the second best option.
Ant hill.
