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Previous: Paraguay
Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet at the confluence of the Paraná river, that forms the eastern border of Paraguay and the Iguazú river that separates Brazil to the north from Argentina to the south.
This photo, taken from the Paraguayan side of the bridge over the Paraná, shows skyscrapers of the Brazilian city Foz do Iguaçu in the distance.
Upon arriving from Asuncíon I crossed the Paraná into Brazil and crossed the Rio Iguazú into Argentina. The last time I was here, I stayed in Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil and visited the Brazilian side of the falls so I decided to stay in Puerto Iguazúto visit the other side of the falls.
With only 30 000 people, Puerto Iguazú is the smallest of the three border towns after Ciudad del Este with 100 000 and booming Foz do Iguaçu with more than 200 000.
It was raining cats and dogs when I got here so I ran across the street to the first hotel I saw, the Residencial Paquita. It turned out to be OK for 10 US$ a night.
Iguazú means "great water" in the language of the Guarani indigenous tribes that occupied this territory and much of Paraguay when the Spaniards arrived. Guarani is recognised as an official language of Paraguay, along with Spanish.
Here, the two km wide Iguazú river falls 82 metres (269 feet) creating 19 major and innumerable minor falls totalling 2.5 km in width. Most of the falls are on the Argentine side but they can best be viewed from the Brazil side. The border goes through the most spectacular one, "The Devil's Throat".It can be seen from a short distance on the Brazil side or directly from the top on the Argentine side.
To get to the Devils Throat you have to take a bus to this terminal where you change to this narrow gauge train that drops you off 2 km from the top of the spectacular falls.
Nobody can imagine the violence of the falls just ahead by looking at this arm of the peaceful Iguazú river.
A modern steel and concrete footpath covers the last 2 km across the lazy, shallow but broad Iguazú.
And it goes on and on...
The heavy rain of the previous day had stopped but dark clouds still filled the sky.
The modern footbridge replaced this old concrete one. I do hope they will remove it to restore the environment.
As we approach we can hear the roar of the falls and finally we get a glimpse of the top.
The Devil's Throat is indeed impressive as you can see on this 180 degree panorama.
There's a lot of action at the top but the bottom is completely hidden by the spray.
Here is another unsuccessful attempt to show the height of the waterfall.
And here is another 180 degree panorama stitched from 10 photos taken vertically to show more height.
Puerto Iguazú's main commercial street is reasonably enough called Avenida Brasil.
I duly got a Brazilian visa and returned to Foz do Iguaçu to catch a comfortable "leito" overnight bus to Florianopolis.
