Iguazu Falls 10-13 October

Or: the park where they grow rainbows

National Parque de Iguazu is 67,000 hectares, surrounding the 275 cascades that stretch 2 ½ kilometres, delivering up to 12,750 cubic metres of water per second into the foaming river below. This park grows a lot of bromeliads, a lot of butterflies and a lot of rainbows.

The best thing, watching the water tumbling over the falls, being equally deafened and soaked by the spray that must be so heavy and so light at the same time, was the knowledge that it was not here for our benefit.

The extensive tours, fenced catwalks around the forest and over the rivers, visitor centre and overprices snacks suggests that this is just a huge theme park. That at night, the falls get switched off so’s not to waste water, the coatis take off their costumes and are the little people inside go home to their families, and the butterflies get put away in a box ready for tomorrow.

But this amazing thing has been here since before it opened to visitors in 1934, before it was ‘discovered’ by goodness knows what bullying colonial invader. Before even the Guarani people came to settle in this area on the search for their heaven, the ‘land without evil’. I wish I could see the time-lapse footage of how this area developed: the combination of tectonic activity or glacier movement or wind erosion, or....my geography isn’t good enough.... that caused so many rivers to come together in this one place, and drop into this canyon in this way.

Apparently Eleanor Roosevelt’s words, on seeing the falls, were “poor Niagra”. I haven’t seen it, but I won’t be upset if I don’t, know. Yep, this is bigger!

You can visit the falls from the Brazilian and Argentinean sides. Brazil is good for an first overview, then Argentina for the spectacularclose-ups.

We stayed on the Brazil side for the sunset – which in itself wasn’t the best I’d seen, but we stood and watched as the swifts came home to roost behind the water, first congregating in the air, and showing off their acrobatic skills flying so close to the gushing torrent that would dash them to pieces in an instant. First 50, then 100, then soon thousands.

I’ve said ciao to Brazil and Hola to Argentina! And am not enjoying reliving the same complete ineptness at the language that I experience in Sao Paulo a month ago. I borrowed a French girl to help me buy my bus ticket to Buenos Aires, and have been shamefully conducting even the simplest transactions in combinations of English and pointing. It didn’t help that half way across the border I ended up trying to converse with the border guard in German (Portuguese words kept creeping into my consciousness instead of German ones. Dammit). So I’m now COMPLETELY confused.

Luckily the falls themselves are tourist-tastic, with signs in English and English speaking guides, and on the Argentinean side I spent the day by myself, dodging in between the large groups on the narrow catwalks to take the photos, and occasionally stopping to just wonder at the vastness of it all when I found a quiet spot. Irritatingly my camera battery ran out just before the best bit, but it was never going to do it justice anyway...

A quick nip to the triple border (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) for last wave at Brazil, and it’s time to move down to Buenos Aires where I’m very excited about Spanish lessons and tango!