You can get Very, Very Wet at Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls, on the border between Argentina and Brazil, is one of the world’s three great waterfalls. While it is shorter than Victoria Falls and has far less water flowing over it than Niagara Falls, its multitude of separate drops stretch for over 2.7 km, almost the width of the other two put together.

We had spent the last couple of nights in Buenos Aires and so our first view of the falls was from the Argentinian side. It was a sunny day and as we approached, we could see billows of white “smoke” above the green vegetation, together with the roaring sound of the falls. As we got nearer, the noise grew, and the “smoke” became the fine mist created by the water as it poured over the edge of the waterfalls and plummeted to the depths below.

There was a viewing platform that sat close to the falls and a bit above the level of the river. From it we could see the bright blue of the sky with its banks of cumulus clouds above the green of the forest, through which the dull blue-green of the river flowed towards us, before pouring over the dark rocks to create the great white sheets of water that made up the waterfalls. It was spectacular.

Several of us decided to take one of the helicopter flights over the falls. Aircraft are one place where being VI can be a pain. Because the pilot wasn’t sure how well I could see, I got stuck in the middle between people who’d be better able to locate door handles, etc, if we got into difficulty. It was a shame, as I couldn’t get as good a view or take all the photos I wanted. I’ve had the same on a commercial aircraft, being asked to change seats and hence losing a lot of extra leg room: I understand the logic but that doesn’t stop it feeling frustrating.

The view from the air was impressive. Only from up there could you really appreciate the full scale of the falls, being able to look down on the entire width of the river. It was a vast array of different waterfalls, wide cascading sheets of white with the “smoke” rising from their feet, separated by rocky outcrops and islands. Cutting through these, there were often smaller, more life size, falls, sometimes dropping onto ledges and re-appearing somewhere else, starting the process that might one day turn them into one of the mighty white cascades.

We spent the night in Iguazu, and the next day crossed into Brazil to see the falls from that side. It was an overcast day, so the water didn’t look the bright white of the day before, but it was certainly wetter.

The Brazilian platforms had been built along the front of the waterfalls, about halfway down and much closer than on the Argentine side. You could walk out along the face of the plummeting water and along the side of some of the drops: you felt like you could almost reach out and stick your hand in the cascading sheets. There was no reason to do so though; the amount of spray in the air meant that you were going to get wet anyway. And then there was also the noise, the thunder of the cascading water surrounding you just like the spray. Some people wore plastic raincoats, trying to keep dry, but without much success. It wasn’t worth worrying about as it was a warm enough day, so you would dry off soon enough afterwards.

After lunch we went on a boat trip along a section of the lower river. We were all issued with life jackets before we climbed down into the boat. This was a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat), a solid hull with sides made of extremely large air-filled tubing: basically, an over-sized in-shore rescue boat with seating and a very large engine.

We ran along the river, with the forest close to the water on either side. The sky had brightened a little from this morning and the river now took on a dull blue colour, broken occasionally by patches of white as submerged rocks came close to the surface. We could hear the approaching noise and then turned the corner to see two waterfalls, pouring over the edge either side of a forested island.

The boat moved in closer to one of the falls, giving us an amazing view of the water cascading over the rocky edge far above to plummet down to hit the river, surrounding us with spray and noise. Then the spray became drizzle, then torrential rain and finally something more akin to someone standing on your roof with a very large hosepipe, turned full on. You could feel the weight of the water thumping against your head and shoulders: we were in the heart of the waterfall itself!

The boat pulled out of the torrent and we drove around a bit, really appreciating now the force of the cascading water: and these were only dinky waterfalls, nothing in comparison to the massive white, thundering sheets that form the main parts of Iguazu Falls. I understood now why we had needed the extra buoyancy of a RIB, a normal boat would not have been happy in those conditions. Instinctively, I had started taking pictures as we first entered the water, though that had soon become impossible as we went in deeper, but all I have is a series of images of swirling shades of whites and greys. Photos could never have captured the thunder and force of the falling water anyway. That is what memories are for.

We then headed back towards the landing stage, sodden wet but I think all happy for having had that amazing, and unexpected, experience.