Nature´s awesome power, dude

Trip Start Aug 16, 2005

Trip End Apr 14, 2006

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Flag of Brazil Iguassu Falls, Brazil
Tuesday, September 27, 2005

We arrived in Iguassu looking forward to 2 days of waterfall action. We got to the hotel at 9am and had the option of going to see the world´s largest hydro-electric project, the 5 mile long Itaipu dam, at 9.30. How could we resist! We stuffed as much breakfast down our necks as quickly as possible and joined the others on the minibus. At the visitor´s centre we were ushered into a foyer where a tourist video bigging up the dam was being shown. They clearly love to show off about it and at the end of the film the assembled crowd clapped and cheered with delight...hmmm...we half suspected that there might a live music concert coming up, such was the palpable excitment. However we were hearded onto one of the coaches (there were 15 in all) and drove off to a viewing platform. Along the way we were pumped full of information about the glorious structure. Did you know that during the construction they built the equivalent of a 20 storey building every 55 minutes? Yep! and they used enough steel to make 380 Eiffel Towers? Mon Dieu! and it supplies 25% of the power to Brazil and 90% of Paraguays power... That´s a lot of saved carbon dioxide emissions, but on the other hand it comes with all the social problems and environmental damage that the huge flooded area (170 km long and containing 29 billion tons of water) behind the dam causes.

At the viewing platform we could see the dam in all its grey drab concrete glory. Why did they have to make it so ugly?! We then got driven over the top of the dam and back to the visitor´s centre.

Angie sees eye to eye

That was it. No getting up close to the 10m wide turbines that the water flows down, or seeing the huge overspill chutes in action. It was all a bit disappointing. and ugly. Statistics are impressive though I´m sure you´ll agree.

Then it was on to the main event - Iguassu Falls. These are a series of 275 waterfalls that straddle the border between Brazil and Argentina over a 3km stretch. They are wider than Victoria Falls and higher than Niagra. On the first day we visited the Brazilian side which give you a great overview of the falls. We walked along a path through the forest and at numerous viewing points got to watch the spectacle on the other side of the river gorge. There were loads of butterflies in the area that are quite happy to come and feed off salty skin for 5 minutes or so (their long tubular tongues were too tickly for Darren to cope with!). At the end of the the trail you can go out along a catwalk onto a plateau between the upper and lower falls, and get completely soaked. We were pretty impressed with our first day there, but much bigger and better was still to come.

On the second day we crossed the border into Argentina (getting a glimpse of 3 countries at once on the border bridge - Paraguay was visible down the river) and saw the falls from a totally different viewpoint. This time we were actually in amongst then, ontop of them, beneath them and they were truly spectacular. Infact we spent a good deal of the day saying ´this is awesome, dude´ in our best (or worst?) Ozzie/American accents.

We took a powerboat trip 6k up the river through some scary rapids and then right into the frothing churning heart of one of the falls which was exhilarating to say the least.

Augusto with friend

You might as well have had a bucket of water poured over your head, you get that wet. Then the captain says to everyone, ´do you wanna go in again?´. ´Yeaaahhh!´ scream the tourists.

The culmination of the falls is ´Devil´s Throat´ which by the time we reached it in the afternoon of the second day had acquired mythical status. It certainly earnt it! It is a semi-circular bowl hundreds of metres wide at the head of the falls, where unfathomable amounts of water plunge into the abyss and throw up huge clouds of misty spray (that can be seen over the treetops from the other end of the falls) that refract giant rainbows across the scene. Darting in and out of the spray are swifts that seem to risk their lives every time they dive for an insect. And the deafening roar of the water is ever constant. The whole thing is mesmerising - until the wind blows a big plume of mist across the viewing platform and gives everyone a nice cold shower!

We visited on 2 beautiful sunny days and Iguassu Falls were so perfect that they seemed like a computer generated vision of paradise. The foaming white water, surrounded on all sides by dark green forest, with birds of prey circling overhead. But it´s pretty hard to describe the falls in words - go and look at the pick of our pictures and videos (Angie insisted on taking over 100!)

Oh yes, one slightly unsettling thing was that parallel to the mile long catwalk that takes you out onto the brim of Devil´s Throat they have left the remains of the previous catwalk that was all but washed away in heavy floods of 1992, complete with information plaques!.

Coatis

Here you can get some idea of the tremendous force of water that was able to uproot giant concete pillars and twist metal like it was toffee.

We also visited a bird park and had close encounters with lots of different types of
tweeters. The macaws had a huge aviary which you can walk right inside and try to avoid their droppings as they swoop about. There´s a sign at the entrance saying ´enter at your own risk´! But it was the toucans that enchanted us most. They are much less squawky and flappy than the macaws and one even let us stroke his feathery head. Their big beaks are amazing - with subtle patterns that look like they have been painted on - and despite the size are actually very light and spongy which makes the toucans back heavy and hence clumsy flyers. Aaaah, bless!

Other wildlife spotting included loads of coatis (the racoon like animal that we had a brief encounter with in the rain forest near Rio) which actually took on the role of seagull scavengers and weren´t at all wild (we saw one jump up and nick someone´s burger from a table) and some pretty large iguanas - again which sadly seemed to be scavenging around the picnic areas.

A quick word about costs in Brazil - prices are generally about a third to half of that in the UK with some notable exceptions: chips are really pricey, a portion costs anything up to 3-4 quid (we can no longer say cheap as chips) and Red Bull, which is 2.50 a can in the shops!