Iguacu Falls - Brazil/Argentina
Feature by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THINK of a waterfall (make that 275 individual falls), a U-shaped escarpment two-and-a-half miles long and a gorge almost 270 feet deep and you have Iguacu Falls. Situated on the border between Brazil and Argentina, they are generally perceived as the most spectacular in the world – and rightly so.
Although formed by earth’s primordial forces, Indian legend tells a very different story – of the lovers Naipi and Taroba; and the serpent god, Mboi.
Each year, to assuage the fury of Mboi, a virgin was sacrificed to the serpent god. One year, it was the turn of Naipi but on the very day of the sacrifice, she and Taroba decided to escape and took to the Iguacu river in a small boat.
Enraged, Mboi went in pursuit and in frenzied fury whipped the water into a boiling foam before rending the very earth assunder. The water carrying the lovers and their boat plunged into the newly formed abyss; Naipi was turned into a stone at the base of the falls, Taroba into a lonely palm upon the river’s bank – their fate, to face each other through eternity without ever being truly together.
Viewed from the Brazilian side, the falls are stunning; from the Argentine side doubly so. For in Argentina, two narrow walkways, an upper and a lower level, wind unobtrusively through the rainforest, in places passing over rushing tributaries lit by iridescent rainbows and, sometimes even, over the tumbling water itself.
While at the very end of the lower level, a deafening wall of white water turns stunning into awesome. For it’s here that the terrible and incredible power of water is truly felt. It’s also very, very wet!
Not surprisingly, the amount of water cascading into the gorge varies with the time of year. For example, during the dry season between April and October, it decreases dramatically. In fact, it does occasionally dry up completely – as in 1978 and again in 2006. But this is the exception rather than the rule.
But what makes Iguacu so special is its setting – a natural rainforest, now a national park, where you can expect to see coatis foraging in the undergrowth, butterflies swirling like wind-tossed autumn leaves in the hot and humid air, and turtles sunning themselves on glistening flat-topped rocks.
The forest is also home to deer, ocelot, peccary, caiman, jaguar and a wide variety of birds. It’s here that swifts nest in crevices behind the falls and parrots add their raucous cries to the ceaseless sound of water.
There are also reptiles – lizards unlike any you may have seen in Mediterranean countries, and snakes although the only one I saw was on a warning notice (I’m very pleased to say).
Describing Iguacu is like trying to describe the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park for no words can do it justice. And because adjectives run to the superlative, it is easy to misconstrue them as exaggeration. Like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, Iguacu must be seen to be believed.
Therefore, I’ll leave the last word to Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former US President Franklin D Roosevelt, who after seeing Iguacu, remarked: “It makes our Niagara Falls look like a kitchen faucet.”