Iguazu Falls

After a two-hour flight, we landed in Puerto Iguazu, on the Argentine side of the falls.  The falls are located in both Brazil and Argentina and to get the best experience, the falls must be viewed from both countries.  Since we had already stopped in several Brazilian ports on the cruise, we had our visas for Brazil so we could visit both sides.  We were met at the airport by our guide, Giovanni, a Brazilian with an Italian heritage, who took us to the Iguazu Grand Hotel & Spa, a fabulous resort hotel on the edge of town.   Our room was a “Junior Suite”, a very large room that overlooked the hotel gardens. We had a king size bed and a spacious bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and an immense shower with a rainfall shower head.  After getting settled, we met at the lobby bar for refreshments, and then retired to the hotel’s high-end restaurant for a wonderful, if fairly expensive dinner.

The next morning Giovanni met us in the lobby for the short trip to Iguazu National Park.  Once there, we walked about ½ mile to a station where we boarded a small tram which took us to a spot near the falls.  From there we walked on an elevated metal trail over the top of the falls until we reached “Devil’s Throat”, a thundering cataract that filled the air with mist that soon had everyone soaked to the skin.  Since February is mid-summer in South America the weather was quite warm and the spray felt good.  While Devil’s Throat is the main cataract, sending about half of the total river flow over a 270 foot cliff, the complete falls system stretches over 1.7 miles and 275 separate waterfalls.  Argentina has about 80% of the falls, while Brazil has the other 20%.  Comparing Iguazu to other famous falls shows that Iguazu has the second highest fall at 270 feet while Victoria Falls in Africa falls over 320 feet, and Niagara is a third shorter at 165 feet.  Niagara has the highest average water flow at 85,000 cu.ft/s, Iguazu averages 61,000 cu.ft/s and Victoria averages about 38,000 cu.ft/s.  So, any way you look at it, Iguazu is an impressive sight.  After about 5 hours of sightseeing on the Argentine side of the falls, we returned to our hotel for an afternoon at leisure. 

Devil's Throat

Giovanni met us again the next morning for a journey to the Brazilian side of the falls.  Surprisingly, the Brazilian border was only about a quarter mile from our hotel.  Once at the border, Giovanni took our passports and got us processed out of Argentina and into Brazil, a fairly time-consuming process.  From there we stopped at a helipad for a sightseeing flight over the falls.  John joined us for the flight, but Judy, Nancy and Chris stayed behind.  The flight was short, only about 15 minutes, but the views were spectacular, particularly over Devil’s Throat.  Once safely back on the ground, we rejoined the others and entered Iguaçu National Park (notice the spelling difference between Argentina and Brazil).  Our van was able to park very close to the top of the falls, and we took a trail that ended at the base of the falls.  Since 80% of the falls are in Argentina, we had great views from across the canyon on our walk to the bottom.  After viewing the falls from the base and getting wet from the spray again, we took an elevator ride back to the top of the cliff and our van.

Since it was only mid-day, Giovanni took us into the Brazilian city of Foz du Iguaçu for lunch.  The restaurant served a buffet, but unlike a typical buffet, the price was based on the weight of the food on each plate.  It was very good, however, and we ate all we’d paid for.  After lunch, Giovanni suggested a tour of Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River which forms the border between Brazil and Paraguay.  We took that opportunity and, along with Chris and John, traveled to the dam.  Nancy and Judy were more interested in shopping, so Giovanni dropped them off at a large shopping mall in town.  Once at the dam, we hopped aboard a bus with a bilingual guide for the tour.  Itaipu dam is almost 4.5 miles long and over 700 feet high.  The power plant has the second largest installed capacity of hydroelectric power in the world, behind the Three Gorges Dam in China.  Construction began in 1970 and the dam was completed in 1982.  To build the dam, the Paraná River was diverted to allow the riverbed to dry and the dam constructed.  That diversion was closed in 1982 to allow the reservoir to fill.  Engineers estimated that it would take 90 days to fill, but due to heavy rainfall and flooding, the reservoir filled to the spillway gates in only 15 days!!  The reservoir capacity is 24 million acre feet, the surface area is 520 square miles and the reservoir length is 110 miles.  Half of the work force that built the dam was from Paraguay and half from Brazil.  Today the workforce is still evenly divided between citizens of the two countries and the power generation is likewise shared equally.  The power plant provides 90% of the energy needs of Paraguay and almost 20% of that of Brazil.  Once the tour was finished we traveled back to Foz du Iguaçu to rejoin the shoppers.  On the way back to our hotel, we encountered one of the heaviest rainstorms we’ve ever seen, but, safely inside our van, we stayed dry.

The next morning Giovanni escorted us to the airport for our flight back to Buenos Aires.