Iguazú Falls

Well, I'll let you look at the photos of Iguazu Falls. But just before, without flooding you (oh! what a funny wordplay!!) here are some pieces of information ...

We talk about Falls, or more technically cataracts. In Spanish and Portuguese, they are called also "cataratas". And the name of Iguazú comes from the Guarani (local Amerindian language) "big water". So original!

They are beautiful, powerful and impressive waterfalls. It's a lot of water. I do not know who counted the drops, but it seems that there are 6 million liters of water drop in the falls every second.

So, it gives a beautiful collection of 275 waterfalls (90 meters for the highest), nicely spread over a front of nearly two miles. And the little man that I am, accompanied by hundreds of his peers, can move fairly move around, along or above the impressive water curtains, on the Argentinian side one day, on the Brazilian one the next day.

The falls are located on the Río Iguazú, which materializes the border between Brazil and Argentina. The orientation of the reverse J-shaped system gives technically 80% of the falls to Argentina. On both sides, national parks were created to protect this exceptional natural site and are listed as World Heritage by UNESCO since 1984 (Argentina) and 1987 (Brazil). And it is not very far either the Triple Frontier between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

Finally, for those who want comparison, the Niagara Falls on the border between the United States and Canada are spread over a little more than a mile (320m on the U.S. side and 790m on the Canadian side) for 50m high are therefore less important. In contrast, Victoria Falls (between Zambia and Zimbabwe) are higher than Iguazú: about 110 meters, but only 1700 meters wide.

From Iguazú, Henning and I had planned to rally the Uruguayan coast, via the South of Brazil. We spent two days in Porto Alegre at Betsy and Enderson's. Two very friendly CouchSurfers (she is originally from the US and he is Brazilian) in this quiet town with plenty of parks. Then we reached the border on the coast. Large distances, again we failed at hitch-hiking. That said, we were happy to see again the Atlantic Ocean.