Iguazú Falls would have to be on anyone's list of the world's great sites, and a guaranteed stop on a modern, global "grand tour", just like Machu Picchu.
On the first morning we wandered out and took the low circuit. This looped through the jungle south of the falls, mostly on metal-mesh walkways elevated one or two metres and on concrete the rest of the way. This allowed one to walk through the jungle without disturbing any wildlife. One of the unexpected highlights was the great number of butterflies around us during the walk. Quite a few different types, sitting happily on the handrails and bushes so close to us. There were great views along the way, first toward the "Devil's Throat" (Garganta del Dialbo), and then panoramas of the other falls covering much of the long curving cliff face. A lot of photos were taken.
Between these views sits a large rocky outcrop, described as an island but I'm not sure if it technically is. It was obvious that one of the best views would be from the high corner of this island. Hence we decided to walk down all the steps to reach the ferry, and then up all the steps to the top of the island. When we reached the top, Clare felt faint with the heat and effort, and had to sit for a while. I felt quite good that I seemed to be coping well with the exercise. The view was worth it - half the height of the cliff and continually showered with spray from the second-largest waterfall, looking across most of the others.
We climbed back down, re-crossed the ferry, and back up the stairs to rejoin the low circuit. We were most of the way up when I felt faint myself, with heart racing. I took a long rest and climbed the rest of the way very slowly, then took time over rehydration with lunch. I felt quite concerned about my health, and will be taking account of this later.
We spent the remainder of the day around the hotel pool. We were kept amused by half a dozen long-legged locals - a family of birds who wandered freely around the poolside the whole time, mostly ignoring the tourists invading their nice jungle.
On the second day we took the high circuit, across the top of the falls and gratifyingly flat. The views when directly above weren't so amazing - mostly watching water idling along, totally unsuspecting the turmoil about to befall it. The earlier part of the walk, approaching from the side, did offer new perspectives on the wide sweep of falls, covering such a long span. After that we had to catch a narrow-guage train and then walk just over a kilometre along similar walkways, but these were 5 metres above the river upstream of the falls. I say river, but the walkway actually crossed islands separating the water into five different rivers, each the width of a major river in its own right - each as wide as the Thames in Central London.
At the end of this walkway we reached the Devil's Throat itself. So much water coming over the edge in sheets of green, progressively turning to white as order turns to falling chaos. We stayed there for ages, just trying to soak in the experience. We took so many photographs too - a repeat of the futile urge to try capturing in a minature frame something so huge that our live and present perceptions found it impossible to encompass.
Another afternoon by the pool - life is so hard! Whilst floating together we decided to treat ourselves to another night at the hotel. Unfortunately they couldn't offer us a comparable room, so we booked another 5* hotel nearby, justifying this as a relative saving.
On the third day we repeated the low circuit (omitting the near-fatal stairs down to the ferry). It was nice to take a last look at the falls and satisfy ourselves that we'd seen as much as we could. This included a place where the walkway reached out as a high platform, quite close to one of the falls and covered in spray. We spent ages there, soaking in this last part of our stunning experience.
Then we left the falls and national park and drove about half an hour to the next hotel for the last night. We went via Puerto Iguazú, the nearby town. We were not impressed at all - a two-horse town where one horse had left. We were so glad not to be staying there.
The new hotel was quite interesting and divided our opinions. It was right in the middle of the jungle, but whereas the Sheraton Iguazú was in the middle of a large clearing, here the jungle remained right next to the buildings, like a cookie-cutter had been dropped in to make space for the blocks and the pools. We could both see that it was finished to a fine standard, had a good restaurant and pretty good service. Clare really liked the place, but somehow it felt a bit "fake" to me - the design trying too hard, or maybe too much dissonance between the super-clean, modern architecture and the natural surroundings.
We left the Iguazú area the next day well content, having had a truly amazing experience.
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