Cataratas de Iguazu

View from the Argentine side (yeah, there were rainbows)

If you live in Argentina, there are a few things you have to do.  You have to eat steak like 9 times a week.  You have to change lanes in the middle of an intersection for no reason whatsoever.  And you have to visit Las Cataratas de Iguazu.  Las Cataratas are actually a set of hundreds of separate smaller waterfalls (the number depends on how high the river is) that crash from the Upper Iguazu into the Lower Iguazu.

Brazil side looking at the Argentine side.

Las Cataracts are situated on the trip-border region between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.  Paraguay kind of got left out of the "vista" sweepstakes, so Anne, Mark and HBomb did not visit it, just the other two ("We don't visit countries just to say that we've been there.")

This was pretty loud.

Our trio first encountered the falls on the Brazil side.  Both Argentina and Brazil have national parks that encompass the falls.  The Argentine side is better developed.  Anne marveled at the infrastructure on the Argentine side, which includes a super slow train that runs on sunshine and children's smiles (or some of equally non-polluting fuel) and takes passengers to the various popular views of the falls as well as the pathways around the falls that offer outstanding views from many different angles, some of them pretty close to the water.  The Brazil side has pretty good paths (still better than what you would find at say, Niagara Falls, NY), but its main claim to fame is the view you get of the "Devil's Throat," which is the high water volume show-stopping bend in the "U-shaped" falls. Mark and HBomb are marveling at the Devil's Throat in the photo above.  The photo below shows the same area, but from the view on the walkway above, provided by the Argentine national park system.

Devil's Throat as viewed from above on the catwalk on the Argentine side.

And since we were there, why not walk out into the spray.  The photo below is of Anne venturing off into the crash zone of the falls at Devil's Throat. (Anne is in the black jacket).

Anne ain't scared.

View from the Brazilian side.

HBomb enjoyed his time at the falls and has actually been having a little trouble letting it go.  The day we got back, he put on his swim floaties and went to the door asking to go to the "waters" and the "rains."  While I appreciate his ambition as well as his recognition of potential danger and instinct to ensure safety first that led him to strap on the floaties, I am at the same time terrified by how inadequate his solution is.

More Argentine views.

According to placards placed around the park, the term Iguazu is from the language of the Indigenous  Guarani people and roughly means "Big Water."  It might not be the most eloquent description, but it definitely tells you what it is.  Big Water indeed.

HBomb liked the "waters".