Iguazu Falls is justifiable popular with millions, writes Mark Meredith.
Barely 24 hours after leaving Auckland for Buenos Aires we're standing on a precipitous platform above what has been described as an ocean plunging into an abyss. A large section of the Iguazu River is disappearing into a vast semicircular chasm in a crescendo of noise and misty spray rising 150m into the air.
Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat) is an apt name for the highlight of a visit to the Iguazu Falls, a tumbling, cataclysmic wall of water descending into a vortex of fury beneath my feet.
The lookout platform enables us to get extremely close and peer over the edge of the void. All the way down the canyon, dozens of waterfalls cascade 80m to rocks below, sending up spray that sparkles with rainbows in the late-afternoon sunshine. The spectacle is intoxicating.
Just one day earlier my wife and I were battling traffic on George Bolt Memorial Drive, and now we're face to face with one of the world's most heart-stopping natural wonders: 3km of 275 waterfalls, plummeting at more than 12,000c m per second. There are thousands of other people here too, enthralled.
The first European to reach Iguazu Falls, which straddle Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, was the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541. Jesuit missions were established at Iguazu at the beginning of the 17th century, and they were the inspiration behind Roland Joffe's 1986 Oscar-winning film, The Mission which was filmed here.
Today, the Iguazu River (Great Water) forms the border between Brazil and Argentina and both countries have constituted national parks around the falls, with each park being designated World Heritage Status in the 1980s.
The best way to get the most out of the falls is to access them from both sides of the border, as each adventure is quite different. Brazil offers a more relaxed viewing experience, but Argentina offers close-up thrills, more trails and more crowds.
Puerto Iguazu is the nearest town in Argentina, and Foz do Iguacu the closest in Brazil.
The falls are almost entirely responsible for huge growth in both towns, so there's a great number of accommodation and eating options on both sides of the border.
But — and it's a big but — staying in either town necessitates a bus or taxi ride to the national parks, where access to the falls is open to the public only from 9am to 5pm. If you want to enjoy the magnificence of the falls outside of these hours, in peace, at dawn and dusk, you'll have to splash out on The Belmond Hotel das Cataratas in Brazil or the Sheraton Iguazu Resort & Spa in Argentina. Both are inside the park and a short walk from the waterfalls.
We opt to stay in Puerto Iguazu in Argentina for two nights, catching buses to the national park, and to suck up the cost of the beautiful Belmond Hotel das Cataratas in Brazil for one night.
On the Argentinian side, a light railway with open carriages shuttles the masses from near the park entrance to Garganta del Diablo Station — Devil's Throat Station — above the head of the falls.
At Cataratas Station, the first stop, there is a cafe. We find customers there being harassed by coatis, large, rather cute-looking rodents with long snouts and stripy tails.
They hunt in packs and leap on tables to snitch chips. You have to be alert. They can bite and there are signs telling visitors not to feed them. Cafe staff try to chase them off with a plastic bottle tied to a broom handle. It's a futile task.
Coatis, or hog-nosed coon, are often seen at visitor centres at Iguazu. Photo / Mark Meredith
There's a throng queuing for the last train to the Devil's Throat, which we join, disembarking 10 minutes later at the river's edge above the falls. A walkway winds over the expanse of water for 1km, past islands covered in trees where birds roost. We spy a toucan, its beak glowing orange in the afternoon sun and, below us, an enormous fish hovers stationary in the current.
We drink in the spectacle, marvelling at its power and our good fortune to be here. On the way back, we opt out of the train journey and take a ride back along the Iguazu River in a zodiac rowed sedately by a guide who points out birdlife, caiman and turtles. Here, well away from the falls, the river at sunset is still and peaceful, the extravagant vegetation reflected in the golden water like a mirror. Even the waterfalls are silent.
The next morning, we are back at the park at 10am. It's a weekend, not a cloud in the sky, and the crowds are here in their thousands. We opt for the upper trail first and run into a traffic jam of humanity blocking the narrow pathways at every turn. On this path, the viewpoints run directly above the waterfalls, so the views are uniquely straight down the face of the falls.
We manage to escape the crowds and begin the longer, lower circuit. It's a fascinating walk as you get a greater sense of scale and the force of the water from below. By Bossetti Falls, a beautiful and powerful cataract, we stand right at its base, blasted by spray, surrounded by selfie sticks.
The next day a taxi takes us to the border crossing into Brazil and the visa process is swift and straightforward.
We check in at the pink, colonial-style Belmond Hotel das Cataratas that overlooks the falls.
After the park has closed to the general public, we begin our exclusive exploration along the path above the lower river through subtropical rainforest: butterflies flit, birds flock in trees, insects and cicadas sing against a backdrop of rumbling thunder coming from the waterfalls. We are in an incredibly rich area of biodiversity: some 2000 plant species, 400 species of birds and about 80 mammals. It's immediately apparent it's worth the cost to have this marvellous place to ourselves.
At the end of the pathway we reach one of the most photographed walkways and viewing platforms in either park, sitting at the base of a broad and mighty cataract called Floriano Falls.
Through the misty spray, over water running around boulders covered in tufts of green grass like bad haircuts, we reach the lookout. It hangs above the edge of a cliff.
The Santa Maria Falls plunge beneath us to the churning river. Looking up the canyon to our left, past thundering cascades on both sides, is the vortex of the Devil's Throat, almost hidden behind a wall of spray. The noise here is intense, the view breathtaking and we get very wet.
At the base of Floriano Falls a series of three viewing platforms has been built on different levels. The lower two get us right up close to the edge, so close that behind the curtain of water we can make out great dusky swifts resting on the cliff face. At dawn, we see swarms of these birds swoop after insects, diving between torrents of water.
We take a lift with a glass window up to the third level, high above Floriano Falls, affording spectacular views over the canyon and the Devil's Throat. At dusk the sky turns purple and pink, and the face of the falls is tinged with colour. The park is quiet, empty of people, the cicadas are asleep, but the thunder never ceases.
FACT BOX
GETTING THERE Air New Zealand flies direct from Auckland to Buenos Aires with one-way Economy Class fares from $819.
DETAILS The spelling of the falls depends on which country you are in: in Argentina it's Iguazú Falls, in Brazil it's Iguaçu Falls. Either way, you'll need at least two days to see both properly.
Flying time from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazú, the nearest town, is 1hr 50m. If you are in Brazil, Foz do Iguaçu is 1hr 40m by air from São Paolo.
