Iguazu falls

At the meeting point of three exotic countries of the south Americas, there crawls a long, large, and shallow serpentine river in the jungle. As a precipice opens unsuspectingly in its liquid belly, this film of ocean suddenly turns into a violent stream now rushing into a narrow river, a fraction of its size a contortion ago.

As seen from a satellite, this terrible encounter of the infinity with the abyss comes as a gigantic cloud of chaos breaking loose in the calm waters. Its violence, even if confined to a few pixels, rush at you through the sky. It is like a still tornado, a pinned hurricane, a tempest trapped to a rock. This is the Devil's throat, the Garganta do Diabo. This is the closest one can get of seeing a star, of embracing a cyclone. This is nature at the wildest it can get for you to see without killing you.

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-25.694905" lon="-54.437771" zoom="14"> -25.695587, -54.436832 The Garganta do Diabo. </googlemap>

The panorama below is that of another world. It's an eerie, dreamlike, chaotic setting. The photo does not convey any of its spectacular attribute. It looks dark, shadowy and cold. But it really was a soul gripping sight. I don't find the adjectives for it. Thrilling should be one of them.

The Devil's throat seems to deserve its name. It is so incredibly powerful, it rushes tons of water into the void, the sound, the intensity, the speed of it...

There are scores of astoundingly impressive falls, coming in incredible variety of shapes, intensity, character. The place is like an encyclopedia of waterfalls. You can get pretty close from many. All provide unique, breathtaking backgrounds for your pictures, if you are for dramatic effects. In the following gallery, you will have to excuse us of being on virtually all the pictures.

Gallery

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  This is on the Brazilian side,

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  Terrific sight, but you stay far from the falls.

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  (relatively far)

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  Now we pass on the Argentinian side.

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  Here you can almost dive in.

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  The site is noted for precious, beautiful and friendly butterflies (the hand is not ours).

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  The sheer intensity,

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  The beauty,

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  The lack of scale...

See also

• Itaipu, a dam nearby.