Iguazu Falls, Argentina

The chance to visit the magnificent Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world, couldn’t be missed. During our 4-day precruise excursion to Iguazu, we experienced the falls from viewpoints above and below and were thoroughly drenched on our boat ride under the falls. We also hiked through the subtropical rainforest and kayaked on the Parana River at La Lorenza Iguazu reserve.

Our first look at the falls was our visit to the iconic Devil’s Throat, a massive horseshoe shaped waterfall. Talk about lucky–the area had just been reopened for viewing that same day. Huge rainfalls in November, 2023 multiplied the falls’ waterflow more than 10-fold, wiping out some of the viewing walkways. So we were among the first to visit Devil’s Throat in more than a year after the walkways were restored. We took a train from the entrance to the park up to Devil’s Throat.

This was the view from our room at the Melia hotel on our first evening.

As evening fell, the capuchin monkeys started scampering around the hotel balconies. We were warned to keep the doors to our balconies closed and locked. The monkeys know how to open unlocked doors and they come in and eat and drink everything in the mini bar. And, our guide warned, you will have to pay for it. I saw one monkey munching a bag of potato chips. Someone didn’t get the message.

The next day we took The Great Adventure, which involved taking a boat out to the falls and snapping some pictures before everyone put all gear into dry bags. Then the captain drove the boat directly into the roiling spray–twice–while the passengers screamed with pleasure and dismay. Great fun! You can see Joel and me in the video on the left at the bottom of the picture. I’m shielding my face most of the time so the pressure from the spray doesn’t dislodge my contact lens.

This picture from above the falls shows one of the Great Adventure boats heading into the falls, giving another group of passengers the chance to say, “We got soaked at Iguazu.” The beautiful rainbow was really there. The mist from the falls creates lots of rainbows.

The power and beauty of the falls goes on for two miles and there are different opinions about where to view them and how. Argentina’s national park gave us an awesome experience.

Iguazu is more than waterfalls. There is a huge rainforest with a diversity of plants and wildlife. Hiking in the rainforest was like walking through another world. At La Lorenzo Iguazu Reserve we visited the home of a family working to create a privately held corridor of green space to protect the rainforest. Mercedes, our host, explained how they were using very small, limited tourism to fund their preservation project. Below, we enjoyed the magnificent view from their home deep in the rainforest. We hiked from there down to the river where our kayaks were waiting for us.