Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls are the largest in the world in terms of volume of water. We had planned to miss out this natural wonder, which is so popular on the backpacker circuit, as it is miles from anywhere we were visiting - on the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. However, when we heard my friend Eileen had just got a job in Paraguay we decided to fit it in, travel 22 hours on a bus from Rio to Iguazu and then on into Paraguay. We are very glad we did. Although it's a bit of a hassle border hopping over two days, it was definitely worth it. The jury is out on whether the falls look better from the Brazilian side or the Argentinian side, so we chose to visit both.

The location is spectacular as the waterfalls are in the middle of a national forest. Brazil and Argentina have built good walkways and viewing platforms to get pretty close to the falls without feeling like you are in a theme park. The scale of the waterfalls is incredible - lots of powerful, dramatic falls stretching about a mile wide and a really mighty, horseshoe one called the Devil's Throat.

Our first look at the falls from the Brazilian side was rather underwhelming. We had heard that the water levels were low and actually thought that this might be as good as it was going to get.

However, we rounded a corner and saw this viewing platform facing the full force of the Devil's Throat part of the falls.

The Brazilian side is the best place to get an idea of the breadth of the waterfalls.

The spider was enjoying the view too.

There's plenty of wildlife in the forests around the waterfalls. We saw beautiful birds and a lots of these raccoon-type creatures. Here, the ring-tailed schnafflers are scavenging for food by the cafe on the Brazilian side.They were not impressed by Simon's offer of a dry leaf and chose to shuffle off indignantly. At one point we counted 30 of the creatures crossing the path just in front of us in a pack.

A picture from the Argentinian side which was more fun to explore, with its winding paths to secondary waterfalls like the ones above, its varied viewpoints and a short boat to an island.

Pretty rainbows in the mist when the sun came out.

The highlight of the visit was crossing raised walkways of half a mile to this raised viewing platform on the Argentinian side, right next to the drop at the Devil's Throat. When the wind blew in our direction we were soaked from the spray. To be so close to such an incredible force of water is something we'll never forget.

Iguazu Falls is a place where we felt truly awed by nature and the power of water.