A couple of hours flight from Rio, on the Paraguay / Brazil / Argentinian border are the Iguazu Falls ( I think the other spelling is Portuguese as is spoken in Brazil ). The River Iguazu, which up until this point was minding its own business flowing gently over a plateau in the jungle, suddenly finds a huge hole to fall down. The resulting falls stretch over several kilometres and are absolutely amazing. Apparently Theodore Roosevelt´s missus came to see them and just said " Poor Niagra ! ".
The falls themselves are in a huge jungle National Park. Very well organised for us tourists. Supposedly there are all kinds of wildlife lurking within it, from Pumas to Butterflies. I´m afraid we didn´t spot any Pumas, but this butterfly did decide to alight on my boot.
Talking of flavour, we cruised into the local town ( Puerto Iguazu ) for a spot of tea in the evening. I had a pork chop spectactular, but Athena won hands down with a huge steak ( think large fillet mignon ) for the exorbitant price of $5 US. Me like Argentina !
This spot of video features a bit of the falls just out of shot of the photo above. Might help to give some idea of the scale of this place.
And this clip might help you to appreciate how an innocuous strech of river suddenly drops off the face of the Earth. I couldn´t help thinking about canoeing along the Cherwell in Oxford !
