Arcos and Aves
There are quite a lot of very big waterfalls in the world, and I’ve been making it my business to see quite a lot of them. So far I’ve got three continents worth; probably enough to begin to compare them.
I think I can safely say that Niagara Falls are really rather crap. They’re flat, dull, and you can’t get anywhere close to them without paying a revoltingly large amount of money. One of the main problems may well be that they’re not actually part of a National Park, and the only thing of note around them is the huge street of utterly repulsive tourist tat/waxworks.
So then, Victoria Falls vs. Iguazu Falls. One thing that can be said of the former is that at least there is an agreed spelling convention for the buggers, raather than a mishmash of languages and ways to write exactly the same phonetics. They’ve both got a National Park, with trees and animals, and walks through the jungle, and some really rather impressive rivers which do us the credit of sweeping away a couple of tourists a year.
There’s not much in them, but I think the arcos de iris and aves (rainbows and birds) seal it for Iguazu. It seems that in almost every photo I took there was a rainbow bursting across the bottom of the shot, or a huge cloud of exotic birds teeming across. There were swarms of toucans, green parrokeets and grey budgerigars (they didn’t photograph well, bastards), not to mention the coaties (little animals like anteaters and lemurs crossed).
That’s not to mention the facilities. I am in some doubt about which falls are actually superior, but the ones at Iguazu are much better presented. You can get to whichever level you feel like, peer right over the edge, or even just follow the very good sign posts to where you want to go. Oh, and cash points. There are three cash points in the Iguazu National Park. Good customer service. Anyway, here’s a picture of the Falls looking stunning for you:
Location, South America | saf | 
September 2, 2009 5:48 pm | 
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