Waterfalls. Nice and all, but not usually anything to write home about in my experience, apart from Niagara. Well, Iguazu Falls pretty much blew Niagara out of the water, so to speak. There are 275 separate `cataratas´ and the effect is just amazing, with walls of water plunging hundreds of feet into the river, surrounded on all sides by rainforest. The river runs along the border between Brazil and Argentina, and you can see the falls from both sides. In the Brazilian park, I was blown away by my first sight of the waterfalls, and then as I continued on the path, I realised that what I´d seen was just one part of the whole. The parks are really well maintained (and should be after extracting a hefty entrance fee) and you can get up close to the torrents on catwalks and overlooks, where you end up soaked to the skin by the fierce spray. There are loads of racoon-like creatures hanging around scavenging for food, which are actually quite sweet. From the Brazilian side, you see a good panorama of the falls, but on the Argentinian side, you can cross the Rio Iguacu itself and see the Garganta del Diablo (throat of the devil) section of the falls, and stand over the gushing water with rainbows appearing in the spray and the thunder of the crashing water in your ears. It was strange crossing the border into Argentina and suddenly being able to understand some of what was being said in Spanish, then going back into Brazil on the same public buses and not understanding anything again. I will never look at waterfalls in the same way again!