My companions and I clamber out of a cramped minibus and follow our guide down a steep narrow path towards a platform where a small crowd is gathered.
It is muggy: hot and steamy, and beads of perspiration form on my brow. The sky is overcast, the heat oppressive. As we climb down, I can detect the faint sound of what I think is rain, and as we descend it grows louder and louder. Suddenly, the path opens out and I gasp at the sight of hundreds of waterfalls, shaped in a crescent opposite us, some 3 kms away. I turn my head to look over my right shoulder, where the line of falls begins, and slowly move my eyes from right to left, until I am straining to look over my left shoulder to see the last fall in the line. Such is the expanse of cascades before me.
Iguacu Falls is far and away the most beautiful place I have seen on our planet. Words like awesome do not begin to do justice to the natural beauty and power of over 200 falls, over which 1800 cubic metres rush every second.
Several islands lie along the 2.7 kilometre length, creating a mini archipelago below us. It feels like standing at the boundary of a Jurassic earth, only without the dinosaurs and instead, iguana, toucans, and enormous spiders.
There is so much to do here that I wonder if two days is long enough. Exhilarating helicopter rides above, drenching jet boat trips below, lower and upper trails to hike, with local guides or alone: after two days I have gasped and marveled so much that I have sworn to return for more.
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