The Inland Lighthouse of Iguazu

Blissful Adventurers, the people who recently brought you the exciting Patagonian Production of 'The Lighthouse at the End of The World", now present their latest epic...(cue uplifting music)"... “The Inland Lighthouse of The Iguazu Jungle"...Ta-Da...”

While some people may question the idea of building a lighthouse in the tropical jungle some 300 kilometres from the nearest ocean and 1,000 feet above sea level, the Argentinians maybe onto something here. How many other countries are far-sighted enough to prepare for the extreme effects of global warming?

This remote part of South America sits at a crossroads between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina where multiple watercourses from the Brazilian wetlands converge. The climate is hot and humid and the jungles thick with almost impenetrable vegetation...

The verdant canopy of orchids, bromeliads, vines and palms of all kinds block out the fierce noonday sun and provide cover for animals like the coatimundi..

and perches for numerous exotic birds...

However, this 'jungle' is actually the garden of our current hostelry in the small city of Puerto Iguazu. The real jungle is in the national park on the outskirts of the city where every day thousands of people from all over the globe come to marvel at the World's greatest water spectacle – the Iguazu Falls...

Higher than Niagara and wider than Victoria, the Iguazu Falls are made up of nearly 300 cataracts that cascade over an escarpment some 270 feet high. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited the falls she apparently exclaimed, “Poor Niagara”. The falls are so vast that it takes hours to walk their length and a narrow gauge railway took us to the viewpoint overlooking the biggest – the “Devil's Throat”...

Just as it was impossible to truly convey the majesty of the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia so too the Iguazu Falls...

With hundreds of cataracts seemingly pouring out of the sky and thundering into the valley below all we can do is watch this wonder of nature and say – where on earth did all this water come from?...

...and where is it going?

Now our time in Argentina is at an end and although we can see Paraguay across the river we must leave it for another time. Our next stop is Rio de Janeiro and the beaches of Copacabana. Meet you there in a few days.

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