100% must-do: bathing in Iguazu!

Out of all the waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls are unique. Only here do they take you in motorboats right under the streams of a waterfall for the most amazing shower of you’ll ever take! Of course, they don’t take you under the main – biggest – streams of the waterfalls (that’d be suicidal), but under the smaller, gentler ones – no problem. Something like this:

They take you up the river in motorboats, and then dunk you into scenes like these. The next few shots aren’t mine, but from the company that runs these motorboat showers ->

Ok, back to my pics…

When the water level in the river is higher and the water falling from above is stronger, the boats only go under the very edge of the falling stream. But in low water they soak the whole boat completely!…

The waterfall-shower experience all starts in Iguazu National Park – about five kilometers downstream from the falls. They run the rides from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides (Macuco Safari and Puerto Macuco on the map, respectively) ->

Which side is better – Brazil or Argentina? Depends on what you want. If you want to see more – then Argentina. If you want to get drenched in the waterfall streams quicker – Brazil. I’ll explain later…

But in any case first you have to go through the jungle to get there. This is how they drive you in from the Brazilian side:

And then a couple of kilometers through said tropical jungle…

In my previous post about birds and other wildlife, I forgot to add that there’s a lot of similar wildlife living in this jungle: monkeys, poisonous snakes, and two or three dozen jaguars (I don’t remember exactly how many). But they all try to keep away from the trails that humans use; however, sometimes you do meet interesting creatures along the way:

Here’s a close-up:

When we asked if this spider was dangerous, the guide answered, not very confidently, that it probably wasn’t. We decided not to get closer to it ) ->

Then a short walk down to the river…

Some trees are labeled. And it was rather a pleasant surprise to find my namesake in a Brazilian forest! ->

That’s it, we’ve arrived.

Here you put on raincoats, or change into “clothes suitable for getting drenched” (whatever that means), but I recommend swimsuits. If you want to get under the real waterfall streams, raincoats won’t save you. Plus, it’s really better to have your own dry bags for phones and cameras if you want to take them with you. They’ll give you something here to protect your gear, but it’s better to have your own.

Next come the life jackets ->

And off we go!…

At first the ride along the river is smooth and comfortable…

But then you have to bounce through three rapids – not very hard, but you really feel the power of the water pressing on you:

We’re not alone here:

And another rapid:

That’s it, we’ve made it through and on to the river bay in front of the falls.

Now I’ll explain the difference between the Brazilian and Argentinian routes…

The border between the countries runs somewhere down the middle of the river, and since this bay is on Argentinian territory, the Brazilian boats aren’t allowed to come here. So if you want to ride under those streams over there, you have to take a boat from the Argentinian side. Or just be silently envious…