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In the film Happy Together, Tony Leung travels to Iguazu alone. He feels that the people standing beneath the falls ought to be a pair.

I finally made it to Iguazu too, though I was also on my own.

Even after wandering through all the markets in Buenos Aires, I still couldn’t find a matching lamp.

Flying from Argentina’s capital to Iguazu is quick—just a little over an hour. Supposedly, back then Wong Kar-wai was dragging out filming, so Leslie Cheung had to fly back to Hong Kong early to prepare for a concert. I still don’t know whether he ever actually made it to Iguazu.

Iguazu sits at the border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. On the Argentine side, the city is called Puerto Iguazú; on the Brazilian side, it’s Foz do Iguaçu. In Portuguese, foz means a river mouth, which tells you quite a lot already.

The entire city exists because of one waterfall.

There are buses from the town center straight to the park, with frequent departures. Hop on, and you’ll be there in half an hour. Thanks to Argentina’s exchange-rate quirks at the time, admission was 12,000 pesos; I’ve heard it has since climbed to 45,000 pesos.

Iguazu Falls, more accurately, is a whole waterfall system, with many cascades large and small. But the overwhelming majority are inside the Argentine park. As the image below shows, Brazil got only a tiny sliver—haha.

So the Argentines built several routes through the park to let visitors see different sections of the falls. When I went, the red route to the crown jewel—Devil’s Throat—was closed because the water level was too high. My exact reaction: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Later I heard the route had actually been washed away... I’d only ever heard of waterfalls back in China using pipes in the dry season, not entire walkways getting destroyed...

So I walked all the other routes twice. It seems no place is immune to the urge to give every waterfall a name and attach a legend to it, but I’ll spare you all of those details.

Even just looking at the falls themselves, these “non-headliner” cascades are already astonishing enough.

If your child is struggling in elementary-school Chinese class with expressions like “magnificent in scale” or “surging with force,” my recommendation is simple: bring them to Iguazu. After this, all they’ll have to do is close their eyes and they’ll remember the steam and spray rushing toward them.

In fact, even from quite a distance away—before the waterfalls are even visible—the roar is already so loud it feels like the ground beneath your feet is trembling.

When I was a child, I read a book called Guwen Guanzhi, which roughly means “the finest of classical prose—once you’ve read this, you’ve seen enough.” Iguazu really ought to change its official slogan to something like “Waterfalls Guanzhi.”

Here the mist is already everywhere. It’s hard to imagine what the legendary Devil’s Throat must be like—probably the feeling of not knowing where the depth lies, simply because you are inside the waterfall itself.

After seeing Iguazu, you’ll probably lose interest in other waterfalls for quite a while, which is, in a way, a pretty good way to save on future entrance fees.

During the rainy season, the water volume is even greater, and the color turns coffee-brown. The Iguazu River comes down from the Brazilian Highlands carrying a huge amount of sediment.

At the time, I hadn’t yet started playing an obscure esports-adjacent game called GeoGuessr, otherwise I would have known that red soil is one of Brazil’s most recognizable features.

The last time I saw water with this much force was at Tiger Leaping Gorge. There, the power runs horizontally; here, it plunges straight down with total abandon. Perhaps only the eagles of the Pampas can play carefree among the falls.

Iguazu VR experience be like:

From this photo, you can clearly see how Iguazu Falls came to be: the broad Iguazu River flows gently through this area, and then—whether because of river erosion or tectonic movement—a section of the earth suddenly collapsed here.

With that much water pouring over the edge, the energy truly feels earth-shaking.

A real Devil’s Throat.

Image source: Instagram@Dronefp

Compare it with Huangguoshu Waterfall for reference only—no shade intended—and you can feel Iguazu’s wildness much more directly. At Huangguoshu, people can still walk through the Water Curtain Cave behind the falls. At Iguazu, try that and you might simply cease to exist.

Image source: Huangguoshu Scenic Area

The next day, I went to the Brazilian side of the national park.

Iguazu is so vast that one country alone can’t contain it. So the two neighbors essentially split it down the middle at Devil’s Throat, one half each. The Brazilian viewing platform at lower left isn’t as close as the one on the other side, but it lets you get more directly “into” the waterfall, making for a far more immersive experience.

At the bus station in Puerto Iguazú, there are also minibuses directly to the Brazilian park, once an hour. The fare has surged too, from the 1500 pesos I paid at the time (a little over US$1) to 6000 pesos now (US$5).

What’s rather surprising is that, although Foz do Iguaçu is not officially described by Brazil as a visa-free area, in practice—whether for tourist convenience or some other reason—border control didn’t check visas at all.

In other words, even without a Brazilian visa, you could still visit both national parks. But not the other way around: entering or leaving Argentina, immigration would very seriously check your Argentine visa.

Sure enough, the minibus driver rumbled straight past Brazilian border control without the slightest hesitation.

In terms of the number of waterfalls, the Brazilian park accounts for only about two-tenths of the whole, so it skips all the buildup and goes straight to the main event.

Well, not entirely—there is still some buildup. From this side, you can see a panoramic view of the waterfalls I walked past the day before in the Argentine park. Vast and commanding; to borrow Murong Bo’s phrase, “the best waterfall under heaven” really does live up to the name.

Eagles soar among it all.

Tiny humans can only “soar” from the observation deck.

But remember: all of that is still just the prelude. This is the real centerpiece.

With the force of ten thousand horses and thunder from all directions, the water surges past you on every side. Want to know what it feels like to experience a violent storm on a perfectly sunny day? Come to Iguazu.

Sometimes the spray is so heavy it feels like a place fit for immortals. The mist nourishes this subtropical rainforest, making it a habitat for many rare and endangered species—a paradise for birders.

A friend traveling with me had heard there was a butterfly garden here and went to ask where it was. The staff member looked at him strangely and said, “The butterflies are everywhere.”

And they really were everywhere.

On the walk back, I came across a rainbow. Rainbows aren’t exactly rare in Iguazu, but they still feel lucky and joyful every time.

As one of the world’s top-tier attractions, both sides are developed quite well. Taking a speedboat into the falls is a must-do. Off we go—to Devil’s Throat!

Each park also has its own hotel. On the Brazilian side, it’s the Belmond Hotel; on the Argentine side, it’s the Meliá. Both are excellent hotels, and the nightly rates are actually not too outrageous—roughly on par with the LUX* in Chongzuo.

Staying inside the park doesn’t get you early entry the way Disney does, but falling asleep to the sound of thunderous waterfalls would surely be unforgettable.

I hope next time you come to Iguazu,

you come as two people.

About the Author

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