Iguazú, Cataratas del

Iguazú Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in South America. Straddling the border of Brazil and Argentina the falls drop a total of 269 feet along the Rio Iguazú where the river sharply bends around a headland and spreads out over a flat shelf, splitting into hundreds of individual falls. While the majority of the river plunges into the "Garganta del Diablo" (the Devil's Throat), because the river sheets out over a broad area the crest of the falls is over 1 1/2 miles in length. Despite the sizable volume and drainage area of the Rio Iguazú, the river is known to fluctuate greatly in volume. During the dry season the falls are noticeably affected by the lack of precipitation and can shrink to just a fraction of their true size during droughts. The Rio Iguazú also has been known to swell to great proportions during the rainy season when the volume of the falls has been recorded to increase as much as 8 time above its annual average. Though the falls straddle the Argentina / Brazil border, because the majority of the waterfall occurs within Argentina, we have it listed in the database as such. Access to viewpoints of the falls, however, is more developed on the Brazilian side.