Apparently there is a waterfall called Iguazu, as I learned like three months before leaving for Argentina, which is sort of unusual (i.e., that I hadn't known about it earlier) since I usually have all manner of useless knowledge stuck up in my head, which is so awesome.
Anyway, I went to aforementioned Iguazu Falls this past weekend and it was spectacular. So much so that rather than strain my narrative/descriptive capacities, I am instead going to show a series of videos that I took of them, and which illustrate much better the gut-punching impact of Iguazu.
This video shows the first view of Iguazu, at the very edge of the back of the part called "Devil's Throat." It is salient not only because it gives some sense of the falls themselves, which allow one to use the word "awesome" without feeling like it's an overused and inapt cliche (as above), but also because as I was reaching out over the railing with my precious iPad hovering over the abyss, a guy jostled me carelessly, leading to the lurch in the video, and to me saying "Careful, dude!" if you listen closely.
Here's another view of the Devil's Throat area, from which you can see the massive plumes of mist that obscure the base of the falls, as well as some of the black birds, endemic to the area, that swirl in that mist.
Now here's a different take on the falls, though at this point what little internal compass I may have had become all snarled, and as a result I can't explain exactly where these are in relation to the part of DT that is pictured (via video) above. But as you can see, this is more a slightly differentiated series of massive waterfalls as opposed to just one enormous massive one. That's really all the knowledge I got for you.
This is a view from atop one of those waterfalls, which is interesting (to me, anyway) because the water seems still and calm before it drops off dramatically for like a million feet into a crushing hydrodynamic abyss.
And here's another view of the same part of Iguazu, which includes a rainbow, and well may make you seasick (or at least to have to crane your neck) because I am clearly just getting the hang of the iPad as video device, and can see from this that turning it mid-shoot does not really work.
And this is the final video, which I took longways but cannot seem to rotate in aspect, so it's pitched weirdly, but has a nice view of the same part of Iguazu (again, I think) from a lower angle.
And that was Iguazu, kids. I will say only this by way of conclusion: I've seen a lot of sights and been to a lot of places, but few of them seemed like things to have done rather than objects my eyes happened to just take in. Hence I think it's more apt to say "I've been to Iguazu" as though it were a life experience earning some kind of life-changing status than merely "I've seen Iguazu" as though it were merely about something to observe ocularly (though it's certainly that). And it's efficient, to boot. After going to Iguazu, all other waterfalls pale in comparison, so fortunately I no longer have any need or desire to go to Niagara or any of the others, which would only seem like leaky faucets by comparison.
