Lewis the Lion visits the Incredible Iguassu Falls

A butterfly by the waterfall

After nearly 24 hours of travel, Lewis the Lion, Helen and their group of friends arrived in Foz de Iguaçu at 9 o’clock in the morning. Even after such a long coach journey, it still felt strange to Lewis the Lion that cars drive on the right-hand side of the road in South America: a bit like being in Continental Europe. He still had to make sure that he looked left-right-left when crossing the roads here!

What way do you look first when crossing the road in the UK?

After leaving their luggage in their comfortable hotel, they set off with their tour guide, Eduardo, in a minibus to see the world’s biggest set of waterfalls: the Iguassu Falls or the Cataratas.

The Magnificent Iguassu Falls (Brazilian side)

Lewis was a bit confused by the spelling of Iguassu because he saw three different spellings for the same place! He discovered that “Iguassu” was the English spelling; “Iguaçu” was the Portuguese (Brazilian) spelling; and “Iguazú” was the Spanish spelling!

The waterfalls are set in dense jungle, pouring over a 90-metre high, granite rock-face and they are home to many brightly coloured bird and butterflies. In fact, Lewis marvelled at all the dancing butterflies that seemed to lead their bus towards the waterfalls.

A beautiful butterfly

As Lewis stepped out of the minibus and into the National Park, at first he couldn’t see the waterfalls but he could only hear an almighty gushing sound filling the air. Helen picked up her entrance ticket. Here is a photo of it and another photo of Lewis the Lion posing outside the Iguassu National Park entrance:

An entrance ticket to the Iguassu Falls

Can you work out how much it cost in pounds and pence to enter the Iguassu National Park? The monetary value is shown in Reais, the currency in Brazil. (Check the blog on Brazilian money to help you!).

An entrance ticket into the Iguassu National Park

Lewis the Lion at the Park Entrance

As he walked a little bit further along a tree-lined path, he then caught his first sight of the falls: they were simply breathtaking! Click here to see what Lewis saw: a panoramic view of the Iguassu Falls from the Brazilian side.

Helen and Lewis see the waterfalls for the first time

There are more than 275 different waterfalls which appear to be broken up across the jungle landscape, which then reach a dramatic climax as they seem to be fused together at the Devil’s Throat, La Garganta del Diabolo, the main waterfall which is shaped like a horseshoe.

Lewis marvels at the Cataratas

From the Brazilian side of the falls, Lewis had a fantastic overview of all of the cascading water as you can also see in the video clip.

Lewis with a panoramic view of the waterfalls

As it was such a bright, sunny day and such was the power of the waterfalls, that as Lewis ventured along the walkways, a huge mist that was being thrown up into the air which produced many rainbows shooting off the falls. It was truly spectacular. You can see Lewis the Lion enjoying himself in this video clip!

Lewis marvels at the Cataratas

Lewis sees incredible rainbows shooting off the falls

Along the walkways which seemed to take Lewis deeper and deeper towards the rushing waters of the falls, he spotted a quick-moving lizard hurrying into the undergrowth. It seemed to be camouflaged very well into its surroundings.

Can you see how well the lizard is camouflaged against the colour of the rock?

A quick-moving, camouflaged lizard

Lewis just manages to see the lizard scurrying into the undergrowth

Lewis also marvelled at the amount of butterflies of every colour, size and pattern. They seemed to be joyously enjoying fluttering by in this little bit of paradise on earth.

A gathering of butterflies by the shoreline

Lewis didn’t think it was possible to be even more awe-struck by nature as he had been on this first visit to the Falls but the following day proved even more sensational as he visited the Argentinian side of the Iguassu Falls.

Lewis on the Argentine side of the Falls

In terms of the natural world, this trip was the highlight of Lewis the Lion’s travels to date. Foz do Iguaçu marks the spot where three countries meet: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and there is a special bridge called the Bridge of Friendship which connects Brazil to Argentina.

Entering Argentina for the first time

The point where the 3 countries meet

As Lewis was driven across the Bridge of Friendship early the next morning, he could see the colours of the Brazilian flag, yellow and green, up to the half-way point across the bridge and then it changed to the Argentinian colours, blue and white.

The dividing line separating Brazil from Argentina

When he had reached Argentina, he had to wait for Helen and her friends to have their passports stamped to say that they had crossed into a new country. They then continued their journey to the park entrance. Lewis suddenly realised that in Argentina they spoke Spanish instead of Portuguese and by mistake he said ‘Obrigado’ instead of ‘Gracias!’

Lewis the Lion and his friends were now ushered onto an open-top bus which took them down a winding forest track.

Lewis in the Iguassu Forest

Although it was a hot, sunny day, Lewis felt cool under the shade of the forest trees. In the forest, he could see enormous spiders webs, lots of butterflies and could hear the strange calls of birds. Occasionally, if you were lucky, the guide on the bus told the passengers that you might spot a toucan bird with its brightly coloured beak. Unfortunately, this time, Lewis the Lion didn’t see a toucan but here is one of his friend’s photos that was taken in the Bird Park right next to the Iguassu National Park.

A toucan

As the passengers disembarked from the bus, they could hear a rustling by some recycling bins…it was a strange looking animal that looked like a mixture between a raccoon and aardvark: a coati.

A scavenging coati

Lewis had been warned about these bold, sometimes aggressive creatures who often tried to eat the tourists’ food. You can read this information that is given to the tourists in the picnic areas:

Sign warning the tourists about the coatis

Lewis and the coati

Click on this link to see how quickly the coatis were moving near the picnic area:

The bus passengers then followed a wooden path down to the side of the Iguassu River where they were given life-jackets to wear before they boarded a boat. Luckily, they were warned beforehand that they were about to get very, very wet so Helen wore her swimming costume and Lewis hid in a waterproof bag when they got really close to the waterfalls!

Helen wearing her life-jacket

Lewis on the Iguassu River

Everybody on the speedboat whooped and hollered as it gained speed and bumped along as great waves started to sweep up beside them. There was even a cameraman filming the whole event; it was so much fun!

Lewis sees the waves splashing behind the boat

Lewis speeds along on the boat

As the speedboat approached some of the waterfalls, Lewis the Lion felt awe-inspired at the power of nature around him. The torrents of water lashing down the rock-face were a sight to behold.

Click here to see what Lewis the Lion saw too.

Lewis experiences the raging torrents of water

There was a nervous anticipation of those travellers on the boat as they knew that they were about to get soaked as the front of the boat drove into a waterfall itself! Lewis had cleverly hidden himself away by this point and it was just as well as the boat ventured into a huge waterfall three times in a row! The sheer force of the water was incredible, so much so that Helen couldn’t even open her eyes. It felt like she had stepped into the most incredibly powerful shower ever and boy was she grateful that she’d changed her clothes in favour of her swimming costume!

A boat heading towards a drenching!

There was much delight and laughter as the boat turned and headed for yet another enormous waterfall. Even before it had approached the cascading water, a huge mist was being thrown skyward and the passengers waited with baited breath for what they knew was coming…another thorough soaking! And yet still they cried for more as the captain cleverly steered the tip of the boat into the waterfall another three times over. What fantastic fun! Thank goodness it was a hot day so the passengers could dry off quickly when they got back on dry land.

The incredible Iguassu Falls as seen from the boat

As the group then went for some lunch, they were entertained by many coatis on the look out for food. They also spotted some unusual blue-tufted birds with an unusual song.

There was then a walk of a couple of kilometres that took Lewis and Helen along the Argentine side of the waterfalls where they could observe nature first-hand. Most impressively were even more waterfalls with beautiful rainbows shooting off them. Here you can see that Lewis has spotted a double rainbow!

Lewis admires the double rainbow

Watch this video to see the power and beauty of the waterfall.

They could see many circling black vultures high above their heads and spotted-black fish in the rivers.

The circling vultures

After admiring the stunning waterfalls and nature up-close, Lewis and Helen didn’t know that the best of all was still to come as they caught an ecological forest train running along the Upper Iguassu River. At this point, as Helen had been click, click, clicking with her camera so much, would you believe it but the battery on her camera ran out?! Thankfully though some of their friends were able to take some photos for them of the exciting things still to come.

La Garganta del Diablo - The Devil's Throat Waterfall

The next wooden walkway bridge stretched across the massive Iguassu River. It was so wide that it looked more like a lake in places. From one of the bridges, Lewis spotted enormous carps in the river and even a big turtle. This wooden walkway then led to the highlight of Lewis the Lion’s trip to date: the powerful, hypnotic and truly awe-inspiring Devil’s Throat Waterfall. This had to be the most beautiful and wondrous sight that Lewis the Lion and Helen had ever seen in their lives. They simply couldn’t peel their eyes off it.They both felt like they could have stayed their all day, entranced by this incredible waterfall.

The hypnotising waterfalls from the Argentine side of the falls

Mesmerised by the sheer power of this dramatic waterfall, Lewis the Lion was told about the myth of its creation. The legend goes that River Snake God was jealous of two lovers. He therefore split the river on to two levels to separate them: he turned one of them into a stone at the top of the falls and one a tree at the bottom of the falls. It is said that the rainbow unifies these two lovers forever.

Lewis certainly enjoyed counting all of the rainbows which appeared in the mist of the cloud being thrown up by the Devil’s Throat magnificent waterfall.

On the walk back to the Cataratas train, Lewis the Lion enjoyed absorbing the landscape and saw a cormorant standing proudly in the middle of the river, several types of butterflies, more carps and lots of coins thrown into the river as if it were a wishing well. He wondered if he were to throw a coin into the river, would he ever get the chance to come back to this wondrous sight too?

The mighty falls up close

Of all of the sights that you have seen in the world, what has filled you with a sense of wonder and awe?

Can you describe or draw this scene? How did it make you feel?

Is there a particular wonder of the natural world that you would like to visit? Why?