Iguazú
Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet where Rio Iguazú joins the Rio Paraná in the north-eastern Argentinean province of Misiones. It is here that the Iguazú Falls (meaning 'Big Water' in the local Guaraní language) plunges over hard granite into a wide gorge from a series of gigantic waterfalls measuring two miles in length and plunging more than 240ft below. The thunderous roar of crashing water and the multicoloured mist that rises above the falls is an incredible, awe-inspiring sight that has lost none of its impact since first discovered by Europeans in 1542.
The incredible falls and Iguazu National Park were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 in a bid to preserve many rare and endangered species of wildlife that inhabit the Rio Iguazu and surrounding sub-tropical rainforest. Although most wildlife remains elusive and in the rainforest it is not unusual to glimpse toucans, parrots and morpho-blue butterflies dodge in and out of the falls.