Cataratas do Iguaçu

The Iguassu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú; Guarani: Chororo Yguasu) are waterfalls of the Iguassu River on the border of Brazilian state Paraná and Argentine province Misiones. The falls are shared between two national parks with both parks listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. As the majority of the falls lie in Argentina the best panoramas are available from the Brazilian side.
I spent two days on the Brazilian side, staying at the Hotel das Cataratas in late December 2012. On a future visit I’ll visit the Argentine side and experience the view from the boardwalk above the Devil’s Throat and walk around Isla San Martín. The hotel is inside the Brazilian national park and so staying there provides access to the falls even when the park is closed, for example in the relatively cooler pre dawn hours. Given the huge number of visitors to the park avoiding the daytime crowds was also a great advantage.
In Brazil there are helicopter flights over the falls so the first order of business after checking into the hotel was to organise a flight over the falls to get the overview from the air. I followed that up with the boat tour. The Brazilian boat tour seemed to just serve as an excuse to soak the customers under one of the waterfalls rather than anything else. In the evening the hotel organised a tour to see it under the full moon. The following day I made use of the unlimited access to take photographs around dawn.