This week's dream: The Iguaçú Falls

Poor Niagara!" exclaimed Eleanor Roosevelt on first beholding the awesome Iguaçú Falls. And poor Victoria, she could have added, says Will Hide in The Times - for none of Earth's great waterfalls can quite match the impression made by this supreme South American cataract, tucked away in thick rainforest at the point where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet.

The system consists of no fewer than 275 separate falls along a mile and a half of the Iguaçú River. It’s not simply their collective size and power that makes them so breathtaking, but the way they impress themselves upon the viewer in a vast, curving arc – unlike, say, the single, sheer curtain of the equally copious Victoria Falls in Africa, which can only be fully appreciated, at close quarters, from the air.

The jungle surrounding the falls is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a national park on both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. It is home to jaguar, puma and ocelot, though they are rare; still, visitors exploring by boat upstream of the falls will see plenty of other marvellous creatures, including toucans, howler monkeys and alligators.

As for the falls themselves, they can be seen equally well from either bank, though the Argentinian side is more "commer-cialised". Guests at the Hotel das Cataratas on the Brazilian bank are particularly privileged, with exclusive access to the falls after the park closes each day.

The largest of all the cataracts is the U-shaped Devil’s Throat, where "a man-made gangway juts out 50 metres over the raging water". You can also get to within metres of the base of the waterfall by boat, with a helmsmen who must train for two years to carry out the manoeuvre.

Up that close, it’s like being in "a sensory deprivation chamber" - so loud, you can’t hear, and so wet, you can’t see – an experience far more exhilarating, and terrifying, than any rollercoaster ride.
Abercrombie & Kent (0845 6182211; abercrombiekent.co.uk) offer eight-night tailormade trips to Brazil, incl. visit to Iguaçu, from £2,845pp, incl. flights.
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