Four times more extensive than the cataracts of the Niágara, in the United States, and without a doubt most spectacular of South America, the cataracts of Iguazú, in Parana, throw their powerful waters to a deep tube, with form of horseshoe in the gigantic fault that formed in the Triásico period, from the Northwest of Uruguay to that one region.
The monstrous din and the brilliance of the rainbow crowning the furious cataracts give testimony of the Earth greatness.
Beginning its route from backs to the Atlantic, the Iguazú river crosses high western territories of the states of Sao Paulo and Parana and reaches the edge of the plateau with a volume that arrives at the 150,000 m3s per second. Several islands divide the enormous current in 275 water jumps, of 60 to 80 meters of height, elevating foam colored by the rainbow more than 150 meters.
The islands more known San Martin and Great Island: they above are river, dividing it in two arms that meet shortly after, falling through rudas lava and basalt formation until hitting in the Throat of the Devil, where the river continues until ending at the Parana river and, of there, through Paraguay river, contributing to the formation of the River basin of the Silver.
Uniting two national parks: The Argentinean, created in 1934, of 50,000 hectares, and the Brazilian, created in 1939, of 170,000 hectares. The region includes, in Brazil, four municipalities, including Foz de Iguazú, name of indigenous origin that means great water.
Still today, the legend is conserved in the memory of the region on the formation of the cataracts. Like an indigenous Romeo and a Julieta, the Indians Naipi and Tarobá would have been persecuted by the irascible serpent of waters, the M'Boi, that was transformed into the several falls.
In the park - where the hunting is prohibited and, nevertheless, the own floresta is allowed the fishing (subtropical of leaf it widens) does not have anything to envy to the Amazonian Floresta, which justifies the increasing eco-tourism towards the region, exceeding, as of the Seventies, both million visitors per year, supported today by the service of guides of the park and by a network of national and international hotels.