Waterfalls

In the north of the country, at the border of Brazil and close to the border of Paraguay, you can visit these fantastic waterfalls.
Visiting from the Argentinian side is the most rewarding. You can get a lot closer to them than from the Brazilian side. From close-by you can experience the great force of the water, especially when standing just above the Garganta del Diabolo - 'The Devil’s throat'. If you want to get even closer, you can take a tour on one of the powerful rubber boats that bring you right underneath some smaller sections of the waterfalls. Don’t expect to stay dry!

Only a few hours away from the capital Brasilia, in the state of Goias, is the Chapada dos Veiadeiros. A National Park great for hiking with plenty of waterfalls where you can cool down and swim.
The Vale da Lua (valley of the moon) is part of the National Park. This is where a river runs through a landscape of boulders smoothened by the river making is seem a bit like a moonscape. It is fun to follow the river jumping from boulder to boulder and eventually jump in the water.
Both towns nearby - Alta Paraiso and São Jorge - are quiet and typical towns of the interior of Brazil. At night you can chill at a local bar and with some luck the locals will start playing music and start singing Brazilian country songs.

Brazil shares these fantastic waterfalls with Argentina. They are not the largest, highest, widest, etc of the world, others take these honors, but they are very impressive. You can go visit from either country. From the Brazilian side you get a larger overview of the falls from a trail across the river. It gives you a good idea of the vastness of the falls. Also the surrounding nature is beautiful. You can see several animals. Birds such as egrets and toucans but also the adorable Coati. Foz do Iguaçu is the access town but except for visiting the falls there is little else to do here.

As often with waterfalls, countries claim that they are the tallest, widest, most voluminous, etc. in the world. The Kaieteur Falls is none of the above, but is probably the world’s tallest waterfall with this volume. In any case it is definitely one of the most amazing waterfalls in the world! The massive amount of water from the Potaro river plunges 226 metres down into the gorge below. Pretty much all visitors to the falls take the one-hour flight from Georgetown to the top of the falls where there is an airstrip where small planes can land. From there you can take a guided walk to different viewpoints to admire the grandeur of these magnificent waterfalls and stand on the edge of where the water plunges down. If you have the chance, consider staying overnight. At dawn and dusk, a huge amount of swifts go out or come in to sleep behind the waterfalls.

The large and impressive waterfall Ófærufoss lies well inside the world's largest volcanic canyon Eldgjá, that covers a vast area. To get to the waterfall you have to walk for half an hour, but it is a beautiful area with contrasts of sharp volcanic rocks, rivers and extreme green vegetation and flowers. The water in Òfærufoss falls into three levels, and you can walk up via a staircase to the middle of the waterfall and enjoy the view. There has previously been a lava arch over one of the levels that you could cross, but it has now collapsed.

The Golden Falls (what Gullfoss means in Icelandic) is not the biggest waterfall in Iceland (Dettifoss is more powerful and Glymur is taller), but it sure is amazing. From a distance, it looks like it plunges straight into the earth, while a closer inspection will reveal that it "only" falls 32 meters into the crevice that has carved its way trough the landscape. It is a part of the Golden circle (Gullfoss, Geysir and Pingvellir) which are the must see places in Iceland.

The large waterfall Skógafoss is located on the south coast of Iceland and is visible from the main coastal road. You can get very close to the impressive waterfall and see the large cascades of water pouring down from the long drop. It is one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland and has an approximately 60-meter high fall and is 25 meters wide. It is also possible to go to the top of the waterfall via a long staircase and from there also enjoy the beautiful views of the ocean and its special black beaches (colored by lava ash).

A 7 km side tour off the coastal road, on a bumpy dirt road, will bring you to the triple waterfall of Gangga. The size of the waterfalls are not as exciting as getting to them. The first fall is straight forward. The second one is reached by crossing in front of the plunging water of the first and then balancing on some slippery bamboo poles. The last one is the cave waterfall, below the two others. You have to walk upstream in the riverbed, before you can see the water be pressed out of the cliff face. If the water pressure is low, you can even climb up and explore the crack where the water emerges from.

One thing that may come as a surprise to travellers is Iraq is not the desert wasteland depicted on TV. Actually, the Iraqi Kurdistan region is full of water. And where there is water, there are often waterfalls. Although Gali Ali Beg in the far north reigns as the most famous (it's even on the 5,000 Iraqi Dinar note), there is another set of falls that have made international headlines. In southern Kurdistan, about 1.5 hours east of Sulaymaniyah, on the Iranian border, the remote falls of Ahmed Awa will forever live in infamy. In 2009, three American hikers lost their way when visiting the falls, and ended up illegally crossing the border with Iran. They spent two years in an Iranian prison. While toying with danger might be reason enough for future travellers not to visit the falls, the fact that they are actually the best falls in the region might be enough to push the unsure to walk the Iraq/Iran tightrope.

Katamtok Waterfall is the second highest waterfall in Laos. The few meters the it's lacking in height compared to the Tat Fan (the highest waterfall in Laos), is redeemed by the unspoiled setting. It is almost hidden in the jungle and though a small sign on a tree gives it away, chances are that you will have it for yourself (at least until the road is sealed). Similar to Tat Fan, it plunges out of the jungle where the Bolaven Plateau breaks off and disappears 100 m or so below in more green stuff. Very nice, very low key, very Lao.