Some aerial views of Iguaçu

In July 1981 I accompanied Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Resource Doug Anthony, and his wife Margot, on an official visit to Argentina and Brazil. One of the scenic highlights of the program was a visit to the mighty Iguaçu Falls, on the Paraná River on the border between the two countries.

We took a commercial flight from Buenos Aires to Foz do Iguaçu, a provincial city in Paraná State (Brazil) and toured the Brazilian side of the Falls in the late afternoon, including buzzing the 97m high Garganta do Diabo, the tallest of the falls, in a bubble helicopter, which was a buzz indeed.

The following day we crossed to the Argentine side, then returned to the Brazilian side for an inspection of Itaipu Dam, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay, which was at that time under construction and would in due course be commissioned as the largest hydroelectric dam in the world (since eclipsed by the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze in China).

When all was done we took off for our next destination in a Brazilian Air Force Bandeirante, and the pilot obligingly did a circuit of the falls and a low pass alongside them before we went on our way. The photos below give some idea of the immensity of the falls and of the forest in that region of Brazil.