Navigation at the Moconá Falls

Once inside Moconá Provincial Park, all paths lead to the same place: the very spot where the attraction we have heard so much of or seen in photographs is located. However, most people wish to experience this ride themselves. Therefore, they hire the navigation to the famous falls.

The guide told us that the navigation took barely half an hour but that it ensured an event second to none. The scene consists in a river that literally falls sideways over another river and the best way to understand this phenomenon is by being in the water, sailing upstream and then floating adrift into the waterfalls.

This is possible only when the river volume is low. A slope that reaches 10 meters of height is produced and this unveils the waterfalls. It is impossible to see the falls when the river is plentiful. It is on those occasions that everything becomes a large mass of water.

A floating platform was built in order to offer this ride. The RIBs are moored there and passengers get on board at this location in order to start this adventurous ride. We approached the area through a path and met a group of guides that would accompany us on this excursion.

We put on our life jackets on solid ground and were given an introduction of what we were about to see. We also heard the safety measures we should take into account to avoid any accidents or inconveniences.

We could take photos, shoot videos or scream in excitement as many times as we wanted. But we could not stand, jump into the water or misbehave. Though it looks calm, the Uruguay River features up to 150 meters of depth at this spot.

Once we set out, we came across a large rock that emerges from the surface in the middle of the river. Obviously, we dodged it.

That rock is known as Piedra Bugre and it treasures part of the history of the Guaraní people and other native tribes that stood or sit on it to "meditate" about the problems they had.

The navigation tour continued and the falls began to be spotted at a distance due to the foam. The RIB got close to the wall made of rock and water, which lies on the left margin going upstream. And so the show began: the falls were perfect. Their clean and fast waters ran down amidst immemorial cracks in the rocks.

As the guide made a maneuver and the boat seemed to stop, a sudden shove helped it introduce its nose in the waterfall. We were all silent.

An unmistakable spray only experienced in other waterfalls of this province (the Iguazú Waterfalls) took hold of the scene and made our face, our clothes and the lenses of our cameras wet.

It did not matter. Anything goes when it comes to nature. The feeling of peace transmitted by those falls is unique and it is completely worthwhile to travel the necessary kilometers to relish this experience.

We faced each fall once and again and we were always victorious, happy, vivacious. After some endless minutes, we started our way back to the berth carrying in our cameras the same pictures that had tempted us to get to this destination in the first place.

And nothing would be the same any more.

Related tours:
Moconá Falls
Imagining that the course of a river falls sideways sounds illogical, as if it was a description in a science fiction story

City tour around El Soberbio
In spite of its simple lifestyle, everything has been specially designed for tourists to enjoy the lush nature of its surroundings