Angel Falls
At a staggering 3,212 feet, Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall. It's located on the Churun River, 160 miles southeast of Ciudad Bolivar. The falls are named after Jimmy Angel, an American explorer who crashed his plane on the flat plateau known as Auyan-Tepui, or "Devil's Mountain," in 1937. This area of land is where Angel Falls descends from, pooling at the 500-foot-wide base.
Since Angel Falls is surrounded by dense jungle, the ideal way to view the waterfall is from the air. Another option is to wait until wet season, when the Churun River is high enough to allow for travel by boat.
Iguazu Falls
There are 275 waterfalls that make up Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil. The tallest of these — and the most noteworthy — is Devil's Throat, at 262 feet. Pair that with the fact that about 1.5 million liters of water flow through Iguazu Falls every second, and you've got quite a miraculous work of Mother Nature's art. Between November and March, when rainfall is especially heavy, the water flow can be enough to fill five Olympic swimming pools. Iguazu Falls is so impressive that it even made the list of the New Seven Wonders of Nature in 2011.
Both the Argentinean side and the Brazilian side of the falls offer incredible panoramic views, but from Argentina, the experience is more intimate. There are walkways that take visitors to the edge of, the top of and behind the falls, and speedboats that drive right underneath. Expect to get wet if you choose an up-close-and-personal tour.
Viewing the falls from Brazil is equally rewarding, though. You'll have a wider landscape to observe, and you just might catch a rainbow in the making.
