Salto do Yucumã
The stop at Salto do Yucumã, within the Parque Estadual do Turvo, is the natural centrepiece of the day. The falls sit on the Rio Uruguai at the Argentina border, inside the largest protected forest remnant in Rio Grande do Sul. The Turvo Park covers about 17,500 hectares of Upper Uruguay Atlantic Forest — the last significant stand of the formation in the state, where the canopy reaches 20 to 30 metres and shelters jaguars, pumas, tapirs, and the harpy eagle, a bird that has otherwise been pushed out of the south.
The Salto itself is a geological accident of the best kind: a transverse fault in the riverbed forces the entire volume of the Uruguay to drop into a fissure roughly 1,800 metres long, averaging 30 metres wide, and estimated at 90 to 120 metres deep. The drop varies with the river level — anywhere from five to fifteen metres when conditions are right, submerged entirely when the river runs high. The name in Tupi-Guarani, Yucumã, means "great roaring." From the visitor's centre at the park entrance, the journey to the falls follows about 15 kilometres of dirt road through the forest interior — the concessionaire provides transport — followed by a short 400-to-500-metre walk to the viewing area on the rocky shore. The falls are best appreciated in the dry season from November through April, when the river drops and the lajedos, the exposed basalt ledges, emerge along the bank.
Entry is ticketed and must be booked through the concessionaire Macuco Yucumã; the park is open Thursday through Monday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm for entry, with the falls area accessible until 5:00 pm. One variable worth checking on the day: the Foz do Chapecó hydroelectric dam sits upstream and its daily water releases can raise or lower the river level significantly within hours, occasionally submerging the falls even during the dry season.
