🇦🇷 Argentina · The Northeast and Mesopotamia
The Saltos del Moconá are one of the most singular natural wonders in Argentina: a geological fault on the Uruguay river, in eastern Misiones province right on the Brazilian border, that produces a longitudinal waterfall unique in the world. Unlike almost every other waterfall, which cuts the river from bank to bank (crosswise), here the water drops along the channel, parallel to the river, forming a wall of water that stretches for several kilometers. On the Brazilian side the same falls are called Salto do Yucumã.
The big thing to bear in mind is that the falls aren't always visible: they depend entirely on the flow of the Uruguay river. When it rains hard and the river runs high, the water covers the fault and the falls all but disappear; when the river is low, the wall of water emerges in full splendor, with drops that can range from a few meters to six, eight or even ten meters at very low water. So it's worth traveling in the dry season and checking the state of the river before you go.
The park is surrounded by Paraná rainforest, inside the Parque Provincial Moconá and the huge Yabotí Biosphere Reserve. To get close to the wall of water there are boat trips in inflatables or launches that push upstream along the fault, and there are trails for walking among tree ferns, tacuara bamboo and centuries-old trees. The access town is El Soberbio, a quiet place on the bank of the Uruguay river from where the excursions depart.
The name Moconá comes from Guaraní and is usually translated as 'the one that swallows everything', a reference to the force of the river as it swallows the water at the fault. The falls formed from an ancient geological fracture in the bed of the Uruguay river and are shared with Brazil, where they are known as Yucumã. The full geological and cultural history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The province of the Paraná rainforest and the red earth: home to the famous Jesuit-Guaraní missions, today a World Heritage Site, to the yerba mate that peopled its forests, and to the Iguazú Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
Read the history of Misiones →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Picture a river falling into itself. Not a waterfall cutting across the channel from bank to bank, like Iguazú or Niagara, but a wall of water almost 3 kilometers long running parallel to the current, as if the Uruguay river split in two and one half collapsed onto the other. That's what the Saltos del Moconá are, and there is no other phenomenon like it on the planet: the longest longitudinal waterfall in the world, hidden right on the border between Argentina and Brazil.
The falls are in eastern Misiones province, in the San Pedro department, surrounded by the Paraná rainforest of the Parque Provincial Moconá and the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve. On the Brazilian side, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the same feature is called Salto do Yucumã and is protected by the Parque Estadual do Turvo. What's extraordinary is the direction in which the water falls: in almost every waterfall in the world the river is cut from side to side and the water drops crosswise to the channel; at Moconá the opposite happens, the water falls along the river, lengthwise, forming a wall of water that follows the current for kilometers.
The explanation for this phenomenon lies underwater, in the geology of the Uruguay river bed. In this area the river runs over a large geological fault or fracture that, instead of crossing the channel from side to side, runs along it lengthwise. That fracture created a step in the river bottom: on one side the bed is shallow, almost a rock platform; on the other a deep canyon opens up, reaching some 90 meters in places and, according to the sources, close to 170 meters at its deepest stretches.
The result is that the water running along the shallow part of the river 'falls' sideways into that canyon all along the line of the fault, rather than at a single crosswise front. So instead of a wall of water crossing the river, you get a wall of water running alongside it for kilometers. On the Argentine side the fault extends between the mouths of the Yabotí stream and the Pepirí Guazú river, and it is the product of very ancient geological movements in the basalt flows that form the region.
One feature that surprises many visitors is that the Saltos del Moconá aren't always visible: there are days, weeks and even months when they practically disappear. The reason is that everything depends on the flow of the Uruguay river, which is highly variable and responds to rainfall across the whole basin upstream, and even to dam releases in Brazil.
When it rains a lot and the river runs high, the water level rises above the fault and covers it: the wall of water flattens out and the falls are barely distinguishable, and on top of that the boat trip and even entry to the park may be suspended, because the road crosses streams such as the Yabotí that flood. When the river is low, on the other hand — typically in the drier autumn and winter — the fault is exposed and the falls are seen in full splendor. The height of the drops also changes with the flow: with the river low they can reach between 6 and 8 meters, and even about 10 meters at exceptionally low water, while with the river high they shrink to just a few meters or vanish. So visiting Moconá isn't just a matter of picking the right season: it's worth checking the state of the river in the days beforehand.
The name Moconá comes from Guaraní, the language spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Misiones forest. The most widespread translation is 'the one that swallows everything' or 'the one that gulps everything down', a reference to the force with which the river seems to swallow the water as it plunges into the fault. It's a very vivid name: anyone watching the current disappear into the rock step immediately grasps the image of a river devouring the water. Below, some notes on the names of the place.
The falls are protected by the Parque Provincial Moconá, a natural area of Misiones province created to conserve both the geological phenomenon and the forest around it. The park in turn lies inside the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve, a large protected area of some 250,000 hectares recognized by UNESCO, which safeguards one of the last great continuous blocks of Paraná (or Misiones) rainforest left in Argentina.
This environment holds remarkable biodiversity: old-growth trees, tree ferns, tacuara bamboo and vines, plus emblematic wildlife such as the jaguar, the puma, monkeys and an enormous variety of birds, though seeing the big cats is very unlikely. For visitors, the park offers a visitor center, interpretive trails heading into the forest and the boat trips that, when the flow allows, push upstream to get close to the wall of water. The combination of a unique geological phenomenon with subtropical rainforest makes Moconá one of the most special nature destinations in the Argentine Litoral.
The town that serves as the gateway to the falls is El Soberbio, a quiet place on the bank of the Uruguay river facing Brazil, in southeastern Misiones. It's an area of relatively recent settlement, populated over the 20th century by immigrants and rural families, with a strong mark left by farming in the forest. El Soberbio is known as 'the national capital of essences' for its production of essential oils — citronella, mint and others — as well as yerba mate and smallholding crops.
For a long time the falls were all but inaccessible, known mostly to local people and to adventurers. With the creation of the park and the — always relative — improvement of the roads, Moconá gradually established itself as a tourist destination, though it keeps a wild, uncrowded character, heavily shaped by the weather and the river's flow. Today El Soberbio lives largely off that nature tourism: it offers accommodation, lodges deep in the forest, excursion operators and boat trips, in a setting where the Brazilian border, the Paraná rainforest and the Uruguay river come together around one of the most singular natural spectacles on the planet.