Las Cataratas del Iguazú

According to the legend of the Guaraní, an indigenous people from the rain forests of the Iguazu area, a young Indian warrior named Caroba was in love with Naipur unfortunately so was the God of the forests. And in his attempt to escape the divine wrath down-stream the river in a canoe, the God shattered the river bed into pieces so that many waterfalls tore down the two lovers. Naipur remains henceforth at the feet of the falls as a rock and Caroba survived and was turned into a tree nearby, always having to watch his love gone by ... That is the origin of the spectacular wonder of nature!

But at first we had to get there ... So Franca (aka the best and most beautiful girlfriend in the world!!!) and I started our journey with nothing more than a backpack/bag each and some good faith the we might actually make it despite crazy bus drivers and rather interesting streets, we headed out into the great adventure on wednesday afternoon with our first stop in Asuncion, Paraguay. After crossing Uruguay and Argentina we reached our destination Asuncion after a 22h bus ride (but these buses are a little bit more comfortable than common ones and they serve food and drinks!)


First thing to do: get in contact with our friend in Paraguay for directions, changing money and finding the right bus stop. We really liked the Paraguayan flair, which is a lot more like one would imagine South-America to be ... Relatively poor, really warm and tropical, lots of green and surprisingly red earth (reminded me of Madagascar!) we soon found out that finding the right bus wasn't the hardest part of the journey, but to find the place where we would have to get off, because there are no buss tops, and also actually getting off the bus, because they are even fuller than buses in Montevideo (we had pass the luggage through the window!!!!) But finally we made it to our friends house where we were invited to share a meal (Paraguayan hospitality requires you to eat at least 3 plates and they made 3 kg of meat for 3 persons^^) I had my first cold mate, we were able to relax and they even showed us an Indian village of the Maka tribe, which was really interesting and different. As final event in Paraguay we went to visit the temple in Asuncion and were able to do proxy baptisms there. It was really awesome and such nice people!

From there we took the night bus to Foz de Iguassu, Brazil, which took only 6 hours and from there to the neighboring Puerto de Iguazu, Argentina, where our nice little promising hostel "Iguazu Falls" was located. I really got to appreciate the European Union as to traveling and border control because here you have to pass borders every single time, out of one country and into the next, but at least it's a nice collection of stamps in your passport (total stamps 14!!!!)

Well so we finally got to visit the falls!!! At first the Argentinian side! by the way, the first Europeans discovered the falls in 1542 under the lead of Alvaro Núñez de Vaca, only six years after the foundation of the city Asuncion. After the mighty Parana River mouths into the Iguazu, this almost infinite amount of water encounters a basalt platform, that abruptly ends and thousands of cubic meters of water per second are gushing down up to 80 m . The various waterfalls combined occupy more than 2 km in width.

Obviously the crazy Americans =)

Enough boring details, so we entered the park took a train and consecutive walk over 9 river arms to the Garganta del diablo (devil's throat/ Teufelsschlund) which which is the culminating point of a U-shaped waterfall system, but let the pictures speak for themselves ... Pretty impressive :)
We were then able to do another hike around the waterfall area with breathtaking views, sunshine and accompanied by monkeys, exotic birds and ring-tailed coatis, which took us down to the lower river level and a boat platform where we crossed over to La Isla de Martín. The island itself is really small but allowed us to get closer to the 3 main waterfalls of Iguazu and the walk around fancied our eyes with new angles, more beautiful landscapes, vultures, rainbows, … the list is endless! We concluded the day with a festive dinner buffet comprising all sorts of food that a gourmand´s heart could desire.

The next day started off with heavy rains and thunderstorms and we were almost about to abandon our plans of visiting the Brazilian side of the falls, if there hadn´t been 2 crazy Americans (there´s always a crazy American!!!) we had met at the hostel, that convinced us to do it anyway. Armed with whole-body rain-ponchos and all important things wrapped up rainproof, we headed out into what should turn out to become a funny splash around. We really had a lot of fun altogether, although or maybe because it was raining and rather a little bit foggy, but it was a totally different experience as to the day before, with a completely different national park on the Brazilian side that doesn´t bring you that close to the falls themselves but offer majestic panoramic views along the Iguazu River up to the main falls.

The next day (Sunday) we were already packing our things and got ready to undertake the trip back home, but first we went to church in the local Latter-day Saints (Mormon) ward, which is always a great pleasure to sing, pray and worship together, to be edified and strengthened for the week, but above all to renew our baptismal covenants by partaking of the sacrament. Our last stop before the departure was the border triangle of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, being divided only by the respective rivers responsible for the falls. From there it was only a nice and comfy 18h bus ride to Buenos Aires, where we basically needed the entire day to get to the temple there, but it was worth the pain (in total more than 5 h city traffic and walking^^). And then tired, exhausted and really ready to fall asleep, but happy and content we finally boarded the ferry to get back to our beloved Montevideo . . .

At the end there are only two things left to say: first that God´s creations and the beauty thereof are precious and gorgeous beyond measure and that we need to make an effort to show our gratitude toward our maker e.g. by preserving it (start today and don´t throw your trash anywhere else but into a trash can!) and secondly that I thank my girlfriend for this great time together and I love her with all my heart.