"Poor Niagara!"

When the world was ruled by M'Boy, the snake-god, the caigangues used to live by Iguaçu river. Igobi, the chieftain, had a daughter called Naipi, who was so beautiful that the waters of the river stopped each time she looked at her reflection in the water. Because of her beauty, Naipi was consecrated to god M'Boy, and she began to live within his cult. Meanwhile, a young warrior called Tarobá, saw Naipi and fell in love with her. On the day she was supposed to be sacrificed, Tarobá ran away with Naipi in a canoe. When M'Boy realized what had happened, he got angry and penetrated the land, making a huge cleft, and creating a giant waterfall. The waters enveloped the canoe and the runaway lovers. Naipi was transformed into a rock in the middle of the waterfall, where she is forever pummeled by the turbulent waters. Tarobá became a palm tree at the edge of the abyss, forever condemned to witness the fate of his lover. Beneath that palm tree, there is a cave, under the Devil's Throat, where the vengeful monster watches his victims forever.

Hello everyone! We are now officially on the last leg of our trip...taking a lovely vacation before our return to the United States. This past weekend we visited the state of Paraná, in the south of Brazil, to see the famous cataratas (waterfalls) in Foz do Iguaçu. Being some of the largest waterfalls in the world, it is said that Eleanor Roosevelt exclaimed upon seeing them, "Poor Niagara!"

Unfortunately, the area is in the midst of a severe drought and the falls are lower than they've been since the 1970s. This has caused a good deal of the smaller falls to temporarily dry up. The river has become so dry that you could actually walk across a good deal of it. We asked at our hostel about boat tours that take you to the bottom of the falls and were given this info: the average flow rate of the river is about 1200 cubic meters of water. In order for the boat to run, the rate must be at least 600 cubic meters. As of this weekend, the rate was just under 300 cubic meters of water. So sad! This means we will definitely have to plan another trip to the cataratas during the rainy season (December or January is when they are at their fullest).

These dry cliffs are usually huge falls!

The VERY dry river.

However, don't let this little setback fool you...the falls were still maravilhoso! We arrived in Foz after our lovely 23 hour bus ride from Rio...yawn, and got right to it. On Saturday, we visited the
Brazilian side of the falls (they are shared by Brazil and Argentina, with the Iguaçu River being right on the border). The national park features a very nice walking trail around the falls, which ends at the biggest, the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat). This fall is still raging and extremely beautiful. After working up an apetite exploring the falls, the park has a restaurant area right on the river, from which you can see the tops of the falls.

No, these aren't postcards! Pretty gorgeous, huh?

On Sunday we did the Argentine side of the falls, which offers views from the top, looking down. Unfortunately, a lot of these views were from falls that are dry at the moment, and we ended up liking the Brazilian side better. However, the view from the top of the Devil's Throat was amazing. You couldn't even see the bottom, there was so much water!

Garganta del Diablo

We met several people from our hostel in Foz that were tons of fun to hang out with and Saturday night we all went on a little outing to a local churrascuria (Brazilian BBQ), which was a great time. I think it was slightly stressful to the waiter having a table of 10, being two Irish, one Brit, three Mexicans, two Kiwis (New Zealanders) and two Americans...and me being the only one amongst us that spoke Portuguese! The couple from New Zealand we've gotten to know particularly well, as they also traveled with us by bus here to Buenos Aires and we have dinner plans for tomorrow night. They have just finished a year long cycle tour of South America, in which they actually rode 6,363+ miles through South America, beginning on the Southermost tip of Argentina.

Fun in the hostel--Silas from New Zealand and Amelia from England.

Which brings us to Argentina. We arrived this morning, after another 20 hours on a bus through the Argentine countryside. So far the city is gorgeous and sooo cheap! More to come soon!