When nature made me cry

Many years ago, when I was a teenager and lived in Uruguay, my family went on a trip to Paraguay, the beautiful country in the heart of South America. We went by bus and I remember it as a never-ending trip.

We crossed the south of Brazil, the state called Santa Catarina, and we stayed the first night at a hotel in the Brazilian-Paraguayan frontier, called Ciudad del Este. It was a lovely hotel with a swimming-pool and although I love water something else caught my attention…there was a casino. Everywhere else, you can enter a casino once you are twenty-one years old but this one was different and you did not have to show your ID card or passport. I dressed very elegant with a Pierre Cardin dress I had bought that same afternoon and put on high heels, lots of make up so I could look older and there I went with two other girls from the same trip. To be honest, I was nervous at the entrance and could already see the three of us at the police station waiting for your parents to rescue us (I have to admit I was not very positive at that time!) but nothing like that happened, they just welcomed us and all of a sudden, we were in! That was the first (and last) visit to a casino in my life. A couple from the trip was already there and they invited us to the table where they were playing roulette. They gave us a quick explanation about it and we placed our bets. Needless to say that although we had had the fortune to go inside the casino, our luck stayed at the door!

The following day we continued the trip and the next stop was a visit to the Iguazu Falls. We got to the Iguazu river and sailed from the Brazilian side to the Argentinian one on a tiny boat. The river ran calmly and water was transparent. All kinds of a rich vegetation could be seen on both sides. The weather was lovely, it was hot and very humid, so humid that as soon as you started walking you felt you had the need to take a deep breath sooner than later.

Then the guide told us the legend:
Boi, the fearsome snake, majestic, monstrous and reckless. Every year, a woman had to be sacrificed regularly. She had to be young and beautiful, so that the snake would not later cast its curses on the locals, who were forced to respect and fear it. On one occasion, the one chosen to die was Naipí, a beautiful woman.
But the young chief Taroba fell in love with her. His efforts to convince the wise elders, although fearful of the snake, were in vain. There was no love that could avoid the reasonable fate.The night before, Tarobá decided to escape with Naipí, to go far away and avoid the outcome. But Boi knew it, as it knew everything that happened in the river. It went after them. When it was close, it quietly bent its back and dealt a thunderous blow to the river, with such force that it split it into a thousand pieces.

Thus the waterfalls were born, with their 275 jumps, from a blow that costed the lives of the lovers. Taroba was turned into trees, which can be seen at the top; and the waterfall was born from her long hair.

Boi took shelter in the Devil’s Throat to watch over them, beneath that imposing 80-meter waterfall. Its power had succumbed because of Tarobá and Naipí, and it would not allow the lovers to be together again ever.

There are those who say that with each rainbow that forms in the impressive waterfall, they kiss again. For a moment, sometimes just a short while, in which they manage to reaffirm their love.

I need to add that the Devil’s Throat is jaw-dropping. The sound of the previously quiet, even shy river is like thunder there. I stood in front of it, marvelled at the view, all of a sudden I felt tears running down my cheeks, tears caused by the marvel of nature. That feeling was unforgettable. That was the day when nature made me cry.