The Iguassu Falls Area Guru

Sometimes I feel that missionaries and environmentalists are very similar. I grew up witnessing how missionaries prefer to be sent to distant Indian communities in the wild, teaching the rudiments of the Christian faith and guiding them until the day arrives for the official forcede removal of these tribes from their native and traditional headwater lands. They are then brought to live on riverbanks normally populated by all kinds of insects among them yellow fever, dengue and malaria mosquitoes. Once the Indians are established on the riverbank their houses start to be European-styled, namely one-house-one family, their settlements tend to have streets, school, a church, later on a police station and so on. The signs of civilization. Sooner than the Indians think they are left alone. They are now civilized. The native soil land back in the headwater lands is empty and open for development. Environmentalists behave the same way or, at least that is my opinion. Firm opinion to say the b...

What to do with Salto Monday? Monday here is not the English name for a day of the week. It is a Guarani word that brings to my mind the idea of "Stolen Water". Some people say that Monday means something like "Falls of Thieves", because since it is located a few kilometers from the spot where the Monday River empties into the Paraná, it would be a very strategic place for smugglers, thieves and other "evildoers" to hide their things before floating them out of Paraguay and into Argentina or Brazil. I do not like this renedering at all. But anyway what can we do with Monday Falls? Being so close to Iguassu it is considered to be an Iguassu's dwarf or even bastard sister. Paraguay has not learned how to tell the world about Monday. There are also ecological and social concerns. Not a long ago a truck was caught by local people as the driver prepared to dumb contaminated hospital products into the Falls. The police was called, the truck driver was arrest...

I am happy to have received an important comment from the author of Temas Blog among other things saying that my blending of tourism, environmental issues and Mercosul is interesting. This has come at the right time because I was seriously thinking about discontinuing the Iguassu Falls Area Blog. Mr. Keith Ripley, author, blogger and environmental expert has paid a good service to the Iguassu Falls International Area as he published an English-language synopsis of the Minstry of Environment announcement that the Iguaçu National Park / Brazil is about to become the first National Park in the world to receive ISO 14001 Management Certification Program. I have found hints in the internet that hotels, resorts and lodges inside national parks in the US and beyond have been able to get ISO 14001 certification. This has also been the case in the Iguaçu National Park where the Hotel das Cataratas (member of Tropical Hotels ) has received its ISO 14001 back in 2000. Also the same Hotel has mo...

The group that holds the concession to operate the visitors' area and are responsible for the equipment and support to tourists from the whole world to Iguassu Falls / Argentinean side have announced that they have started renting baby cars to visitors with children. Most of the circuit to see the Falls on the Argentine side is accessible for wheeled things be they baby cars or wheel chairs.

Photo courtesy of the City Press Department The man in the photo is the mayor of Foz do Iguaçu, Paulo MacDonald Ghisi. And what is he doing in the water? Has he been pushed by his multitude of policical haters and enemies? Nope! Far from it. He has just finished a 40-minute rafting trip down the Iguaçu River - one of the 100-things-to-do I have posted a few days ago. As far as my ears are concerned this the first time that I heard of a mayor of the city of Foz do Iguaçu take part in any of the things that the town offers its tourists. Some times I thought that these guys were too good to the local water, spree, mud, mosquitoes, sun and, above, the great am,ount of excitement and adrenaline that the local atrractions can offer. Before getting down to the Iguaçu River level the mayor enjoyed great sights as he hung from a rappel rope in order to negotiate the 80 meter-high cliffs which are part of Iguassu falls. The mayor said that this was the first time that he allowed himself to reac...

The archbishop of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Eusébio Scheid, asked Brazilian Catholics and the Catholic Community as a whole to see the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro as a Sacred Place. The Brazilian Cardinal spoke during the celebration of the Statue's 75th anniversary on October 12. The Cardinal remembred the religious aspect of the effort to build a Christian monument that started back in 1888. Though the idea was not materialized then, citizens of Rio de Janeiro led by General Pedro Carolino Pinto de Almeida, through an organization called the "Catholic Circle" brought back the idea of building a monument of the Christ blessing the city of Rio de janeiro. The population of Rio de Janeiro, according to the speech of Cardinal Scheid voted massively in order to choose the location for the statue. There were three mountain tops to choose from: the Santo Antônio Hill, the Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado - the hump-shaped mountain. The Corcova...