I give the architect major props for The Iguassu Falls Walkway.  it’s design and location offered stunning views in a long, winding, easy to traverse , except  for the logjams caused by large groups who had to stop and gawk – couldn’t blame them as I was doing the same thing.

The walkway ends and curls around Devil’s Throat, which is the highest and deepest of the cascades of the Iguassu Falls, a U-shaped chasm 269 feet high and 492 feet wide that marks the border between Argentina and Brazil.

The red circle marks where I was standing at the edge of Devil’s Throat:

The crushing fall of water is relentless, the waves of mist waft upwards and the thunderous roar combine to create an humbling experience for mere mortals like myself.

Why was this watery amphitheater named  “Devil’s Throat”? There are a few stories.  If you recall, in a previous post I wrote about the local legend of a god who had planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, but she loved another, a mortal man named Tarobá. The lovers fled together by canoe away from the god, but they couldn’t paddle fast enough. The god, enraged and heartbroken, sliced the river creating the Iguassu waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.

The follow-up  story has it that Naipi turned into a central rock in the Falls and Tarobá into a palm tree that stands at the edge of an abyss near Naipi and a rainbow connects the two. The Devil’s Throat takes its name because, according to legend, it is the exact place where the god watches the two lovers.

Or, you can believe it is called the Devil’s Throat due to its formidable and turbulent characteristics  –  the powerfully roaring sound of the water cascading into a deep, round narrow chasm resembling a throat while the mists encompasses everything nearby.

I prefer the former, more romantic story.  Choose as you will.  Enjoy the beauty of it all.