Yguazu

The Iguazú River plunges over a great arc of waterfalls before joining the Paraná, amid the forests of the upper river basin. Its Guaraní name means great water. The falls divide the river into many channels and cataracts, including the deep gorge known as the Devil’s Throat. Guaraní communities inhabited the surrounding forests long before Europeans reached the region.

In 1542 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca encountered the falls while travelling overland from the Atlantic coast toward Asunción. He called them the Falls of Santa María, but the Guaraní name endured. Jesuit missions later appeared in the wider river country, bringing some Guaraní communities into mission settlements. The rivers and forest remained central features of a frontier where Indigenous societies, missionaries and European colonists met.