Paraguay #8: "The World Is Charged with the Grandeur of God..."

Chipa

Maria Ana's Chiperia, Berrero, Paraguay

Breakfast on Satuday morning was at Maria Ana's Chiperia in Barrero, famous for Paraguay's traditional breakfast  food, Chipa.  Maria Ana was a single mother who started this roadside Chiperia and now only employs single mothers.  Her business is booming. Women both young and old in blue skirts bustle back and forth to cars with large baskets full of Chipa.  Soon we are on the road again, bound for the Cataratas del Iguazú.   

The Navigator

 To get there we travel through the city of Ciudad del Este, which is the 3rd largest tax-free shopping zone in the world after Miami and Hong Kong.  Chaotic doesn't even start to cover it.  We should have never made it to the falls in time, stuck in what was defintitely the worst traffic jam I have ever seen in my life.  However, Fernando paid a young local boy, Juan, to hop in our car and play navigator.  He took us along a short cut through backroads that saved two hours.  And so we made it over the border to Iguazú.  Such unbelievable spectacular beauty.  I previously had some hesitation about playing, "Tourist" on D&P Solidarity trips.  "We are here for something important, we are not tourists." I thought.  However, one partner told me when we were in Zambia 3 years ago, " We want you to see the beauty of what our country has to offer." And the same is true now.  Where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet, there lies the most spectacular natural wonder. I can hardly choose which of the many photos I took to share with you. Here's one of my favourites though...Later I saw another rainbow, a complete circle like a halo on the falls. I stood in the midst staring though the circle's center at the power of the flowing water, its roar thundering though my body.  Gerard Manley Hopkins came up from the depths of my soul and echoed in my ears all day long, "The World Is Charged with the Grandeur of God."

Cataratas del Iguazú, as seen from Brazil