My favourite chant at the Iguazu Falls, on the Argentine side, by a troupe of local buskers. They were jolly, but visibly tired at the end of a warm day.

Visiting the Iguazu Falls, experiencing the scale of the falls and cataracts and the thundering sounds, together with the natural setting of the subtropical Alto Paraná Atlantic forest, is a mind-blowing experience.

At the end of a day, the beautiful songs by this group captured for me the happy and magic mood that surrounds the falls. The two girls beautifully carried the song, the little one was ‘hanging in there’, and the young boy is maybe the funniest one of all. He was preoccupied eating a snack and funnily walked away towards the end of the song (just to throw the wrapping in the bin, and luckily, he returned). It has become one of these tunes that linger in my mind and is associated with a magical place.

I doubt that the following legend has anything to do with the song, but I love the idea that it is said that “a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.‪”

If you ever get yourself a canoe, and intend to slice a river, this certainly is the best result you can get.

Text, Video and Photography by Jan Haenraets

Jan Haenraets is a Director of Atelier Anonymous Landscapes Inc., Vancouver, BC, Canada