Iguazu Falls

A couple of weeks ago I took a trip to Foz de Iguazu, some of the largest waterfalls in the world.  (They are certainly the largest in South America, and while Africa’s Victoria Falls are taller, Iguazu Falls pour out much more water.) They lie just an hour or so east of Paraguay’s border with Brazil and Argentina.

Unfortunately, I went through torrential downpours, but it was still an incredible sight.

If any of you dear readers hope to see it some day, I can't recommend the place enough. I stayed and viewed the falls from the Argentinian side, called Puerto Iguazu. Brazil owns part of the falls, but as far as I could tell, all of the prime views and best trails are in Argentina. So here's a goofy photo of me and a couple of snaps of the falls.

Tom Gavin.

Most of you from back home who have been following my blog know that I studied and worked in Philadelphia for several years before becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer. For much of that time, I lived with Tom Gavin (an old classmate of my father’s from architecture school) and his wife, Cara. I cannot think of my time in Philadelphia without thinking of morning coffees with Tom, the extravagant dinners that he cooked up, or the questions he peppered me with about Philadelphia’s streetscapes as we explored them. His generosity of spirit, curiosity and kind-heartedness, were a powerful demonstration about how I should interact with people, of what I should strive to be like. I took to calling him my godfather when explaining my relationship with him to other volunteers and with Paraguayans.

A month after I arrived in Potrero Pucu, Tom was diagnosed with an especially pernicious form of brain cancer. And as my experiences with Tom defined my time in Philly, his battle with brain cancer came to define my time in Paraguay a little too. He died last night. I’ll miss him very much.