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Blog No 22 The Iguazu Falls

Michele, Megan, Alec and I departed Miami's international airport shortly before midnight in the summer of 2005, bound for Buenos Aires, and arrived at the capital of Argentina in the middle of winter. We did the usual tourist routine, visiting the soccer stadium outside the city, marveled at the splendor of Teatro Colon, and paid our respects at the memorial to Eva Peron. We caught a flight to Montevideo, Uruguay, but on our return to Buenos Aires we were detained for 24 hours because Montevideo’s airport was shrouded in a dense fog. Unfortunately, we missed one day of our planned stay at the splendid hotel near Iguazu Falls.

On several leisurely visits to the world’s most spectacular waterfall close to our hotel, we stood next to the thundering torrent of water that rushed down the main cataract called the “Devil’s Throat, plunging 269 feet to the bottom of the gorge. We watched Great Dusky Swifts fly through the wall of water to where they roost and nest behind the falls. It gave us an eerie feeling to be this close to Nature’s awesome power.

One day we journeyed to the Brazil side, also inspiring, but an altogether different experience. Here you can walk on a wooden walkway out over the edge of the river and view a wide expense of water with multiple falls in the distance, accented by tropical foliage. The weather was sunny, producing rainbows in the mist. On the boardwalk we were surprised to run into a medical colleague from work. The experience was overwhelming and I consider myself most fortune to have experienced it with my family.

We returned to Miami in a jumbo jet in an overnight flight from Buenos Aires. During the night, some 30,000 feet below me over the Brazilian jungle, I saw intense thunderstorms with constant flashes of lightning. After we arrived in Miami in the early morning hours, I went straight to work. My partner Dr Powell was happy to be relieved of 14 successive days of being on call at our hospital.

All photos by author

From Brazil

Michele, Alec and Megan

The Devil's Throat

Blog No 34 California Condor Saved from Extinction

My first condor The Passenger Pigeon was our largest and most colorful wild pigeon but became extinct when the last pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. It was once the most abundant bird in North America. After the Civil War, these pigeons were observed migrating in gigantic flocks,

Blog No 33 Military Aircraft over Washington DC

While growing up during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s my brothers and I often saw B-52 bombers flying over the Ozark skies. The plane had a distinctive appearance but we usually identified the airplane before we saw it because of its unique sound. I have some

Blog No 32 A Brief History of Fireworks

July 4, 2023 The earliest firecrackers date back to China in the 2nd century BCE when bamboo stalks were placed on a fire to keep evil spirits away. The heated stalks exploded with a popping sound and led to the development of firecrackers. During the Tang Dynasty, 600-900 CE,

Blog No 31 Bible Translations

Michele and I recently visited the Congressional Library in Washington DC, the largest such library in the world, housing 2.9 million documents. It prominently displays the Gutenberg Bible (one of 21 copies still in existence) produced by Johann Guntenberg in Mainz, Germany in 1455, based on the text of

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Blog No 34 California Condor Saved from Extinction

Blog No 33 Military Aircraft over Washington DC

Blog No 32 A Brief History of Fireworks

Blog No 31 Bible Translations