The Monday Falls owes its name to the river that forms it, the Monday River, a watercourse in eastern Paraguay that runs through the department of Alto Paraná and flows into the great Paraná River, very close to Ciudad del Este. The waterfall occurs shortly before that mouth, where the river plunges over a rock step in a drop of about 40 meters.
The name 'Monday' comes from the Guaraní language, national language of Paraguay along with Spanish, and its meaning has given rise to different interpretations. One of the most widespread relates it to the idea of 'water theft' or to Guaraní expressions linked to water and the river ('y' means 'water' in Guaraní). As happens with many Guaraní place names, several versions of its exact origin coexist, which adds an aura of mystery to the place.
Beyond the etymology, the name reflects the deep Guaraní root of the whole region. The Guaraní people inhabited these eastern lands for centuries, crisscrossed by rivers and covered by the jungle of the Alto Paraná Atlantic Forest, and left their indelible mark on the language, the names of places and the culture. The Monday Falls is, in its name too, a testament to that heritage.
Long before any city or park existed, the lands where the Monday Falls plunges today were part of the vast domain of the Guaraní people and were covered by the lush Alto Paraná Atlantic Forest, one of the richest and most biodiverse ecosystems in South America. Mighty rivers, waterfalls and a dense jungle shaped a landscape of enormous natural abundance.
The Guaraní lived in harmony with that environment, from which they obtained food, water and materials, and which they charged with spiritual meaning. Rivers and waterfalls, like the Monday Falls itself, were places charged with significance within their worldview. The Guaraní imprint survives to this day in the language —widely spoken in Paraguay—, in the names of places and in the culture of the region.
With the arrival of the Europeans and, centuries later, with the expansion of the agricultural frontier and the growth of the cities, much of that original forest gradually disappeared. The Monday Falls, with the park that protects it today, preserves a fragment of that jungle and lets you imagine what the landscape the Guaraní knew and inhabited for generations was like.
For a long time, the Monday Falls was a natural spot known above all by the area's inhabitants, in the district of Presidente Franco, neighbor of present-day Ciudad del Este. It was a place of imposing beauty but relatively remote, without the infrastructure that today allows visiting it comfortably.
The situation changed with the transformation that all of eastern Paraguay underwent in the second half of the twentieth century. The founding of Ciudad del Este (then Puerto Presidente Stroessner) in 1957, the opening of the Friendship Bridge to Brazil in 1965 and, above all, the construction of the Itaipú Dam from the 1970s populated and energized the region, attracting workers, merchants and, over time, tourists.
In that context of development and growing tourist interest —boosted by the proximity of the Iguazú Falls, on the other side of the border—, the Monday Falls was prepared as an attraction, with the creation of a park that protects it and showcases it through walkways, viewpoints and services. Thus, a waterfall that for centuries had been a local secret became one of the natural icons of eastern Paraguay and a regular stop on the Triple Frontier circuit.
It's impossible to talk about the Monday Falls without mentioning its famous neighbor: the Iguazú Falls, one of the most spectacular sets of waterfalls on the planet, located a few dozen kilometers away, on the border between Argentina and Brazil. The worldwide fame of Iguazú, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world, has long overshadowed the more modest Monday Falls.
However, that comparison, far from detracting from its value, helps to understand the particular appeal of the Monday. While the Iguazú Falls receives crowds of visitors from all over the world, the Monday Falls offers a more intimate and calm experience, with its own drop of about 40 meters, its mist, its rainbows and its jungle setting, a step from Ciudad del Este. For many travelers, visiting both falls on the same trip lets you appreciate two different facets of the force of water in the region.
The proximity of the two great rivers —the Monday, which flows into the Paraná just after its falls, and the Iguazú, which forms the falls before also joining the Paraná— reflects the water wealth of the Triple Frontier. Today, the Monday Falls, the Itaipú Dam and the Iguazú Falls together form a natural and engineering circuit unique in South America, in which the Paraguayan falls shines with a light of its own.