Traveler

his Countrie is somewhat melancholicke, overflowne with many waters, as wel of maine Rivers, as from the Skie.” Like the sixteenth-century diarist who made this observation, you are in awe of the many rivers from the Skie, for this region is called the Land of Giant Waterfalls. Indeed, the landscape is punctuated with nearly three hundred of them, and had you tried navigating its waterways, you too would have found the Countrie melancholicke. But you flew here from the coast, and your encounter with this gossamer cascade has brought you bliss. As soon as you hear a distinctive bird call, you realize that the name of the cataract before you is not scatological, as you first thought, but onomatopoeic, borrowed from a long-billed wader (the head of an ancient god, a patron of scribes, recalls a bird of the same family). While you don’t enter a different country if you cross this river, it was baptized for another river where you do. Follow these waters far enough and you’ll reach the confluence of three international E S P R I Z e lucky borders, a territory where smugon , th Each mon ive $1,000 for glers roam freely and terrorists reill rece winner w location. e mystery ect th g portedly have a base. More happily, in rr nam co ll A : n In additio ically you’ll also arrive at a magnificent l automat il w s er Nast answ é d n o C d in series of saults that recently won drawbe entere ze ri -p d gran any to UNESCO status; they were discovered Traveler’s ip tr 0 0,00 g for a $1 y desin ar in rd 450 years ago by an adventurer extrao one of the this year. pictured whose matrilineal surname means tinations “cow head.” The bovine motif lives on: Today, cattle farming dominates this, the third most southerly of the nation’s twenty-six states. You can gorge on all-you-can-eat barbecue, in a style that originated here and is now trendy abroad, but you’ll probably struggle if you try to down a bitter tea drunk through a straw. You might wonder if this country’s new president is a supporter of the nearby reserve dedicated to a rare species of pine tree—after all, his cognomen suggests woods (though you know him by his affectionate nickname, which means squid). While you would expect this left-leaning leader to be sympathetic to the environment, there is cause for concern: A hydroelectric plant now stands just below these falls, and a larger dam is planned downstream (already, one of the world’s largest operates in these parts). So take it all in slowly, for this view—as magnificent as Ansel Adams’s iconic Bridal Veil Falls—could become a memory.

Where are you, anyhow?

The rules Please identify the place shown by sight or state and by country. For contest rules, the answer to the April puzzle, and the winner of the March prize, turn to page 186. Or play the contest online at cntraveler.com. 

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