Itaipu DAMN!

After seeing the Argentine side of the falls on Saturday we needed a day of rest. Just as well, because on Sunday (9th Dec) everything was shut. We had planned to leave the next day but decided to stay a day longer so that Hannah could buy a new rucksack (the old one really was only made for festival going, not trekking half way round the globe...ow!) and so we could see the Itaipu dam, the biggest in the world (until China built the Three Gorges project).


Anyway after some ribbing that I was dragging Hannah on a busman's holiday, we got up on the Monday morning and set off back into Brazil for the day. (The Itaipu dam straddles the River Paraná, separating Brazil and Paraguay). A change of buses (and a passport stamp) later and we were at the visitors centre. First problem - we'd forgotten that in summer Brazil is 1 hour ahead of Argentina, and so rather than having time to kill we had to jump straight on the tour bus. Second problem - despite all the available guide books telling you the tour of the dam was free, we had to pay 13 reals each. Cue lots of problems with change (because we only had 20 reals left by this point), three different credit cards not working, and eventual payment half in reals and half in pesos.

OK so now we were on the tour bus. After 5 minutes driving around (and listening to a light jazz soundtrack, bizarrely) we stopped for photos. It was raining by now. The view was not great. We could see a bloody big wall. Mmmm, maybe the next photo opportunity would be better....? After getting back on the bus we were driven over the lower section of dam, past all the big conduits that feed water into the turbines (each could take half the flow of the Iguazu falls, fact fans) and (theoretically at least) into Paraguay. Then we went to the top of the dam. Great, should get a good photo from here, we thought. Except the bus didn't stop. It just took us back to the vistor centre....disappointing. Back at the vivitors centre we consoled ourselves that we could watch the educational film ("how exciting" says Hannah). But no. We managed to catch the last 5 minutes ("Oh, dear - such a shame" says Hannah) .

As an engineer I thought i'd really enjoy the trip to the dam (and that Hannah would at least tolerate it) but it was basically a total rip-off. As we were checking out of our hostel the next day another couple were asking the owner about the dam. Turns out the guy was an engineer too. I told him not to bother! (And his girlfriend looked relieved.....!)

Robin