The Not Quite as We Planned Brazil Trip, Second Dam Day

On Monday we were supposed to go the Argentine side of the Falls. But the forecast had a 100% chance of rain, so we decided that might be a bit miserable and changed our plans for Monday and Tuesday. Monday we headed to Paraguay to visit the Itaipu Dam and Ciudad del Este.

Now you might wonder... hmmmm they're going to a dam, did they make an excessive number of dam jokes. Oh yes, yes we did, esp. Matt, Kate, and I. They actually started on Sunday as we anticipated the dam trip. We decided on Sunday we were dam fools, but after the tour we'd be dam smart. We also read several dam brochures. Although rain had been threatened, the storm moved through faster and it turned out to be a sunny dam day. My favorite moment though was when Wimon accidentally said that we were going to watch a Dam Video on the bus. (We had been trying to avoid making to many dam jokes in front of the 11 year old.) OK... I'm done... for now.

When we arrived at the dam visitors center. (They really are impossible to avoid.) I was able to take a picture of some of the giant ant hills around here. Apparently they were protecting this one. At the center we watched another video that we are guessing was made around 1990. Anytime they talk about 'modern' technology and show a computer screen that is black with amber letters, you wonder a bit.

After the visitors center we went to see the dam. There are two parts to it, kind of, there is the overflow area from the lake, which is what is in the foreground. Apparently they only have to open the gates 3 or 4 times a year. (Remember the water was high at the falls too.) It was pretty impressive to see. While it looks like a big water slide, apparently traveling down it wouldn't be a great idea as the water is moving at about 75 mph.
Rosalinda certainly did tell several of the students to "get in the dam picture." Who'd of thought Rosalinda would say such a thing??? :)

We also got to go inside one "little" part of the dam. Under the floor are the turbines. There are 20 in the dam, 18 are running at any one time. If you look carefully in picture you can see a bright spot far off in the top part of the picture. That is the other end of the room 1.2 km away.

The Itaipu Dam from the Brazilian side. Itaipu was (or is) the largest dam in the world, depending on how far along the Three Gorges Dam in China is. While the dam in China will be bigger, this dam still produces the most electricity. It supplies 78% of the electricity used in Paraguay and 25% of the electricity used in Brazil. (It could supply 100% of the electricity in Paraguay as Paraguay sells a lot of its electricity generated by the dam to Brazil, but for reasons unknown to me it doesn't.)

After the dam trip we went to visit Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Rhonda Collier described it as, Walmart on crack that spilled out into the streets. That seems about right. The streets are lined with vendors, people are trying to sell you socks everywhere, it was bizarre. There are also several legitimate stores we could go in. 5 of the students and I went off to find lunch and shop. The 5 students bought 12 soccer jerseys among them. I bought a fake Rolex... its a bad fake which makes me really happy. The vendor assured me it was worth $100 (U.S.) so I got a great deal at about $10. :) Its still ticking though after 3 days so I'm impressed. After we had a great time shopping we headed back to the hotel.

In the evening we went to dinner and a show at Refain. It seems that most of the restaurants here feature meat from a parilla and a buffet. This was true of Refain too. The show demonstrated lots of music and dancing from around Latin America. They kept bringing out different "bands." For the most part, it was the same musicians, singers, and dancers in different costumes. We kept laughing during the tango part, because you could tell they were Brazilians doing tango... they kept smiling... Tango is serious if you are from Argentina or Uruguay!!! When they started playing music from Mexico, we felt right at home. One of our female students got pulled up on stage by a lecherous tambourine player in the Brazilian part of the show. He told her to hit him with wooden in the chest and then the stomach and then in the well... and she did. According to Wimon and Rosalinda she hit him harder than most girls do... so we were proud... he asked for it. The show was lots of fun.

We headed back to the hotel exhausted but ready for another exciting day as we were going to the Argentine side of the falls the next day.