Itaipu Dam

We had muchas fun looking around the world´s biggest hydro-electro producing dam. We were ready to sign ourselves up for one years hard, unpaid labour after they showed us the (propaganda) film prior to the tour; our services weren´t required though, because the dam was completed in 2006. Lisa had a face on in the beginning because she had noticed some tour groups were being given orange hard hats to wear and she didn´t get one. Tensions eased when she realised that part of the tour included a ride on the special (needs) train, which shows you around the Itaipu zoo park (this houses damaged wildlife from the surrounding area). Andyb got more excited than he does viewing a well erected piece of ducting, when he saw the vastness of the dam, which is 8 kilometers long. An awful lot of concrete (enough to build 210 Maracana stadiums) and steel (enough to make 80 awful towers) has gone into the dam´s production. It supplies Paraguay with virtually all of its electricity, and Brazil with about 25%. Furthermore, the indiginous people are all VERY happy that the dam was built even though it flooded vast areas of land causing millions of them to be relocated (so says Itaipu Dam´s company information film).

We´ve also added some photos of the wildlife that we spotted at the Itaipu Dam and the surrounding area of Iguazu.

Cabybara

Toucan

This is a very exotic creature, certainly not from these parts! (this photo was taken at 11:00am after the heavens opened)