Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
This is going to be quite a long one since we have left it so long since the last update! After leaving Rio we landed in Iguacu, again no issues with the transport, picked up our bags and headed to the hostel, the Supernova, which was lush! We had our own little apartment, me and Carly in one room and Dave and Pickett in another. Shared a bog. Best of all had a swimming pool outside of the room and air con, the luxury! It was really nice though, clean and the pool was a nice relief to the hot weather. We chilled there that evening after visiting the Super Muffato for 1 quid litre bottles of beer!
Next day we headed to the falls, which were amazing! We started in the shop as Dave was desperate for a hat with a cougar on, which he got. Then a short bus trip to the start of the treks, after the first corner we bumped into a raccoon, who was pretty freindly. Then we walked around the next corner to see a little monkey swinging down, striking a pose for us! Great start to the trek. Around a few more corners there was the first vierw point. WOW! Hundreds of little falls all cascading together, made for amazing photos! After 10 minutes here we slowly moved on... slowly beacuse we just kept stopping every few yards to take photos, around every bend was a better view. What we didn realise (apart from Dave as he had seena a program about it) was this was barely anything on what was at the end of the trail. We contiuned on, with some more wildlife on the way... a arms length long lizard! Tooks a few shot of him and moved on. Then we saw what we had come to see (the picture above!) It was INCREDIBLE! We stood for a minute all stunned by the power and beauty, which during full flood season can hit 3 million litres of water gushing over per second, it really was something else. We continued down into the 'Devils Throat' which is a platform hovering over the River Parana right into the main falls. It was astonishing. the sheer volume of water gushing over, then meandering into the river so gently. We couldn't work out where all the water was going! Anyway, was pretty busy on the platform so had to queue for the best photos. Finally we headed to the top viewing platform onthe way out. Lots of raccoons up there, Carly was in her element! She chased them around trying to get photos for around 10 minutes before we dragged her away! We finished the day with some pool in the hostel... was an amazing day.
Next day we headed to the Itapu Dam, on the border between Paragauy and Brazil. We jumped on the tour bus with an excited Carly (electrics and all that) and drove to the first view point. This was the slipways - the guide said that they only open 10% of the time, when there is excessive water within the lake... luckily the rainly weather meant there was too much and one of the slipways was open! Again a massively impressive sight, the water being forced into the air, forming an arc of cloudy water, preventing damage to the riverbed. ironic given the amount of natural habitat destroyed to create the largest hydro-electric dam in the world. We moved on to the next section of the dam, a vantage point of the chutes, providing the turbines water giving momentum to produce the massive amounts of electricty. This was quite a sight, the dam wasn tall but was extremely wide. An impressive barrier to the lake above. We finally got to drive the lower and upper tiers of the dam - this pleased me and Pickett as we thought we were getting mugged off paying 7 quid to spend 5 minutes at two vantage points! this offered a differenet perspective of the views, and gave a glimpse of the vast lake. Dave says this dam produces more electricity than the entirity of the 3 Gorges Dam! Once Carly had calmed down we headed back to the Muffato to get supplies for the 14 hour bus journey ahead, onto Florianopolis!
- comments