We travelled overnight Saturday from Rio de Janeiro to Curitiba, 13 hours.

We stopped there to break the journey to our next stop , Iguacu , which would have taken 22 hours from Rio. It also seemed promising as a stop for a couple of nights as the guide-books said there was a spectacularly scenic train ride to the coast at Paranagua. I'm sure it would have been spectacular if we could have seen anything but it was rainy & misty all day & we really felt we had wasted a day. At one point our engine abandoned our carriages for an hour (at a height of 1000m in the fog ) . When we asked what was happening we were told that the engine had gone to help another one that was in trouble. Just like Thomas the Tank Engine !

Back on course , we travelled on to Foz do Iguacu 10 hours all day Tuesday. This is the nearest town in Brazil to the Iguacu Falls , on the border of Brazil, Argentina & Paraguay , the largest waterfalls in the world. Apparently , Roosevelt's wife on seeing them said "Poor Niagara !"

It is also only 12km from the Itaipu dam , the largest hydro-electric power plant in the world & one of the seven wonders of the modern world !

We took a local bus to visit the dam. The visitor centre showed a flm & we were taken by bus all around the complex & into the Paraguay side. It is a joint venture between Brazil & Paraguay & provides 25% of all the electric energy consumed by Brazil & over 90% of that of Paraguay. The sheer enormity of it was astounding. The dam is 5 miles long & the height of a 65 storey building. And a few more fascinating facts :- the rate of construction was equivalent to a 20 storey building every 55 mins, a world record for pouring concrete; the total volume of concrete used would build 210 stadiums like Maracana in Rio de Janeiro ; the construction iron & steel used would build 380 Eifel Towers.
A major downside of the project was that 40,000 familíes who lived & worked in the area were displaced. They supposedly still receive government compensation.

Yesterday , we visited the Falls. Breathtaking ! They consist of 275 waterfalls. It is impossible to capture on camera without a helicopter ! We walked along a 1.2 km walkway & around every corner there were more falls. They are just all around you, one of the most dramatic sights we have ever seen. 6500 cubic metres of water cascade over the brim of the semi-circular ravine every second. The spray rising from the bottom caused many beautiful rainbows. It was amazing, so beautiful & the power , size & sheer noise of it all was incredible. It was a blistering hot day & the cooling spray from the falls felt wondeful on our faces.

There were strange , tame , furry animals called coatis , similar to raccoons wandering round. There were signs everywhere not to feed them but they disappeared straight into every waste-bin in sight !

Afterwards , we looked round an excellent bird park whose native forest shelters 900 tropical birds of 150 species from all continents. Beautiful !

Tomorrow we leave Brazil for good. Back to Argentina.