Dam engineers with hard hats and hard-ons
After the rude awaking on monday morning, thankfully the day got better. The night saw most of the hostel turning up at a local carnival party, somewhere between a free party and a redneck ho-down, but an excellent night dancing around in the dirt to DJs and a samba band, what a way to see out the carnival!
The next day I had to escape before the endless partying killed me, so I took an overnight bus over to the Iguaçu falls and spent the day sleeping and recovering while it pissed it down outside.
Today I came up smiling and was even up before breakfast started at 7:30am – now there´s a first (and realistically a last).
The Brazillian side of the falls are located in a corner of Brazil referred to as the three frontiers as it borders both Paraguay and Argentina. In the morning I went to see the Brazillian side of the falls, very nice they were too, and could see across to Argentina on the other side.
In the afternoon I went down to see the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, one of the biggest this and largest that etc and also claimed to be one of the seven modern wonders of the world. After half an hour of cheesy corporate promo video, telling us how wonderfull it all was and what a good job they´d made of it, we jumped on a bus and headed for the dam. A photo opportunity missed was of the large sign greeting us on the roadside as we approached: “Welcome – prepare to be excited!!!” with a photo of a man with a big smile, not unlike the election signs that are plaguing Mexico at the moment (and which it would seem Gwyn has a hand in). I can assure you, I was wetting myself!
The commentary over the bus speakers helpfully informed us with such interesting stats like the amount of concrete poured in each day was equivalent to a 22 and a half storey building, the amount of steel used could build 319 slightly small Eiffel towers etc. – you get the idea. All of this was interspersed with synthesized lounge jazz music, which is perfect when looking at all this industrial shit. This is obviously where Ministry went wrong. Well by this point I couldn´t contain myself as I tried stiffling the laughter. The German engineer types were not amused.
On the journey back through town I passed the border to Paraguay, where lots of people got on with bags full of cheap electronics as the Brazillian government taxes technology at around 100%. So effectively I`d seen three countries in the same day, which is all very clever but ultimately pointless, but good all the same.
Crossed the border over to Argentina today and will go to see the falls from this side tomorrow, then get the bus down to Buenos Aires, which promises to be one of those places I´m going to get stuck for quite some time, looking forward to it.
Tags: Argentina, Brazil, South America, Travel
Ed
Hey Ed
you’re in danger of moving into tourist area here. Next you’ll be taking rides around town in horse drawn carriage 🙂 Inside the furniture was real but the blinds were drawn – oh dear, bad joke! It’s been freezing here – unusual for winter but now it’s back to rain. e-submision, marking, IP goes on… Sounds dreary but quite good. I can think of worse things to do to pay for the skiing and sailing etc
Keep up the commentary
Sometimes it´s a very close brush with tourist hell, but let´s face it, I´m a tourist too, I just use the word backpacker to disguise it!
What plans do you have or your next skiing or sailing trip?
Hi Ed
skiing 2mo (19th) and then Scotalnd for Easter and sailing to Channel Isles in early May. Then nothing until Sep when we sail around Mallorca on a floaty boaty holiday. Probably do a couple of festivas in between time.
Been planning our winter hol next year. Choices: S. America, skiing in Canada, visiting friends in Oman or NZ. Money and AL the deciding issues probably
Matt
I´d recommend S.America, but then I guess I would. Down here in Patagonia you can ski as well at the right time of the year.
Sounds like you´ve got plenty to look forward to though, enjoy the skiing.
Thought you might recomend SA! It’s definately on our itenary but the main porblem is time. Just not enough of it to visit all the places in one life 🙂 Hell, when I can clock 44.2 mph carving down a blue run on my 10th day of skiing (GPS reading) at my age then I reckon we’ll get there. Did I say that one of my amitions is to do the Global Challenge so that calls in Ba As but I’d only see the sea shore and the docks – any good tango dancing!
Matt