Itaipú

Tuesday 5 February 2008

We took the bus north to the town of Ciudad del Este this morning. Ciudad del Este is right on the Brazilian border, and is mostly known as one of the smuggling hot spots of South America, rife with crime and drugs and trouble in general. We found none of that, luckily. Instead, we visited Ciudad del Este's other claim to fame - the Binacional Itaipú dam. It is the largest hydroelectric producer in the world (at the moment - the Three Gorges will be bigger) although I won't bore you with megawatt and turbine size statistics here. It's just really big.

We took a whirlwind tour provided by the dam, which was a half-hour bus ride during which the guide mumbled continuously, trying to fit his whole schpeal in, and three stops were made to take pictures. It was really cool to see, though, and an interesting little afternoon trip!