Itaipu Damn

Our second and last day in Brazil was devoted to two things...visiting a nearby damn and getting through customs to visit the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls.  We arranged for transportation for both things and early in the morning we were off to visit the Itaipu damn.

The damn is renown because it is currently the largest energy producing hydro-electric damn in the world.  It is huge being almost 8 km long and having taken many years to build.  It is an acknowledged feat of engineering and is considered on of the Wonders of the Modern World (as determined by the American Society of Civil Engineers). 

The tour was fascinating, and the scale of the project awe inspiring.  We visited the damn from both inside and out and were allowed access to view the machinery at work.

 (If you look carefully at the picture above, you will see a building in the foreground of the damn..this had FIVE stories and is dwarfed by the damn itself!)

After our visit to the damn we crossed the border to Argentina, and found our hotel...a jungle lodge.  This lodge was very different from our previous jungle experience,where we slept under mosquito netting and had electricity only for 5 hours a night..so had to use candles.  In this jungle lodge we had all the modern conveniences...air conditioning...a beautiful bedroom with a screened in lanai porch and a gorgeous swimming pool.  We were grateful for it all is it was scorching hot for the two nights we were there.