Upon entering Ciudad del Este it instantly reminded me of entering Tijuana. People everywhere trying to sell you shit you don't need and making it very obvious they could tell we were foreigners with money to spend. Again, finding the customs/aduana was not very easy. This time we just pulled over to the side of the road, walked into an official looking building, and were directed towards an unmarked office where a guy was supposed to be sitting. Turns out he was hanging out with friends in the office next to his and had to come over behind his desk when he noticed a couple of confused gringos wandering the building wondering where the immigration officer was supposed to be. After we got our stamps and asked about where to get the car paperwork processed he kind of just pointed in the direction of another building. This building was not easy to get to, and we ended up going down a road that was almost definitely a one way road that we were driving the wrong way on, which made it more obvious we were confused gringos so some guy walked down the road following us and upon reaching the parking lot in front of the aduana building he told us we had to pay $20 to park there. What!? Bullshit dude, we'll park 3 feet from here on the street then. Then he said it was actually ok and another guy approached us offering to sell us windshield wipers and the 'security' guard for the parking lot also wanted money. Acacia guarded the car for a few minutes while I went into the aduana building and got the car paperwork completed.
Once we and our car were legally in Paraguay Acacia tried to direct me towards an Asian restaurant we had heard about. Driving here was definitely difficult. Every single intersection was a 4 lane roundabout with people driving like mad-men. Finally we got to the rough area where the restaurant was supposed to be, parked, and wandered through a neighborhood that was essentially little Asia, so there were lots of quality looking restaurants. We ended up going to a Korean restaurant and had probably the tastiest meal of the trip so far, save maybe for the French-ish dude on Algodol.
After lunch we got back to the car where an old man was trying to collect money for parking, which we offered to pay but only in large bills so he just kind of waved us goodbye. What a nice old dude. Then we were headed to Saltos del Monday (pronounced mundayuuh or something that I clearly could not say correctly) which were supposed to be epic waterfalls. We followed signs east of town near the Argentinian border and could not find the falls to save our lives. Acacia had to pee. After driving in circles for a while I jumped out to ask a store owner where the falls were. He pointed us in a direction that I followed. Then I ended up driving down a one way street the wrong way literally right in front of a police officer. He kindly blocked traffic for me to turn around and then pointed us back the direction we had come from to find the falls. Mind you, Acacia still had to pee. Kept driving in circles. Asked more people. More circles. Acacia still had to pee. We stopped at a gas station to pee and saw a giant mural of the falls on the bathroom wall. Clearly we were very close, but gave up after about an hour of searching. So then we were off to Itaipu dam.
I bet most of you have heard of the Three Gorges Dam in China on the Yangtze and been told its the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. In some sense it is. It can theoretically draw more power from its turbines than any other dam int he world, but it doesn´t have a constant supply of water to turn the turbines at full capacity all year. So, on a yearly basis, the Itaipu Dam produces more electricity than any other hydroelectric project in the world. And, until visiting it I hardly recognized the name. Itaipu Dam is shared by Brazil and Paraguay with each country owning half of the turbines. The Dam is on the Parana river which forms the border between Paraguay and Brazil. The company that runs the dam gives free tours, so Acacia and I took one and learned all about the dam. The dam gets its name from an indigenous word describing the sound of water as it laps against rock, which was the name of an island where indigenous people use to live before the reservoir covered it up (kind of devastatingly sad really). It cost about $20 billion to construct, employed over 40,000 people, supplies about 20% of Brazil´s energy needs and 90% of Paraguay's. Also, the company that built and runs the dam was responsible for developing several natural reserves for the species they were taking habitat from, as well as building a zoo and museum to house artifacts of the indigenous cultures they flooded.
Much like Iguazu Falls, the Itaipu Dam was gargantuan and without scale from a human perspective. Parts of it looked like it could have been a water slide, except it was wide enough for like a gross of elephants. The pile of rock used to build a sort of retaining wall could also build a highway around the earth like 7 times or something. It is definitely an impressive feat of engineering, and words can´t really do it justice, so we´ll leave it to the pictures.
From the Itaipu Dam we began our drive northeast to Reserva Itabo, one of the reserves set up by the dam company...
After lunch we got back to the car where an old man was trying to collect money for parking, which we offered to pay but only in large bills so he just kind of waved us goodbye. What a nice old dude. Then we were headed to Saltos del Monday (pronounced mundayuuh or something that I clearly could not say correctly) which were supposed to be epic waterfalls. We followed signs east of town near the Argentinian border and could not find the falls to save our lives. Acacia had to pee. After driving in circles for a while I jumped out to ask a store owner where the falls were. He pointed us in a direction that I followed. Then I ended up driving down a one way street the wrong way literally right in front of a police officer. He kindly blocked traffic for me to turn around and then pointed us back the direction we had come from to find the falls. Mind you, Acacia still had to pee. Kept driving in circles. Asked more people. More circles. Acacia still had to pee. We stopped at a gas station to pee and saw a giant mural of the falls on the bathroom wall. Clearly we were very close, but gave up after about an hour of searching. So then we were off to Itaipu dam.
I bet most of you have heard of the Three Gorges Dam in China on the Yangtze and been told its the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. In some sense it is. It can theoretically draw more power from its turbines than any other dam int he world, but it doesn´t have a constant supply of water to turn the turbines at full capacity all year. So, on a yearly basis, the Itaipu Dam produces more electricity than any other hydroelectric project in the world. And, until visiting it I hardly recognized the name. Itaipu Dam is shared by Brazil and Paraguay with each country owning half of the turbines. The Dam is on the Parana river which forms the border between Paraguay and Brazil. The company that runs the dam gives free tours, so Acacia and I took one and learned all about the dam. The dam gets its name from an indigenous word describing the sound of water as it laps against rock, which was the name of an island where indigenous people use to live before the reservoir covered it up (kind of devastatingly sad really). It cost about $20 billion to construct, employed over 40,000 people, supplies about 20% of Brazil´s energy needs and 90% of Paraguay's. Also, the company that built and runs the dam was responsible for developing several natural reserves for the species they were taking habitat from, as well as building a zoo and museum to house artifacts of the indigenous cultures they flooded.
Much like Iguazu Falls, the Itaipu Dam was gargantuan and without scale from a human perspective. Parts of it looked like it could have been a water slide, except it was wide enough for like a gross of elephants. The pile of rock used to build a sort of retaining wall could also build a highway around the earth like 7 times or something. It is definitely an impressive feat of engineering, and words can´t really do it justice, so we´ll leave it to the pictures.
From the Itaipu Dam we began our drive northeast to Reserva Itabo, one of the reserves set up by the dam company...
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