On my own

Bridge crossing the Rio Parana between Paraguay and Brasil
see all photos »

Now on my own (which is partly why my bloggs are getting longer, becoming more updated and are lacking photographs) I figured that it would be a good idea to have my days perfectly planned out. When arriving in the little town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinean side of the falls I was surprised to find out at the hostel – which I booked long in advance – that my reservation was for the wrong date. I had no place to stay, but didn’t think that it we be that difficult to find something else. Unfortunately it was. Everything seemed to be full. I even asked in several hotels, where I did find one place that had a room, but it was for the ridiculous price of $90. That wasn’t really in my budget so the search continued. After hours, just by chance, a woman saw me wondering around and asked if I was looking for a place to stay. I counted my blessings. It was not a surprise that this place had beds left over. The one’s that were taken were filled with Israelis, which means that it was a really cheap place, as Israelis always stay in the places that have the absolute lowest prices and more often then not are terribly run down – just like this one. It didn’t matter though, I now at least had a bed to sleep in and suicide showers with hot water.

A crazy amount of people like I said (Ciudad del Este)
see all photos »

As I had spent my whole first day (out of only two) just trying to find lodging I didn’t have time to do any sigh seeing, which meant that I was completely off schedule. The next day was therefore a busy one. I started off by going to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. Usch… is basically what I have to say about that. It was very, very poor as I had expected it to be. What was disturbing was that because of the low economy compared to its Argentinean and Brazilian brothers it had become a booming commercial shopping area where the Paraguayans had greatly taken advantage of the situation trying to sell anything and everything to the heaps of eager tourists. The streets were lined with double or triple rows of stands that were situated outside buildings that solely consisted of shops and shopping centers. Two thirds of the people you saw were trying to sell you all kinds of crap, but for some reason the most popular item were white sports socks. Strange as it was nearly 40 degrees Celsius – sweat was literally running down my face, neck and what seemed like the totality of my body.

Even more people (Ciudad del Este)
see all photos »

After a quick look I got the heck out of there. The mobs of sales people and the tourists who were hungry to shop added to a combination that was definitely not my scene. I walked back to the Brazilian side crossing over the Rio Parana and caught a bus to Itaipu Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the world. It is also a good example of cooperation between Paraguay and Brazil for which it produces 90% respectively 20% of the nation’s power. The tour started off with a movie that explained the dams’ construction, along with presenting the statistics surrounding its capacity. It was topped off with a bus ride around the dam as well as on it with occasional stops at view points. I had recently been and been on a dam for the first time, thinking that that experience had prepared me for what I was about to see. Well it hadn’t and I was happily amazed. Don’t you just love it when you wee something that simply takes your breath away? It’s a great feeling.