Iguazu Falls

---

We spent our final 2 weeks in Argentina puddling around doing very little - for the most part. On the advice of fellow travellers, we opted for a quick detour up to Iguazu Falls. This was no small journey at 3000km return. However, on the overnight buses it was not too taxing.

The falls were pretty amazing. However, the day we were there, a huge thunderstorm was raging overhead and we had to make mad dashes across the metal walkways while lightning flashed (all the while holding an umbrella with a metal pole). Strangely, the lightning didn´t seem to bother anyone else. The rain was torrential and we got absolutely soaked. The storm continued into the night and were flashes of lightning every 2 seconds. Some strikes came down right in town. Scary stuff!

We had time for a quick day trip to Brazil to go and see Itaipu dam. This is a huge hydroelectric station that provides Paraguay with 95% of its power and Brazil with 25%. The workers have to ride around on bicycles because it takes too long to walk. Behind the dam there is a massive resevoir (about 2,300 km2). When they opened the dam it was in the middle of El Nino and it only took 14 days for the resevoir to fill with water. This was so quick that all the animals got trapped in the trees and people had to go and save them in boats.

Touring around inside the dam was a bit like being inside the death star. There were big cavernous drops, kilometre long tunnels, a control room full of people wearing glasses and lots of buttons saying 'don't push me'. If you touched the concrete you could feel the shudder that the water makes as it goes through the big turbines.

We were expecting heat and mosquitoes while we were up in Iguazu. However, we were surprised to find ourselves still wearing our down jackets at night. A cold snap had swept up the country and Buenos Aires had its first snow fall in about 90 years.

Back in Buenos Aires, we spent the next 5 or so days dealing with bureacracy at the Canadian embassy. We got to know the security guards well. We were beginning to wonder if we would get our passports back in time for our flight to Mexico. Luckily, the embassy mananged to process our work permits with a solitary day to spare. Whew.

Ben kept getting mistaken as Argentinian with his long hair - people would come up to him thinking he was their cousin and start yarning in Spanish. It was clearly time for a hair cut. Ben reckons this is the first time he has ever come out of the hairdresser with more hair than he started with. Ben now sports a trendy mudflap and now looks more argentinian than ever.

---

Photos

Other side of the dam
Well, a teeny tiny part of it