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Published: December 19th 2008
Iguazu Falls!
A snap shot of the heart of the falls Day 1: A great work of man and an even greater work of God; Itaipu Damn and Iguaçu Falls
We began our first full day with a visit to Itaipu Damn and hydroelectricity plant - one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. For you engineers out there, it has a capacity of 14,000 mega watts generated from 20 huge turbines that leverage the power of the Parana River. How much power is that? It’s enough to cover 90%!o(MISSING)f Paraguay’s needs and 25%!o(MISSING)f Brazil’s!
Construction began in 1986 and just finished last year at a total cost of ~$20B. It has more steel than 380 Eiffel Towers and enough concrete to duplicate Rio’s biggest soccer stadium (Maracana) 280 times. It’s quite a spectacle - the pictures don’t quite capture the scale and magnitude of it all.
Later that afternoon, we went from a great work of the image bearer to a work of the image source Himself - the Iguaçu Waterfalls.
Poor Niagara!
Lady Bird Johnson had this to say upon her visit to Iguaçu Falls - 1.5x times wider and 80m taller than the US falls. It was our immense privilege to spend
2 days beholding this marvelous “nook” in God’s glorious creation
Situated on the Brazilian/Argentine border, it’s basically a canyon with multiple sheets of water dropping down the wall faces. We spent the first of the 2 days on the Brazilian side. After eating lunch with a distant view of the “Devil’s Throat” portion of the falls, we took a hike that provided incredible panoramic views of the falls. Photos and video are inadequate to capture the shear glory of this magnificent natural wonder.
To get up close and personal with the falls, we embarked on the “Macuco Excursion” -a boat ride down the Iguaçu River and into the falls! This was our 1st white water rafting experience and it was quite the rush. Lily did not handle the beginning of the boat ride very well - she was inconsolable until the driver took us under a waterfall and soaked us thoroughly. It appears that we have a water-lover on our hands!
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Amy Smith
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Lovin' the travel blog!
Thanks for blogging your trip. The falls look absolutely amazing. We are praying for a safe and memorable time. Love you guys!