FOZ DO IGUACU, BRAZIL

I am really enjoying the chance to stop in one place for a while. The new group arrives later today (Thurs) & we leave here on Sunday morning. Apart from just relaxing, I have done a couple of touristy things. I went up to the Itaipu Dam, which is the biggest source of hydro-electricity in the world. It was built jointly by Brazil & Paraguay & supplies both countries, in Paraguays case, to the tune of 80 percent. I took the technical tour, which lasted 2.5 hours, & which included a look at the turbines & generators. This thing is just mind blowing, & the statistics are all big numbers. The dam holds back the Parana River (no mean feat in itself) with 8km of both concrete & rockfill structures. The rotor shafts on the generators are nearly 3m diameter, & there are 18 of them spinning away. The spillways have a capacity 40 times that of Iguacu Falls! The security was, as expected, very tight & very visible, & they were tooled up with weaponry. I did notice one of the escalators was not working. No electricity, pehaps? A cheap shot, but the tour really was good.

The 3m diam drive shaft between the turbine & the gererator rotor

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The turbine inlets.

General view of Itaipu dam.

The spillways.

Another thing I did was to visit the point where you can stand in Brazil & look across the Iguacu River to see Argentina, & at the same time look across the Parana & see Paraguay, kind of neat in a geopolitical sort of way, because as you might expect, it doesnt look any different to the eye. I went out there on a scooter taxi, ie I paid good money to a lunatic on a Honda 150 to be his pillion passenger, another cheap thrill!

OK, time to fess up. Some of you are already aware that I dropped my bike in Bolivia, but for those who arent, here is the goss! I was looking ahead into a corner on a section of dirt a few hours out of Potosi on the way to Uyuni, then I was being helped to my feet, it was that quick. I cant remember a thing about it, thanks to a whack on the head so hard that it KOd me & cracked my helmet. I also landed on my left hip & elbow. That night I was taken to a hospital, if you could call it that, in Uyuni, where I had a gash on my elbow stitched up, without any local anaesthetic. Cost of this service was about 6 bucks. There did not appear to be any major damage, but my hip was quite sore, & has given me grief for the last 2 weeks, as it had swollen up a lot. I saw a proper doctor yesterday who took some xrays (nothing broken) & drained 600ml of fluid from the lump on my hip. He then jabbed me in the hip so many times I expected to see a tattoo when he had finished. I feel better now, even tho some of the swelling has returned this morning & I will see the doc again tomorrow. The whole thing had to be conducted mainly in Spanish because he didnt speak much English & I cant speak any Portuguese (apart from thank you & the name of my hotel!) And it cost a lot more than $6. So, I am taking it easy to give it a chance to settle down before we get back to riding. The incident made a mess of my Barkbusters & the muffler, so I have lost my bond, but luckily I took out the damage waiver insurance & dont hav to pay the actual cost of the damage. All I can say is OUCH !! Catch you later.