The Iguazu Falls make Niagra Falls look like a dribble of snot being blown out of Chris’ nose. The falls straddle the border between Brazil and Argentina and consist of 275 waterfalls stretching over a mile and a half across the Iguazu River. The most impressive is the 82-meter deep and 150-meter long Devil’s Throat. Pictures and video cannot fully capture the awesome power of the falls, or the feeling you get as you approach the Devil’s Throat and the winds pick up and spray water in your face….but we tried below.
We visited the national parks on both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides - Argentina wins
La Garganta del Diablo
View from the Brazilian side
Visitor's walkway
Chris getting a shower
Video from the Argentinian side of the falls
As amazing as the falls are, there apparently used to be a set of falls even more massive, before the Itaipu Dam was built and buried the falls, along with the homes of over 10,000 displaced families, under water. The Itaipu Dam and associated hydropower plant took 16 years to construct and has been voted one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World. Before China’s Three Gorges Dam came along, Itaipu held the title as the largest hydro power plant in the world in terms of rated power capacity, but the Brazilian guides were quick to point out that Itaipu will still produce more energy than its Chinese cousin. The Itaipu plant has a capacity of 14 gigawatts (from 20 generators of 700 MW each!), and supplies 90% of all of Paraguay’s electrical needs and 25% of Brazil’s consumption. At full capacity, the amount of water flowing through the hydro power plant is 10 times the water flow over Iguazu Falls. Our minds were blown.
The Itaipu Dam
The spillway
Of course we had to take a tour of the power plant
The water inlet pipe to the turbine
The rotating turbine shaft
"...but I want to go on the other side of the yellow line."
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