Day 122 Dec 3 2014 Puerto Iguazu Argentina

shopping in Paruguay

Evy with her halo

do i still need a shower today?

no lack of water

Itaipu Dam (one of the 7 modern wonders of the world)

Day 122 Dec 3 2014  Puerto Iguazu  Argentina

We had a tour booked to see the falls from the Brazilian side starting at 8 am.  I woke up and almost instantly developed stomach cramps followed by diarrhea again.  I spent the better part of ½ an hour sitting on the toilet.  By the time 8 am rolled around I was feeling better and decided to take the risk and go on the tour.  Thanks to Imodium I was good to go and had no problems.  When we signed up for the tour we asked the guide if we could go as we did not have a visa for Brazil.  He said there was no problem which I found a little suspicious.  When we got to the boarder we gave him our passports and he went into the office on our part.  A short time later he returned to the van closed the door and we continued on our trip.  It turned out that he knew the border guards and we were permitted entrance to Brazil without a visa.  We were then driven from Brazil into Paraguay where we went shopping as the prices are suppose to be much cheaper then Argentina.  The prices were not any cheaper than you can get back home so the only thing we ended up buying were a power adapter that we were overcharged for due to our lack of knowledge of the exchange rate to the Paraguay currency and a case for Isabel’s tablet.   After the shopping we took a tour of Itaipu Dam which is the highest producing hydro dam in the world.  The dam has 20 turbines each producing 700 MW of power, the power is split between Brazil and Paraguay with each country having 10 turbines; it is a massive structure.  After the dam tour we were taken back to Brazil to eat in a very good buffet styled restaurant which everybody enjoyed.  The meal was followed by a boat trip into Iguazu Falls.  While waiting to board the boat I was stung by a bee.  The boat was driven into the water coming from the falls and when combined with waves coming over the side of the boat everybody was soaked in a very short time.   The ride up and down the river was also fun as the rapids and the swift current did not provide a smooth ride.  It is interesting to note that the kids were allowed to go for a boat ride on the Brazilian side but would have to be 12 years old to do a similar ride on the Argentine side.  We ended up ordering takeout food for supper, roast chicken, lettuce and tomato salad and fries.   When the food showed up there was not any ketchup or salad dressing.  I guess you have to specify that you want a salad dressing or condiments, at least the chicken was good and the salad had lots of tomatoes.   It was a fun day and we were in three countries the same day.  I also got some encouraging news today.  My dad was taken to Winnipeg by helicopter for some test to see what is wrong with him.  It turns out that he has some kind of infection in his bones that is treatable with medicine.  So there is a chance that he will recover.