January 8

This morning Jim and I got a local bus in Foz de Iguacu and went to the Itaipu Dam, a joint project of Brazil and Paraguay. Now that Three Gorges Dam in China is built, it is the second largest in the world. First of all we had to watch a nausiating film full of propoganda about how wonderful this project is. Recently I rented Üp the Yatze River¨ from the Bass River store.This documentary on the Three Gorges Dam should be shown to balance out the Itaipu film. In any regard, the Itaipu Dam is an enormous hydro electric project and perhaps that´s still the safest best way to produce electricity.

It is scortching hot today, even still at 7 pm. When we returned from the dam, we collected our bags from the hotel and got a taxi to Ciudad Del Este in Paraguay. Luckily the first hostel we went to was full and so we are in a slightly more upscale place with air conditioning!!! and a patio. The town itself is very frightening. Maybe I´ll acclimatize by tomorrow. Although I had my camera tucked out of sight in a shoulder bag that I had my arm around, the lady at the hostel lent me a backpack and told me to put it on my front and to clutch it. At this rate there will be not be any photos in Ciudad del Este. The streets here are lined with stalls and dirt and cheap stuff and noice. It feels much worse than Bankok.