A VISIT TO ONE OF THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE MODERN WORLD

WEATHER: Not as hot or humid 32C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Watching the feel good film on the building of this magnificent structure.

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Accepting the news Zeme wasn’t coming

WORD OF THE DAY:  AWESOME

I didn’t sleep too well last night after receiving Zeme’s latest email saying that the Brazil Embassy would not accept the letter we had done up and that the signature had to be known by the government and we had DHL it and email it to Ethiopia.  It is very difficult to complete their request when we don’t even know now what they are asking for.  I was hoping after sending an email directly to the Embassy there would be a reply from them this morning and we could try a last ditch effort to get the visa, but there was no reply this morning, so I need to accept the fact that Zeme is no longer coming and to work out now what we are going to do.  Mark emailed the office yesterday asking about name changing Zeme’s booking and seeing if I could try and find someone off the other trucks if they wanted to buy it at a discounted price, but for me the perfect solution would be to get both trips put into a credit note for next year’s trip in February, I would leave the tour to see Zeme in Addis for 4 weeks and then work out a game plan for my remaining 2 months I need to fill in before picking up the itinerary we had just got all sorted.  BUGGER and damn the Brazil Embassy.  I am not going to rag too much on them, as I will need to see if they will give me a letter that states Zeme didn’t get the visa and then we can get a full refund on his airline ticket, and all going well I will need to see them next year to get my own Brazil visa for the trip next year as the current one would have expired.  But damn them all the same.

So now it’s time to work on Plan B.  I’ve had my cry and after speaking to Zeme on my mobile last night chewing through the last of my credit, I realized that we can’t change the situation so it’s time to move on and work out something else.  So with my emotional hat off and my tactical hat on it was to figure this mess out.  The first thing I realized is I wanted to see Zeme.  After counting down for so long and then having that taken away from me was gut wrenching.  So the first thing I looked up was flights to Addis from Rio.  They were only 1600USD for a return ticket.  Okay this was do-able.  I could spend 4 weeks there and see him and then fly back to South America and then workout what the hell I was going to do with my remaining 2 months.  I had a look at tours last night that I had previously looked at when I was booking my original world odyssey.  One was a Belize, Mexico and Guatemala tour and then the USA tours, with the top half of the States more appealing than the bottom half.  As luck would have it there are tours available and dates that work for me to fill in my remaining 2 months.  All this hinges on me getting credits with Tucan.  We were hoping to have a reply from them this morning, but there was nothing, so at a push maybe this afternoon, if not then I won’t have an answer till early next week which would be a pain to stew on it all weekend, but it has to go to the Cuzco office to go to the London office, so these things take time.  Mark has been great going into bat for me giving them all the information, so if we don’t get a favorable answer I know that we gave them all we had.  Fingers crossed.

In the meantime the trip goes on.  We had a whole free day today.  We were offered the Itaipu Dam tour a few days ago, and with it only being a half say tour, it would still give me time in the afternoon to chillax and get some repacking done.  So I signed up and for 25RS (13AUD) we got a round trip transfer to Itaipu which was about a 40 minute drive away.  The alternative was to catch 2 busses and leave 1.5 hours earlier to save 8AUD.  Luckily all 10 of us agreed and we had our transfer collect us at 9am.

After purchasing the tickets we were allowed into an auditorium at 10am to watch a 15 minute movie on the dam, the construction and what it is doing for the community, the environment etc…  It was very well done and I had goose bumps on my arms as they went through all the projects they have started and support for future generations.  The facts for the dam were also pretty amazing and they were:

The course of the seventh biggest river in the world was shifted, as were 50 million tons of earth and rock.

The amount of concrete used to build the Itaipu Power Plant would be enough to build 210 football stadiums the size of the Estádio do Maracanã.

The iron and steel used would allow for the construction of 380 Eiffel Towers.

The volume of excavation of earth and rock in Itaipu is 8.5 times greater than that of the Channel Tunnel and the volume of concrete is 15 times greater.

Around forty thousand people worked in the construction.

The cost of constructing Itaipu makes it one of the most expensive objects ever built.

The total length of the dam is 7235 m. The crest elevation is 225 m. Itaipu is actually four dams joined together — from the far left, an earth fill dam, a rock fill dam, a concrete buttress main dam, and a concrete wing dam to the right.

The spillway has a length of 483 m.

The maximum flow of Itaipu's fourteen segmented spillways is 62.2 thousand cubic meters per second, into three ski slope formed canals. It is equivalent to 40 times the average flow of the nearby natural Iguaçu Falls.

The flow of two generators (700 m³·s⁻¹ each) is roughly equivalent to the average flow of the Iguaçu Falls (1500 m³·s⁻¹).

If Brazil were to use Thermal Power Generation to produce the electric power of Itaipu, 434,000 barrels (69,000 m³) of petroleum would have to be burned every day.

The dam is 196 meters high, equivalent to a 65-story building.

To say this place was awesome was an understatement.

We were booked on the special tour and the itinerary was as follows:

It allows visitors into the inner section of the dam. Provides special services such as bilingual guides, access to a special room where a film on Itaipu is screened, and a special bus with water and guide-books on board. It takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is a seven-stop tour (taking pictures and filming is allowed at all of them):

1st stop – Central Belvedere and Poty's Panel Station
Visitors enjoy a panoramic view of the dam and the spillway. And see a tile panel depicting awe-inspiring scenes from the time Itaipu was under construction, created by Paraná artist Poty Lazzarotto.

2nd stop – Concrete Dam Station
From the top of the dam where the generating units' water intake gates are located, visitors enjoy a privileged view of the power plant's reservoir and the Paraná River, which resumes its course once it leaves the dam behind.

3rd stop – Cathedral Station
Once inside the dam, visitors discover the hollow architecture similar to that of a cathedral. They also walk by ducts (huge white “tubes”) through which up to 700 thousand liters of water flow per second, or half the flow of the Iguazu Falls within each one. They also see the former Paraná River bed.

4th stop – Production Building Station
This building holds the equipment that keeps the power plant in operation, including the generating units.

5th stop – Central Command Room Station
Right before the eyes of visitors, technicians control the power plant's operation by means of computers and electronic panels. A yellow strip on the floor represents the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The divide is merely symbolic once the power plant belongs to both countries.

6th stop – Outflow Channel Station
From this viewpoint visitors watch the water that went through the turbines flow back into the Paraná River and follow its natural course.

7th stop – Gallery Station
Workers riding bikes or driving small electric cars give a sense of this gallery's dimension, which is one kilometer long. The covers of the 20 generating units can be seen.

It was a great day and if you have the time definelty worth the effort.  We were lucky and got a transfer out for 12AUD and it was worth every penny.  The entry was R$ 51,00 (25AUD)  It is good to know that the minimum age for this tour is 14 years old and the use of flip flops, high heel shoes shorts and mini-skirts is not allowed during the visit. Sandals are only permitted if they fit tightly on the heel, without high heels and if they have rubber soles. Visitors who do not comply with these criteria will not be able to make the visit.

The Itaipu Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The name "Itaipu" was taken from an isle that existed near the construction site. In the Guarani language, Itaipu means "the sound of a stone".  The dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity.  It is a binational undertaking run by Brazil and Paraguay at the Paraná River on the border section between the two countries, 15 km north of the Friendship Bridge. In 2008 the plant generated a record 94.68 TWh, supplying 90% of the electricity consumed by Paraguay and 19% of that consumed by Brazil.  Of the twenty generator units currently installed, ten generate at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten generate at 60 Hz for Brazil. Two 600 kV HVDC lines, each approximately 800 km long, carry both Brazilian and Paraguayan energy to São Paulo where the terminal equipment converts the power to 60 Hz.

The concept behind Itaipu Power Plant was the result of heavy negotiations between the two countries during the 1960s. The "Ata do Iguaçu" (Iguaçu Act) was signed on July 22, 1966, by the Brazilian and Paraguayan Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Juracy Magalhães and Sapena Pastor, respectively. This was a joint declaration of the mutual interest in studying the exploitation of the hydric resources that the two countries shared in the section of the Paraná River starting from, and including, the Salto de Sete Quedas, to the Iguaçu River'swatershed. The Treaty that gave origin to the power plant was signed in 1973.  The terms of the treaty, which expires in 2023, have been the subject of widespread discontent in Paraguay. The government of President Lugo vowed to renegotiate the terms of the treaty with Brazil, which long remained hostile to any renegotiation.  In 2009, Brazil agreed to a fairer payment of electricity to Paraguay and also allowed Paraguay to sell excess power directly to Brazilian companies instead of solely through the Brazilian electricity monopoly.

On October 14, 1978, the Paraná River had its route changed, which allowed a section of the riverbed to dry so the dam could be built there.  An important diplomatic settlement was reached with the signing of the Acordo Tripartite by Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, on October 19, 1979. This agreement established the allowed river levels and how much they could change as a result of the various hydro electrical undertakings in the watershed that was shared by the three countries. At that time, the three countries were ruled by military dictatorships. Argentina was concerned that, in the event of a conflict, Brazil could open the floodgates, raising the water level in the Río de la Plata and consequently flood the capital city of Buenos Aires.

The plant's reservoir began its formation on October 13, 1982, when the dam works were completed and the side canal's gates were closed. Throughout this period, heavy rains and flooding accelerated the filling of the reservoir as the water rose 100 meters and reached the gates of the spillway at 10 a.m. on October 27.  It was supposed to take 90 days to fill but due the flooding it was accomplished in 14 days.

On May 5, 1984, the first generation unit started running in Itaipu. The first 18 units were installed at the rate of two to three a year; the last two of these started running in the year 1991.  The last two of the 20 electric generation units started operations in September 2006 and in March 2007, thus raising the installed capacity to 14 GW and completing the power plant. This increase in capacity will allow for 18 generation units to remain running all of the time while two stay down for maintenance. Due to a clause in the treaty signed between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the maximum number of generating units allowed to operate simultaneously cannot exceed 18.

Each turbine generates around 700 MW; by comparison, all the water from the Iguaçu Falls would have the capacity to feed only two generators.  On November 10, 2009, transmission from the plant was totally disrupted, possibly due to a storm damaging up to three high-voltage distribution lines.  Itaipu itself was not damaged. This caused massive power outages in Brazil and Paraguay, blacking out the entire country of Paraguay for 15 minutes, and plunging Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo into darkness for more than 2 hours. 50 million people were reportedly affected.   The blackout hit at 10:13 p.m. local time. It affected the southeast of Brazil most severely, leaving São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo completely without electricity.

When construction of the dam began, approximately 10,000 families living beside the Paraná River were displaced.   The world's largest waterfall by volume, the Guaíra Falls were drowned by the newly formed Itaipu reservoir. The Brazilian government liquidated the Guaíra Falls National Park, and dynamited the submerged rock face where the falls had been, facilitating safer navigation, but eliminating the possibility of restoring the falls in the future. A few months before the reservoir was filled, 80 people died when an overcrowded bridge overlooking the falls collapsed, as tourists sought a last glimpse of the falls.  Since 1977, more than 15 million people from 188 countries and/or territories have visited the power plant.

The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of wonders of the modern world with Itaipu in the top 7 along with the other 6 Modern Wonders in 1994 which are:

Channel Tunnel – Straight of Dover

CN Tower – Toronto

Empire State Building – New York

Golden Gate Bridge – San Francisco

Itaipu Dam – Paraguay and Brazil

Delta Works – The Netherlands

Panama Canal – Panama

What an amazing morning and it was good to take my mind off things with Zeme.  We were back at the camp by1pm where I checked my emails and there was no reply from Tucan or from the Brazilian Consulate so time was definitely done and I was feeling quite down about the whole thing. 

The afternoon was wiled away in the pool reading my book and catching some rays before heading to Paraty in a few days’ time, which is a little beachside town to charge the batteries in preparation for the biggest party in the WORLD – Carnival in Rio.  That has to put a smile on my dial?  I was just so looking forward to sharing that experience with Z.  Never mind, let’s see what Monday brings from Tucan so I can then get a game plan in place and know what the hell I am going to be doing for the next 3 months.