It is good to be back home in Brazil after spending time in Paraguay. The traffic jam was bad over the border bridge. I decided to hike. Worked like a charm. I made better time and got some exercise. On top of all that it was cheaper.
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It is Saturday. I am in Foz de Iquazu on the Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina border. I took a hard hat tour of one of the largest hydro plants in the world. There are a few left for me to visit worldwide. There are of course some interesting aspects of this power plant. There are 20 turbines, half are 60 Hz (Brazilian) the other half are 50 Hz (Paraguayan). Since Brazil buys most of the juice they have to convert the 50Hz to 60Hz in a converter 8 km away from the power plant. I wonder how efficient that is. Even if it is 98 percent that is a significant cost at those wholesale levels. Also, the area surrounding the dam is called Itaipu Binational area. The treaty area was specifically created for the powerplant. Now the area is becoming an area of intercountry cooperation for Latin America and they are building a university in the binational area. Clearly, beside the technology and engineering there is considerable political acheivement to be considered here just as at the Moses plant in Nia...