Sitting here after a yummy dinner cooked by the Aunt of the guy who owns our hostel....organic homegrown vegetables, fried Manioc and beef schnitzel- she makes dinner every night for the guests for 5 quid and used to be a chef so it´s amazing! Last night she did a barbecue and it was amazing- huge T bone steaks, home made sausages and Kofte.

It has been tipping down with rain for the last two days so we have been very lazy. Hostel Natura where we are staying (google the website) is on the edge of a nature reserve 2 km down a mud track which gets like a bog in the wet but to be honest it has been really nice to chill out between the hustle and bustle of Rio and Buenos Aires where we go on Friday.

Yesterday we dragged ourselves to a bird park on the edge of the nature reserve where they are working to save endangered species and protect them from trafficking. They also take in birds that the authorities have confiscated from traffickers. Often they are in a terrible condition as the traffickers remove feathers to make them look like chicks or even cut the wings off parrots so they can´t fly. Going there really reinforced to me why it is awful to keep animals like parrots and monkeys that should be in the jungle or at least if someone does really want a parrot they must check the heritage carefully to ensure they´re not supporting the trade.

There were so many lovely birds there and you could go into the massive aviarys with them- I normally hate birds in cages and have been quite sad about the number you see in tiny cages that are kept as pets but these were absolutely huge and many of the birds there are very close to extinction in the wild so they are part of an active breeding programme. Anyway we made the mistake of going into the parrot aviary when they were about to be fed- I can tell you 40 huge parrots about half a metre in height screaming for their food and flapping around your head is a little intimidating- in fact I don´t think we were supposed to be in there at all as we were quickly rushed out when spotted by someone who worked there!

My favourite were the Toucans with their huge orange beaks. You could get really close to them and they were so comical with their big eyes. I also loved the massive ostrichs and emus although they did look a bit vicious! We also got to hold snakes and parrots at the end.

Today we went with two other people from the hostel to Itaipu- the biggest hydro-electric dam in the world. It supplies 90% of the power used in Paraguay and 20% of the power used in Brazil- it is really unique in that it is a joint venture between the two countries (the border runs exactly through the centre of the dam) and it is neither state owned or privately owned so it is a cooperation between the two countries. This is taken to quite an extreme- there are exactly the same amount of Brazilian workers and Paraguyans, there are 2 directors- one from each country- there must be the same amount of people from each country in the control room at any one time and their supervisor is Brazilian for 12 hours a day and Paraguyan for the other half. I wondered if they have to have someone from both nationalities put their finger on it if they want to turn a light on!

When we arrived we were taken into an auditorium that showed us a video that I imagined was like the old propoganda films- the main messages were- we are great, we are very eco friendly, we save the planet and animals and this will still be the biggest dam in the world when China has theirs as althought theirs is bigger ours will produce more electricity. We then went on a tour of the huge area that took us over the top and inside to see the turbines. It was very impressive but also extremely obvious that in it´s creation it had devastating effect on the wildlife. The guide was very informative and invited questions but seemed to tire a little of mine (anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this) that were made on behalf of the four of us who were a little concerned about them shouting about eco credentials....!

Question 1-

guide- 100,000 people were involved in the making of the dam

me- how many died?

guide- (very quickly) about 148- some are buried in the concrete- look at the view

(I later found out over 2000 people had died)

Question 2

Guide- ´37,000 animals were saved and moved to safety when the dam was flooded

me- How many died?

Guide- ´for every one we saved 5 died´

me- oh dear that doesn´t sound so good does it?

Guide- (at full speed) yes well we had to flood it very quickly....ok if you look to your left.....

Question 3...a lot later....

Guide- If you look at this picture you can see what the river was like before the dam was built

me- wow that looks like a lot of rainforest- how many hectares were destroyed to build the dam?

Guide- I don´t know- Right I don´t think we have time for any more questions.....

I did think that when we returned to the visitors centre I would be made to watch the propoganda video again but luckily we were allowed to come home for dinner! It was absolutely stunning though- 198 metres tall and 8km long- it is actually 3 types of dam and it is amazing the amount of electricity produced. I must say though the security was very lax- by hanging back from the group we managed to get good pictures of ourselves pretending to drive the little electric trucks that were parked around the place- we felt a lot like austin powers! It was absolutely fascinating and worth a visit- apparently it is one of the 7 wonders of engineering- although I must say I am getting a little confused by these 7 wonders- everything we see seems to be one!

Tomorrow we will go and see the falls from the Brazilian side and then on Thursday will go to Argentina to see them from that side....