Puerto Iguazu, Argentina / Foz do Iguacu, Brasil
We arrived in Puerto Iguazu on the morning of Sunday, 7th August after a very comfortable 19-hour super-cama bus ride from BA ($570ARP/pp on Via Baroloche). It was undoubtebly the best bus ride I've ever experienced with fully reclining seats, meal-service and seat-mounted televisions...a very welcome comfort for the hangovers we had following our last night in BA. We checked into our hostel (Hostel Inn, $200ARP double w/ensuite, massive pool and all facilities -thanks to Braden and Hannah for the reccommendation) and tucked in for a brief siesta at 4PM only to rise at 5AM the next morning. I guess the jetlag had finally set in.
At this point we were starting to realise what the typical Argentine day is like, which goes something like this:
1) Wake up around 9AM, have a small breakfast of sweet croissants, bread or cookies with caramel (dulce de leche) and a coffee
2) Work until 1PM, have a massive steak (or some other kind of meat) lunch and a glass of wine, siesta until 5PM.
3) Work until 8PM, eat dinner between 10PM and midnight, party til 4AM.
As such you imagine the strange looks we've been getting ordering breakfast at 7AM, lunch at 11AM and dinner at 7PM.
On our second day in Puerto Iguazu we dropped my passport off at the Brazilian embassy to get a visa for our next day's trip to Itaipu Power Station in Brazil. The Brazilian visa costs US$140 for Americans and is free for Kiwis (much to Charlotte's delight). We took the local bus to Iguazu Falls National Park in Argentina and booked a 4x4 jungle ride and speed-boat trip which takes you right up to the base of the falls. The jungle ride was lame, but the speed boat trip was impressive. The falls themselves have a vertical drop between 60 and 85 meters (200-269ft) and span a length of approximatley 2.7km (1.7mi) -much larger than Niagra falls, and so large in fact that there is a permanent 100m updraft of water due to the volume and force of the drop. The photos we've posted here don't quite do justice to how jaw-dropping the falls really are, and unfortunately our camera ran out of batteries before we reached the tallest falls (Garganta del Diablo). We did manage to get a few good photos nonetheless and will never forget the sight (and sound) of the falls.
The next day we hired a taxi ($200ARP return) to take us to Itaipu Power Station in Brazil. This is the Mecca of hydro power stations and is surreal to see in real life. It has the largest electrical output of a any single hydro power scheme in the world (Three Gorges in China has higher installed capacity but outputs less). It's massive 20 x 700MW turbines supply 90% of Paraguay's power demand and 25% of Brazil's. As part of the 'Special Circuit' tour we did we got to go inside the dam and stood 5m from one of the massive 700MW turbines. My dork-meter was on overload at this stage so Charlotte calmed me down by posing for a few photos with her stylish hard-toe boots which they supplied and required her to wear instead of her flip-flops. For those that are interested I've put a few more details of the
scheme below.
We finished the day with dinner in Puerto Iguazu and began to come to terms with how unimpressive the food we've had so far has been. Charlotte ordered a spaghetti bolognaise that even the homeless children of Puerto Iguazu wouldn't eat, and who in fact took off running after one bite of the dish. We finished dinner, said goodbye to Puerto Iguazu and got ready for our 24-hour bus ride to Cordoba.

Itaipu Scheme background:
The Itaipu scheme was a controversial joint-venture between Paraguay and Brazil. It was controversial because they had to flood a 170km2 area of the Amazon to create the dam which displaced thousands of indigenous people who used to live where the reservoir now stands. There is no mention of this displacement in the pre-tour video, however, they do seem to have put in place great social and environmental programs since. It's clearly still controversial though given the visible level of security throughout the scheme. Construction began in 1970 by diverting the Parana river and erecting the dam and power station. 10 turbines belong to Brazil and operate at 60 Hz, 10 to Paraguay at 50 Hz. First generation was achieved in 1984, and the final turbine was commissioned in 2007. The scheme has been declared one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Civil Engineering Society and, in my opinion, is very deserving of the title. We were lucky enough to see one of the spillways open during our visit which according to our tour guide is closed 90% of the time.