Itaipu Dam

On Friday night I visited the Itaipu Dam. This was a very controversial building project when they started in the 70s, but now it is considered one of the modern wonders of the world. It’s definitely an impressive structure and the energy it generates is split between Brazil and Paraguay 50-50. It supplies 90% of Paraguay’s energy and close to 75% of Brazil’s. I think in the long run it may be a very good source of natural energy. But, of course, to build it, they had to destroy huge wildlife areas and cut down millions of trees. To compensate for this, Itaipu has planted 44 million trees and there are wild life refuge centers in both Brazil and Paraguay. They also have created a fish ladder similar to the Ballard Locks in Seattle to help the fish get around the dam and survive. I think they are doing what they can, but so far it can’t make up for the species lost or the rain forest they had to cut down to build the dam.

On Friday and Saturday nights they have a light show. So, I thought that meant light show in the Disney or Vegas fashion with colored lights flashing all around, like the water show at Disney world I saw 18 years ago. Anyway, we had to go to the visitor center, board a bus to get to the dam, and then once we were there, they showed us another video about Itaipu. This was fine except that the video must have been made in the early 80s. The music was something out of “Dallas” and looked like the old filmstrips we watched in middle school; it was like an instant flashback to history class on the industrial revolution or something:)

Then, after the video, they started to light up the dam, which was very beautiful and quite impressive. But, I was waiting for them to do something with the lights and nothing happened. I took two pictures, and then I heard an announcement saying, “Okay, that’s our light show. Thank you for coming”. I thought, you have to be kidding. This was just lights, not a light show. I must have misunderstood the Portuguese for this. But, still, to get everyone on buses, and to go all that way just to see a quick lighting of the dam seems silly. They could do so much more. Granted, it is a huge structure, and I’m sure it’s very expensive, but still. The one good thing was that on the way out, the buses drove up close to the dam so that you could see how big the structures actually were. Overall, I would say it was not worth attending. But I do have a couple of nice photos, which are attached here.