Aparte del parque
I’ve arrived in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. This is the Argentine side of the tri-border region with Brazil and Paraguay, at the joining of the Paraná and Iguazu rivers. The Paraná drains out of Brazil to form the border between Argentina and Paraguay. This is the river that was dammed to form the Itaipu reservoir. I’m not going to have time to visit the dam, and it’s a good thing my father the ex-TVA civil engineer won’t have to suffer hearing me say that. Only China’s controversial new Three Gorges Dam has more generating capacity, and Itaipu is something of a legend in the engineering world.
But the border crossing today was a fairly major pain. I got through it OK, but have no urge to do it twice more to bear witness to the stately majesty of millions of tons of concrete. Thank heavens for one good-natured Brazilian cop, who let my missing passport stamp slide when he could have made a six-hour cavity search ordeal out of it. Besides, my last flight into Paraguay went directly over the dam on a cloudless day. In a way, I feel like I’ve been there already.
But if Itaipu is a star among engineering works, the Falls of Iguazu are a wonder, period. Or at least so I’m told. I staggered out of the terminal this afternoon in a sweaty, shell-shocked, sleep-deprived daze. I’ll go tomorrow, I promise. Tonight’s mainly been good for getting to know the town of Puerto Iguazu.
Interesting place. It seems to be evenly divided between three different kinds of buildings: quirky hostels full of backpackers, ordinary suburban houses, and steak houses. If Mendoza, Argentina, was built on the expectation that everyone wants to have at least three croissants and cups of coffee per day, then Puerto Iguazu was built to the philosophy that your day hasn’t really started till you’ve had a slab of high-quality animal protein seared over an open fire.
I like the way these guys think…
Pictured above, steak at Aqva Restaurant. Image file shamelessly lifted from their website.