23 April 2018 – I woke up this
morning and quickly wrote a postcard to a former co-worker of mine,
Frank. I worked with him for 7 years and considered him a good
friend. I wanted to surprise him with a postcard from Brazil. Anyway,
once I finished it, I was off to the post office to mail it. It
didn’t take me to long because I knew where I was going, unlike the
other day. Now we get to the scary part. I walk into the lobby and of
course everything is in Portuguese. They have this kiosk which you
have to select from 3 buttons the type of help you require.
Well………..I can’t read any of it so, I just pick one and hope
for the best. Your ticket tells you which window to go to but you
have to wait your turn by sitting in the waiting area and watching
the monitor. There are no lines in front of the window. When the
individual who is being helped is finished, they push a button for
the next number to come forward. If you miss seeing your number,
you're passed over and the next number / person goes forward. Well, I
didn’t miss my number and went to the window. The postal person
looked at me and said something. I didn’t understand a word. Then I
got the look like “Oh no, I don’t need this trouble / crap
today.” When she found out all I needed was a stamp she became a
little more friendly. She understood I wanted to send the postcard to
the United States, put on the correct postage and pitched it to the
correct holding bin. When I say pitched, I mean she turned about 90
degrees in her chair and just flicked it like a frisbee. Kind of like
when you're dealing cards. The bin was 6 – 7 Feet / 1.5 – 2.25
Meters away. I said to myself, god I hope that doesn’t get lost and
makes it way to the United States (USA).
I hiked it back the way I came and
stopped at the soft ice cream vendor. I purchased a vanilla /
chocolate ice cream cone again and sat outside on one of the blue
tiled square concrete blocks. You kind of had to hurry to when you
ate it because the heat of the day would cause it to melt and cause a
mess. You were only given a single thin napkin to wipe up any mess. I
was not the only person eating an ice cream cone. A young father and
his 4-year-old son were sitting on the next blue concrete block over
from me. These concrete blocks were 4 Feet / 1.25 Meters square and
about 18 Inches / 45 Centimeters tall. They had finished their cone
and were resting. The 4 year old son decided to jump off the block
down to the sidewalk and was having a great time doing it. He had a
few near misses where he almost bumped his knees. His father had
warned him he was going to get hurt. That did not deter him. He also
had an audience that was all smiles as he was performing his antics.
The more they smiled the braver he got and then the big crash. He
must have turned his ankle or skinned one of his knees and was
crying. The father wasn’t exactly giving him the attention he
wanted. A well-meaning stranger offered to console the young lad and
the volume went up. She gave up as the child was not quieting down
but getting louder. Another well-meaning person offered to console
and the volume hit a new fever pitch. He was beet red from the
screaming. The lad was near a melt down and a larger crowd was
gathering. All the well-meaning people were whispering how sad, to
see the young lad screaming with such intensity. The father, being
annoyed with the son’s antics, called grandma who arrived on the
scene in minutes. She got out of the car with a small baby blanket
and wrapped it around him. In one fell swoop she grabbed and whisked
him off to the car. From her arriving on scene to their departure was
less than a minute. I left the area when grandma sped away.
I continued on to the hotel and
started preparations to leave tomorrow. I needed to decided my route
to Telemaco Borba. That will require me to search out this route on
my computer. I wish I had a map that would show the different routes
I could take instead of looking them up on the computer. Route
planning is much easier when I can do that. Well anyway, I’ll get
on Google Map and start my search. I decided to make my trip in two
days and stick to the major highways. Sometimes in leaving a city
where I have stopped and rested for a few days I’m slow to get
motivated and usually have a late start. So, the first night I will
stop in Laranjeiras do Sul and second night I will stop in Imbau. I
can get my route numbers and cities written on my gas tank's masking
tape. I also can get my Gps / Blanche programmed. I also need to know
my route out of this city. With all of the above pretty much
completed I got myself ready for the taxi ride out to the Itaipu
Binacional hydro-electric power plant.
I needed money to pay to get in, cell
phone, camera and my motorcycle riding boots. You can’t go on the
tour into the plant with open toe or tennis shoes. I went downstairs
and told the front desk I will be waiting in the lobby for the taxi
cab driver which they acknowledged. They also asked if I had the
correct shoes on to get into the plant. I drank a Coke while I waited
and right at 3:00 p.m. the taxi cab driver walked in the front door
of the hotel. The front desk called me over and we settled how I was
going to pay for the taxi fare. The taxi cab driver also checked to
see if I had on the correct shoes to go into the hydro-electric power
plant. I checked out ok and we were off.
On the way to the power plant the
driver attempted to speak with me. I couldn’t understand a word.
When we arrived, he made a strong point with his watch that he was
leaving and would be back to pick me up at 7:00 p.m. sharp. He then
directed me to the ticket office and then reminded me again that at
7:00 p.m. he would be back. I assured him I would be waiting. I
purchased a ticket for a plant tour which included an English
speaking tour guide. That was helpful and nice. I was off to the
waiting room where people congregated before the video was shown.
It
demonstrated and showed how the hydro-electric plant was built. The
room had a cutaway of how the water flowed through the turbine and
various pictures taken during construction. Most of the pictures were
sequential showing the start of the project, earth moving, pouring of
the concrete, the 1st turbine and generator installed and an aerial
photo of the completed plant. The video was also in English. We
English speaking people were the last tour of the day.
In the video it said ITAIPU Binacional
Hydro-Electric Plant was the largest in the world. As of 2012 the
Three Gorges Dam in China took over the #1 spot of the largest
hydro-electric plant replacing the ITAIPU Binacional now in 2nd
place. Anyway, you look at it……..it’s an impressive place.
Here’s a little more info about the ITAIPU Binacional. The ITAIPU
name comes from Guarani language and means “The Sounding Stone”.
It’s constructed on the Parana River located on the border between
Brazil and Paraguay. ITAIPU Binacional is owned by Brazil and
Paraguay. Each country receives 50% of the electricity produced from
it's 20 generator units. The daily flow of water for two turbines /
generators is roughly equivalent to the daily average flow of water
over the Iguacu Falls. That’s the same falls I toured yesterday.
That’s an impressive amount of water passing through those 20
turbines / generators daily. When the video was over, we were direct
out to the tour bus. But before we can get on we must be checked for
weapons. Guess what? I had my Swiss Army knife with me and security
found it. Immediately they said I had a switch blade and it had to be
confiscated. My blood just boiled. After the ruckus settled down,
they said they would hold it till the tour was over and then I could
reclaim it. I didn’t say anymore and got on the bus. Had they truly
kept my knife I would have left the tour and asked for my knife back.
There was no joy here.
We did tour the hydro-electric plant.
It’s huge, and I mean huge. The concrete in the whole plant had a
low-level vibration in it and you could hear a slight sound of
rushing water. We toured past the control room where they monitor the
rpm’s / revolutions per minutes of each generator. The rpm’s must
be maintained otherwise the 50 Hz / 60 Hz (Cycles per Second) will
vary affecting the operation of electric clocks, electric motors and
all other sorts of other electrical devices. Clocks will slow down or
speed up and electric motors will speed up or slow down. This will
also affect their output power. I’m sure that it’s only one of
many things that is monitored in there. In the hallway outside the
control room was a yellow line and it divided the hallway. It’s the
International Border between Paraguay and Brazil. On one side you’re
standing in Paraguay and the other you’re in Brazil. I took a
picture of my feet one on each side of the line. 
From there we took
the elevator down to one of the generators / turbines. We could see
the spinning shaft between the turbine and generator. I would say the
shaft was 1 Yard / 1 Meter in diameter. I steadied myself and looked
at the spinning shaft to see if there was any visible run out in it.
I didn’t see any and the finish on this shaft indicated somebody
had their feeds and speeds (machining terms) correct when the shaft
was turned. I asked the tour guide who did the machining work for the
power plant and he said the Germans did. I would guess not all the
machining was done outside the country, just the work that required
large industrial lathes, milling machines and grinders. I just had a
feeling Brazil didn’t have this equipment or capability. I think
someone asked how often the bearings were changed in the turbines and
generators. I think the reply was something like X amount of 1000’s
of hours of operation. There are 8766 hours in a year. They keep two
generators shut down and ready to operate when maintenance is
preformed on any of the 18 other generators or turbines. I’m sure
the control room keeps track of this and schedules regular
maintenance. A German lady asked a real good technical question about
the maintenance of the turbines, generators or something. I can’t
remember what the questions was, but I said to myself I got to find
out what she does for a living. 
If you look at the large red circles on
the floor in the pictures, underneath each of these red circles is a
turbine and generator. If maintenance is required on a turbine or
generator a hoist is position over the top of the opening and can
lift out the generator, turbine or both. The tour continued on to the
outside of the plant. I had an opportunity to talk with the German
lady (Michaela). She said she was a surveyor and didn’t go into any
details at the time we spoke. When we walked outside, I had my
picture taken under the sign of ITAIPU Binacional. It looks pretty
good. 
We could take more pictures of anything outside on the backside
of the dam. You can see the water pipes that feed the turbines of the
power plant. They're huge. 
We got back on the bus again and we
toured around the spillways and back waters of the dam. This whole
dam operation employs over 3000+ people. I know if I was looking for
a job, I would want a job working in that hydro-electric plant. It’s
clean and I’m sure it provides a steady income. While touring
around with the bus I had another opportunity to speak with Michaela.
This time she told me, she works as a surveyor in some capacity on
the Brenner Base Tunnel. This tunnel is to reduce heavy-load traffic
(i.e. truck traffic) off the roads going over the mountains to rail
traffic going through the mountains. It will be constructed between
Innsbruck, Austria and Fortezza, Italy. It will become the second
longest tunnel in the world with a planned length of 35 Miles / 56
Kilometers. We eventually returned to the tourist center and one of
the tourist people came running over to give my Swiss Army Knife
back. I thanked her for the return of it. I’m glad they remembered.
I asked Michaela if I could take her
picture. She said yes. I took her picture by the sign which says,
“Amaior Usina do Mundo” / “World’s Largest Power Plant”.
She was one of the first English speaking people I talked to since I
left Ushuaia, Argentina. She also had been traveling in Argentina and
Brazil. We were laughing about some of the experiences we encountered
in our travels. We were mostly laughing about our language problems
and you really can’t understand it till it happens to you. Anyway,
I saw the taxi cab arrive. We talked a few more moments, shook hands
and I was off to my taxi. It was nice to speak to someone in English.
I arrived back at the hotel and set
about getting myself ready to leave the hotel tomorrow. I checked
over my motorcycle and loaded up anything I could put in my boxes. I
then hiked over to the convenience store where I bought water,
apples, and candy bars. I needed to resupply my water for my trip
tomorrow. While in the store, the store keeper's son was there. When
he found out I was from the United States (USA) he started speaking
English to me. His English was American English not the Queen's
English (England). I asked him where he learned to speak English. He
said, his father and he were Lebanese and that he learned English
from the American G.I.’s that had a base near his home. They
immigrated to Brazil in the not too distant past. We were talking and
they wanted to know where I lived in the United States. I took out my
United States map and showed them. Then I showed them a picture of
the house I lived in. I showed his father first and then the son.
Guess what the first words out of the father’s mouth was? You
have no fence around your house! People can break into it and steal
your property! All through Mexico, Central and South America, if
you own a nice home you have a brick wall / fence with concertina
wire and broken glass on the top of it to keep the bad guys out. Some
people even have live electrical wires running through the concertina
wire. He assumed all houses and businesses must have security walls,
but that was not the case in the United States (USA). I left there
with my water and went back to the hotel to finish packing for
tomorrow's departure. I also notified my friends in Telemaco Borba
that I was departing Foz do Iguacu.
Here are some pictures from my hotel room.
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