Iguazu Day 2

So on the second day we made our way into Brasil to take a tour of the dam that is above the falls. The dam is shared by Brasil and Paraguay, so we even went into Paraguay. So it was only for 3 minutes, but we were there, right? This dam, though not the biggest in size, produces the most energy of any dam in the world. They said it produces 90% of Paraguay's energy and 17% of Brasil's. It was a whole lot of concrete.

The first day we were there it was 98 degrees and super humid, but then it rained all night, and Wednesday was cool.  Cloudy and probably 60 degrees and no humidity.  However by the afternoon the sun came out and it probably got into the low 70's - it was perfect for us. 

On a completely different note, after all the effort and money that went into getting visas for Brasil, they did not look at them.  At least on the first day.  We did not see one person as we drove through the border.  The second day we did however, because we stopped, parked, went into a building, and hunted down a person who could stamp the visas.  If we were going to pay over a $1000 bucks, then we were getting our stamps!  We had to do the same thing when we exited. 

After our tour of the dam (on a double decker bus which the kids loved), we headed back to the park on the Argentina side to finish up a few things we missed the first day. We started with lunch at an asado (a BBQ of sorts with buffet for the sides and a big BBQ place to get all the meat you could want). Then we went on a little walk on catwalks above the part of the falls we had previously been under the day before on the motorboat. And we also had one of the highlights of the whole trip for the boys at the end of this second day...

 

 

 Hello vulture.

 

 A little bug watching.  At this crossing we were watching some huge ants with gigantic pincers. 

This one was actually about 2 and 1/2 inches long. 

An agouti.  They remind me a bit of rabbits, in that they just chomp on the grass and sniff and then if you get too close they hop/run back into the long grasses.

 

And to cap off a wonderful day we had one of the highlights for the boys at the end of this day. 

 A ten minute watch of a group of brown capuchin monkeys.  It was pretty amazing.  We started off spotting one and within a few minutes there were 7-8 of them and we just watched and walked along the path as they jumped from tree to tree.  I have to admit, the kids weren't the only ones who really enjoyed it.