Iguassu Falls, Brazilian Side and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

Last Wednesday, August 17th, I left Sao Paulo for a great trip to the Iguassu Falls! I was to meet my buddy Sebastian, from Cologne, there, who will be on exchange in Lima, Peru for the next five monthts, and who visited a mutual friend of ours in Buenos Aires. As Iguassu is about the same distance away from Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires we decided to meet there and check out the waterfalls.
Thursday morning I went to pick him up on the Argentinian side. However, his flight was delayed by two hours, so when he arrived around 2.30 pm there was not enough time left to see either side of the falls.
Therefore we decided to visit Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, which is just on the other side of the Paraná river from Foz do Iguaçú, Brazil. For all of you who don't know: it's a dirty shithole! Ciudad del Este is the biggest marketplace for smuggled goods and drugs of all of South America! It's probably the dirties place outside of Calcutta and you can buy everything you want, so it's packed with stores, shopping malls and thousands of street stands. Surprisingly, as Brazil and Paraguay are both parts of Mercosur, there are hardly any border controls and the bridge is incredibly busy with pedestrians and trucks crossing in either direction. Additionally, the bridge, which is some 50 meters above the river doesn't have but very low handrails, so it's kind of scary. If you want an immigration stamp you need to you to the office yourself and it looks like the perfect parody of what you imagine as a Banana republic. Some sinister-looking, cigar-smoking fat guy with moustache in a dark room behind a window asks questions about your stay in Paraguay.
On the whole, Sebastian, who had been in South America for only three days wanted to leave as soon as possible, so I just bought a (fake) shirt of FC Sao Paulo and then we returned to Brazil. Sebastian said he never imagined he'd feel releaved coming back to Brazil!
Anyway, as Paraguay wasn't an option and Puerto Iguazú, on the Argentinian side, turned out to be a soulless hicktown we decided to spend the night in Foz, a neat little town, basically for tourist.
After a weird experience with an annoying "hotel guide" we chose a nive hotel and the went to a excellent churrascaria (Brazilian steak house).

The next day was about visiting the Brazilian side of the waterfalls. Here you get a panoramic view on all the waterfalls, over a lenght of several kilometers. As people had kept telling us that the falls were extremely dry, only 20% of the normal amount of water, we were curious to find out.
Indeed, the first view was disappointing: as in the picture below, everything that had once been waterfalls were now only rocks! No more waterfalls. We followed the path and had several nice views over the valley and the rocks. Then in the end we could finally see the rear end of the valley, the "Garganta do Diabo" (Devil's Throat). Even now it was still a hell lot of water coming down, so we walked around and checked it out from different perspectives.
On our way back we saw some funny raccoon-like animals, called coati, that walked around the park.
When back to Foz, the day wasn't over yet, so we went to the Itaipu Dam, which retains the Paraná river and which, according to the tour, is the largest construction build by man in the 20th century. It's the most powerful hydroelectric plant in the world, even more than the Three Gorges Dam in China, and produces 90% of all electric energy consumed in Paraguay and 25% of all electricity of Brazil!

Street in Foz, Brazil

Dry part of the waterfalls

Sebastian and me on the Brazil side of the falls

Coati Raccoons

Border between Brazil and Paraguay

Itaipu Dam