HI Hostel Campo Grande, Campo Grande, Brazil

Back in Brazil after 3 months of travelling in other parts of South America.

On Monday morning applied for a new Brazilian visa at the Puerto Iguazu consulate, and could already pick it up at 1pm. The new visa allows me to stay here for 15 days, which is a bit weird because the consulate usually issues 30-day visas. I was afraid to ask them for an explanation, but 15 days should be enough anyway.

We decided to stay another night in the small and cosy Puerto Iguazu and left early Tuesday morning for Brazil. Entering Brazil went smoothly. Ended up in Foz do Iguaçu. This town offers two attractions:

• the Iguazu (or Iguaçu) Falls, i.e. the same falls that we already saw from the Argentinian side, so decided to skip them, and
  
• the Itaipu power plant, the world's largest hydro powerplant (by some criteria), on the border between Brazil and Paraguay.
  

Took the Special Tour to see the dam. The tour was very well organized, and the guide spoke fluent English and seemed to be knowledgeable about all the aspects of this massive construction and its history. Visually the most impressive part of the dam is the spillway (gets rid of extra water in the reservoir) which was half-open while we were there (it is completely closed for 90% of the year). The spillway rivals the Iguazu falls in impressiveness, but strangely very few tourists were around. People seem to prefer nature to human creation...

At 8pm took a night bus to Campo Grande, arrived here around 10am today morning. Campo Grande did not look that fascinating so been relaxing at the hostel (which has a pool).

Tomorrow will go to the Pantanal for 3 days / 2 nights (maybe will stay one night extra). The activities there include: boat trips, piranha fishing, hiking, jeep safaris, spotlight safaris. The main goal is to see a jaguar. After Pantanal will go directly to São Paulo and spend there our last days on the South American continent.