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by schoen 53 days ago
I highly recommend the tour of the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric dam in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil (well, it's also in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, but the tour starts from the Brazilian side).

https://turismoitaipu.com.br/en/

Get the "special tour" which takes you inside the dam. An absolutely incredible spot and incredible achievement. They will take you into a room with a turbine shaft that's mechanically transmitting 700 MW of power.
3 comments
kijiki 53 days ago
Seconded enthusiastically. That dam tour is amazing. Did it in 2007 or so.

Expect potential weirdness though. My wife was wearing a (not particularly short) skirt, and the lady at the office selling tour tickets made her step back and spin around, then said she couldn't go in like that. There is a gift shop that sells dam branded pants, so she bought a pair and we were cleared to go in. After all that, one dude in the control room was watching soft-core porn on one of the control room computers.

The turbine shaft room is especially crazy, since they let you (at least back then) walk right up to a few inches away from the shaft mechanically transmitting 700 MW of power! You could reach out and touch it, but we didn't and I wouldn't recommend it.

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mapt 53 days ago
Long skirts (or other loose clothing) around big, spinning mechanical load transmission elements are an easy way for the rest of your life to become a cautionary Youtube video on workplace safety.
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sephamorr 53 days ago
Seconding this! Make sure you get the "special tour". It was an absolute highlight of my trip. If you are interested in power infrasture it's a must see. If you're afraid of heights, perhaps not so much.
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geostupid 53 days ago
Could you kindly elaborate on the "afraid of heights" aspect? Was there a lot of catwalks or anything of that nature?
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schoen 53 days ago
There is one part where you are invited to walk on a catwalk that's very high up (an outdoor staircase sort of like a fire escape). My recollection is that walking on it is not mandatory for the tour, but I'm not absolutely certain of that.

You're also invited, but not required, to look over the edge of the dam from the top, which is also very far down.

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sephamorr 52 days ago
This is correct. If you don't like heights, that's definitely not a reason to skip the tour, but you'll miss out on one piece (that I enjoyed).
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KatiMichel 53 days ago
Sounds incredible. I am going to bookmark this to do if I take a trip to Brazil.
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