Whenever
I go on holiday, I like to explore my surroundings – to see the art,
the architecture and the natural landscape – and to experience the different cultures too. Having
never left Europe before, just being in the southern hemisphere was a wonderful
experience for me. Waking up in the morning with the sun appearing to rise from
the wrong direction and the night sky being completely unrecognisable, it took
two weeks before I could orientate myself.
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| The Paraguay River |
In
a sub-tropical climatic zone, the fauna, flora and the weather are so different to those found in England and I was just impressed by the scale of the place – especially when seeing the rivers.
The Paraguay River is part of La Plata River basin, the second largest in South America, after the Amazon, and it is an important trade route - linking Paraguay to the Atlantic Ocean - as well as supporting the fishing industry and providing irrigation along its route.
The Paraná River marks the border with Argentina and Brazil in the south and east and, here, it cuts through the Paraná Plateau, a thick succession of flood basalts that were erupted over 100 million years ago, when the Atlantic Ocean first started to open. Although once freely navigable, two large dams at Yacyretá and Itáipu, built in partnership with Argentina and Brazil respectively, now dominate this stretch of the river.
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| Hydroelectricity |
Paraguay is now the world's largest exporter of hydroelecticity in South America, and Itáipu is still a major tourist attraction for visitors to this part of South America, but this controversial development has resulted in the forced relocation of very many people and the destruction of Paraguay's best natural tourist attraction - the Guairá Falls
