Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Nov 10, 2014:
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Monday Nov 10, 2014 #
7 PM
Swimming 34:00 [2] 1.0 km (34:00 / km)
I think I may have remarked after the last time I did (getting home from Adelaide in an ash cloud after the 2011 SA Championships) that it had been 18 years since I had been on an overnight bus and I was hoping it would be at least that long before it happened again. I was wrong - this was the first of what will probably be three in a bit over a week.
South American buses (at least the ones I've been on) are somewhat more comfortable than their Australian counterparts (fewer seats, more legroom, seats recline properly). Unfortunately, this doesn't extend to the roads which they are travelling on; Porto Alegre to Iguacu involves a fair number of back roads (from some of the bumpiness during the night, I suspect not all of which were bitumen), as well as cobbled streets in towns and the speed bumps that seem to be obligatory at the entrance to even the tiniest Brazilian settlement. Managed to get bits and pieces of sleep but not what I'd consider a proper night of it - that comes tonight (I hope). It was also a somewhat extended trip; there were two buses leaving at 7 and 7.05 and I'd gone for the 7.05, even though the trip was two hours longer, because it was supposedly a better class of bus for the same price. (Eddie Harwood, his partner, and Roger Thetford were on the 7.00). It turned out that ours was a bit of a milk run (even with some parcel delivery on the side). It was also apparent by sunrise that the timetable was looking rather speculative, and was thrown back further when we were stopped at one point by the army - no idea why, as they didn't remove anyone or anything at gunpoint and didn't ask to check any documents. We eventually got to Iguacu at 1pm, about two hours late.
The afternoon plan was to go out to Itaipu Dam - the second-largest hydro-electric dam (by generating capacity) in the world (the Three Gorges is number one), and I had just enough time to do this, after losing a bit through making a 90-degree error out of the hotel and doing a 4km scenic tour of the city centre instead of the 1km it should have been. I would imagine its construction was the subject of a certain amount of controversy (not that public opinion would have counted for much, given that at the time it was built both Brazil and Paraguay were military dictvtorships), but it does mean that about 80% of Paraguay's electricity, and 20% of Brazil's (not including any other projects they have) come from renewable sources. I don't know enough about what was there beforehand to be able to cast an informed judgement on what was lost. I also got my first look, on the way out, of the border crossing bridge to Ciudad del Este, of which more will be heard on Wednesday.
The hotel had a decent swimming pool - 15 metres or so - and this was a good setting for a session. It was the hottest day of the trip so far (around 33-34) so good to be in the water rather than running in the heat of the day. Not too many muscles had forgotten what they were supposed to be doing. Thought I felt an insect bite at one point, in a part of the world where insects carry more nasties than they do at home (it's not a malarial zone, but there are posters up in a lot of places about dengue fever), but doesn't look to be anything. As far as the cold is concerned, it's at the sounding-worse-but-feeling-better stage.
South American buses (at least the ones I've been on) are somewhat more comfortable than their Australian counterparts (fewer seats, more legroom, seats recline properly). Unfortunately, this doesn't extend to the roads which they are travelling on; Porto Alegre to Iguacu involves a fair number of back roads (from some of the bumpiness during the night, I suspect not all of which were bitumen), as well as cobbled streets in towns and the speed bumps that seem to be obligatory at the entrance to even the tiniest Brazilian settlement. Managed to get bits and pieces of sleep but not what I'd consider a proper night of it - that comes tonight (I hope). It was also a somewhat extended trip; there were two buses leaving at 7 and 7.05 and I'd gone for the 7.05, even though the trip was two hours longer, because it was supposedly a better class of bus for the same price. (Eddie Harwood, his partner, and Roger Thetford were on the 7.00). It turned out that ours was a bit of a milk run (even with some parcel delivery on the side). It was also apparent by sunrise that the timetable was looking rather speculative, and was thrown back further when we were stopped at one point by the army - no idea why, as they didn't remove anyone or anything at gunpoint and didn't ask to check any documents. We eventually got to Iguacu at 1pm, about two hours late.
The afternoon plan was to go out to Itaipu Dam - the second-largest hydro-electric dam (by generating capacity) in the world (the Three Gorges is number one), and I had just enough time to do this, after losing a bit through making a 90-degree error out of the hotel and doing a 4km scenic tour of the city centre instead of the 1km it should have been. I would imagine its construction was the subject of a certain amount of controversy (not that public opinion would have counted for much, given that at the time it was built both Brazil and Paraguay were military dictvtorships), but it does mean that about 80% of Paraguay's electricity, and 20% of Brazil's (not including any other projects they have) come from renewable sources. I don't know enough about what was there beforehand to be able to cast an informed judgement on what was lost. I also got my first look, on the way out, of the border crossing bridge to Ciudad del Este, of which more will be heard on Wednesday.
The hotel had a decent swimming pool - 15 metres or so - and this was a good setting for a session. It was the hottest day of the trip so far (around 33-34) so good to be in the water rather than running in the heat of the day. Not too many muscles had forgotten what they were supposed to be doing. Thought I felt an insect bite at one point, in a part of the world where insects carry more nasties than they do at home (it's not a malarial zone, but there are posters up in a lot of places about dengue fever), but doesn't look to be anything. As far as the cold is concerned, it's at the sounding-worse-but-feeling-better stage.