So Aruba was last week and now after a quick layover in
Calgary, just enough time to do laundry and repack, I was off to Brazil. This
was an exciting trip because although I have been to Brazil before this time it
would be to a city that I haven’t gone and there was a major tourist attraction
there, Iguacu Falls. The city is borders both Paraguay and Argentina but this
waterfall is located on the Brazil/Argentina boarder and is massive so that
would definitely be something that I would have to check out while there can’t
pass up that opportunity. But before any
of that could happen I had to get there which required a flight to Chicago and
then onwards the long flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil and finally a domestic flight
to Foz Do Iguacu. The flights themselves weren’t bad, the flight from Chicago
to Sao Paulo was a long one but nothing I haven’t encountered before. Matt had arrived a day before me so he rented
a car and when I arrived into the small airport he was there to meet me and we
went off to our hotel for the night.
Matt booked us a hotel very close to the venue, it was about
2 blocks away so perfect to walk to the venue and not have to worry about
catching transportation. This was my first time playing in this city but Matt
had played this tournament before in the past and was very familiar with the
city. The tournament was a very small one especially for a grand prix level
event, the men’s singles was a 32 size draw and doubles was a 16 size at that.
There were quite a few Europeans that came over but not many people from the
Pan Am zone. It is true that it was right after the Olympics and most
countries/players really didn’t have the money to spend on travel. This made it
the perfect time to try and qualify for worlds and even better time to get a head
start at the tournaments where people were not attending. At this point I was
just thinking about qualifying for doubles with Matt, the idea of trying to
qualify for singles hadn’t even crossed my mind yet and wouldn’t for a little
while.
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| Our hotel 2 blocks from the venue |
So we had a day before the tournament started to practice
and adjust, the venue itself was actually set up very nice. For the location
and the rest of the building they did wonders. The courts were great, no
blinding light, no terribly drafts, and good lines of sight all around. There
were 3 match courts and 2 practice courts, given the size of the tournament it
would be more than adequate to run all the matches with no delays. We were able
to get in a good amount of practice before the matches commenced the following
day with singles in the evening. Matt signed up for singles as well and had
drawn a local Brazilian player first round as did I. My player however did not
show up for the match so I was granted a walkover, a walkover into round or 16
at a Grand prix level tournament was a lot of singles points to be awarded 2110
to be exact and more if I won the next match. I would have to play Milin Ludik
of the Czech Republic the following morning for my shot at a quarterfinal
appearance. That did not happen though and I lost to him, it was a fun match
and aside from Aruba and Canada Open one of the few times I had a coach behind
my court with me.
Singles was done and now it was doubles time, the real
reason I had travelled all the way down to South America. We were up against a
mixed country pair, how appropriate since we too were a mixed country pair, of
Brazil and Paraguay. The player from Brazil was an accomplished player as well
the guy from Paraguay was a former Japanese national level (not national team)
player and had since moved to work and live in Paraguay but was now playing
under their flag. This was a harder
first round than some of the other teams had, a local junior Brazilian pair
would have been nice but that’s alright we were up for the challenge. The match
started and it wasn’t as shell shocking as the US Open against the other
Japanese pair, we were able to have rallies and actually win points. Matt is
known for being able to control the net and serve exceptionally well and of
course he demonstrated it here but he can also play from the back. Being this
was only our second tournament together there was for sure some times of
uncertainty with shots and rotation as well as sequences but that was something
that we would learn as we went along. We lost the match but weren’t blown out
so although a crappy feeling for losing it wasn’t as terrible a feeling as it
could have been.
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| Tournament venue was set up very nice for a South American Grand Prix |
So the tournament was over and we had a day left in Brazil
before heading home. Me and matt were on the same flight from Rio to Houston
but we had a different departure time leaving Foz Do Iguacu. The weather
wasn’t the best during the week and had limited moments of sunshine with mostly
rain both heavy and light. This did not make the most ideal weather to go see
the Iguazu waterfalls and the Itaipu dam (largest hydroelectric dam in the world in power generation). But we
caught a break, the Friday it was sunny and the forecast said that the rest of
the day would be more of the same. This was the time we took the opportunity
and drove out to the falls, it wasn’t that far from the city actually which was
surprising. It was located in a sort of national park as you would call it and
when we paid to go in we boarded a bus which drove us off to the various
stopping points. We were interested in the falls but wanted to do the little
trek to them in order to get a better appreciation for them as well as see the
scenery. The hike started off with a nice open area before retreating to the
side of the cliffs for a more intimate view of all the various waterfalls on
route to the large main falls. Because we were on the Brazil side we were
seeing the waterfalls located on the Argentina side. Likewise the people on the
Argentina side would be seeing the waterfalls on the brail side.
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| The beginning of the trail |
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| It was simply amazing |
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| Nothing short of breath taking |
We snaked our way along the trails, stopping at the various
viewing points to catch more glimpses at the power each waterfall held. Finally
after some time passed we were at the mouth of the beast, the devils mouth as
it was called. There was a catwalk of a bridge leading out over the raging
water and up to the edge of one of the falls. We were right in the middle of
the beast, getting soaked by all the water blowing in the wind. The people on
the Argentina side did not get the same experience as their catwalk was at the
very top of the falls, allowing them to see a magnificent top down view but not
an inside the area experience. From the Brazil side we were also able to go up
to above the falls on a tower to get the same sort of top down view but we
would do that after. Standing there and seeing all that water was an eye opener
to the true power of Mother Nature and sheer force the water had. For those of you who can conceptualize it, Iguazu falls has a flow of 1,756 meters cubed per second of water flow. Once off the
catwalk there was a landing area literally right next to the waterfall where
you could stand, the area was a soak zone and oh did I ever get soaked. But you
could see just how fast and how much water was coming down, not to mention the
sound as well. Standing there it really made you think where is all this water
coming from that this much flows through every second of every day every year.
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| Those are the waterfalls on the Argentina side |
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| Getting closer to the main falls, time to bring out the rain jacket |
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| In the soak zone, it was crazy to see so much water falling down |
Upon completing my time in the soak zone we preceded up to
the top of the observation tower and got a nice top down view. You could see
the whole area from the river before the falls to where it all ended up, truly
a breathtaking and amazing sight to see. We then walked a little further up river
and viewed how calm the water was, you would never think there was that
monstrosity lurking just a few hundred meters downstream. There was some gift
shops and food places but that was about it so we took a quick look and then
boarded the bus back down to where we had parked. It was still pretty early in
the day though and we had one more stop. It was a dam, but not just any dam,
the largest hydroelectric dam in South America and let me tell you it is
definitely worthy of that title.
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| View from up top, Argentina is on the other side in the back |
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| River up atop the falls, you would never guess what lies beneath and ahead |
We arrived later in the evening but were fortunate as there
was 1 more tour bus going out to the dam for the day, of course we jumped on to
it and got ready to see what all the fuss was about. Matt had already been
there before so he knew what was what but to me it was all brand new. The drive
up was interesting, everything was so artificial and the dam actually served as
a border between Brazil and Paraguay so on the far side there was border
control for those driving the route but we wouldn’t have to worry about that. We
stopped at 2 different viewpoints of the dam, the first was a ways away to
grasp the size of it from a distance which was actually quite hard to do. You
could see busses and trucks driving on the road that up the dam but they looked
so tiny in comparison. The second view point was closer and offered a little
more context to the scale of this man made giant. Ironic just earlier we viewed
the waterfalls which was raw and uncontrolled nature but now we were viewing a
manmade structure all about the control of nature. Finally the bus took us
along the dam, driving the full distance and that’s when I truly got an
appreciation for the size of this thing. To see the pipes and sheer size of
everything running up and down let alone the distance that it covered was mind
blowing. We then proceeded to drive along the top having a view of both the
lake behind and then drop off to the waterway below.
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| Itaipu Dam, this thing was damn big... ha ha couldn't resist the pun |
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| Driving on the lower level of the dam |
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| Looking up from the lower level |
The final stop was towards the back on the lake, there was a
restaurant and a whole area purely based and run on tourism as nobody lived
back there. There was also a cruise around the lake where a large ferry would
take you for a soothing sail around the lake to enjoy the view but it had ended
for the evening as we were the last tour. So we walked the little dock and took
in the view of a setting sun in South America over a manmade lake teeming with
the beauty of nature. Boarding the bus the ride down was peaceful and left one
with an overwhelming sense of the sheer size of things. You think you can
conceptualize distances, sizes, etc but until you are standing right in front
of it and seeing it yourself then your mind doesn’t know what it thinks it
actually knows.
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| Pristine lake that was created when they built the dam and an amazing sunset |
So that was the end of Brazil, I would fly out to Rio the
next morning on an early flight and then Matt would join me later in the day
for the flight from Rio to Houston. Following that I had my final flight
onwards to Calgary which at that point I was super happy to get home and sleep
in my own bed for the first time in over 2 weeks. But it would not be for long
as I would just be home for a few days and then heading back out to
Guadalajara, Mexico for the Mexico international series. I was happy with this
tournament, some big results in both singles and doubles getting major world
ranking points and this was my first thought of hey my singles ranking is going
to go up. I still wasn’t thinking about qualifying or trying to qualify for
world championships in singles yet though.
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| Rio 2016 Olympic touch at the dam |
