May 8th

Today we loaded onto the bus around 7:30 A.M. to visit the town of Itatinga. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to an hour and we had to go from the bus, to a boat across a small body of water, then on a small train to the town. After copious amounts of waiting for the boat and train, we finally made it to the town. This town houses a hydroelectric plant that provides all the power that the Santos Port uses. This plant is over one hundred years old and still has some equipment from that time. The plant is currently upgrading equipment with more modern and reliable equipment, but the amount of energy the hydroelectric plant provides for the port and some of the city is tremendous.

We took a tour of the plant itself and saw all of the generators generating energy through the use of the natural body of water located 750 meters above the actual plant. Similar to the water treatment plant, this facility uses the height of the body of water to provide the force to spin the turbines which are connected to a shaft that has a number of magnets. Brushes change the polarity of the magnets as they spin and create a change in magnetic flux. This change in magnetic flux induces a current and this is where they get the energy.

Budny thought it was a good idea to show us what they do when something goes wrong and they have to flush the water going through the turbines. Big splash is what happened. After the first splash he instructed everyone to stand in a certain spot to avoid getting wet. He also went, but this was actually just a kamikaze attempt as the REALLY big wave hit everyone. That sneaky man...

After the tour we had a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches... very umm not filling. Then we trekked up the jungle to a waterfall. We all jumped in and enjoyed the very very cold water. After that we headed back and now we're going to be going to Rio in a few hours. Ciao!