Stunning

After a short gelato break, this afternoon I continued cycling up past the port town of Milazzo, to the Capo di Milazzo itself. Capo di Milazzo is a long, thin, steeply-rising cape, that sticks out into the sea from the north coast of Sicily. Getting to the tip of the cape proved harder than expected — I didn't realise how high-up the cliffs at the tip are, so it was uphill all the way — but once I made it, I was well-rewarded for my efforts. The views from the tip are stunning: as well as the gorgeous cape itself, you can also see the resort coast curving back into Sicily behind you, and the sea and the Isole Eolie in front of you. Lovely spot, especially with the sun waning at the end of the day.

I don't know how the hell I did it — I don't know who else to thank, so I'll thank G-d — but after the reunion drinks and the crazy adventure last night, I still managed to wake up at 5am this morning (tired and hung-over), and to jump on a train out of Rome at 5:45am. And what do you know: 11 hours, 3 train trips and a ferry ride later, I was in Sicily! It was a long day on the train — and with my crazy bike with me, I was quite the unorthodox passenger — but I got through it, and now the adventure of a lifetime can begin.

My hostel, The Generator, advertises a free tour of London, that's meant to leave from the hostel's reception at 10am daily. This morning, seven of us (including myself) turned up at 10am for the tour: we waited for about 45 minutes, but no tourguide showed up! Kwap. Apparently, the tour actually leaves from Monument tube station, further downtown; but someone is meant to come to the hostel, and take the daily Generator group down to this station. Whoever was meant to do this today, they clearly shirked out on their responsibility. We finally gave up, and went to Monument station ourselves — but by the time we arrived, the tour groups had already left. So it was time for a day's guide-yer-bloody-self tour of London.

For a little excursion out of town (and interstate!), today my dad and I got a bus down to Newport, Rhode Island (about 1½ hours south of Boston). About 100 years ago, Newport was the exclusive summer retreat for the wealthiest millionaires in America — and as such, these millionaires built some super-impressive mansions in the town. Today, Newport is still a very posh area, and many of the mansions are still privately owned and inhabited; but quite a few of them have been converted into museums and event facilities, and are open to the public. We went on a tour of the two most famous mansions in town — "The Breakers" and "Rose Cliff" — and we also explored the cliff-edge ocean shore that straddles the mansions.

On Tuesday, I saw the spectacular Argentinean side. Today, I completed my tour of the border-straddling marvel that is Iguazu Falls, by checking out the Brazilian side. While not quite as dramatic or as "in-your-face" as its rival vantage-point, the Brazilian side gives you a grand overview of the falls, with a panorama that lets you take in the entire set of cascades through one big, all-encompassing sweep of the eyes. In my opinion, the falls are simply too amazing to not be seen from every possible angle — so do yourself a favour, and don't shirk on the Brazilian angle! Photos follow below.

The highlight of today's visit to the Itaipu dam, was seeing one of the colossal hydroelectric turbines in action, spinning around at the bottom of the inner dam wall, generating billions of watts of energy right in front of our eyes. Check out the video.

The Itaipu dam, built on the Paraná River (which forms the border between Brazil and Paraguay), is the biggest dam and the biggest hydroelectric power plant in the world. It's also one of the "seven wonders of the modern world". With 20 turbine generators, and a dam wall almost 8km long, the plant supplies a whopping 90% of Paraguay's electricity, as well as 25% of Brazil's. Thus, most ironically, Paraguay — otherwise one of the most backward s$%#-holes in South America — has virtually the greenest energy in the entire world. This afternoon, Annemie, Hendrik and I went on a tour of the dam, and we saw this monster feat of modern engineering in action.

The last and the most spectacular thing that we saw today, on the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls, was the Garganta del Diablo (lit: "Devil's Throat"), the biggest waterfall in the national park, and an absolutely, unbelievably, mind-blowingly massive stream of water. Do yourself a favour, and save this baby for the end of the day: it doesn't get much better than this. You could stand and stare at it for hours. We did. And the catwalk takes you right to the edge of it, where you have a simply phenomenal view of the thing cascading down all around and below you. Enjoy the photos below.

All good things gotta come to an end, and what a lovely end it was. Today was my 7^th and final day of snowboarding, here at the alpine resort of Cerro Catedral. Considering how crap the weather's been all week, I wasn't expecting much this morning: but I was rewarded for my week of perseverance — the sun was shining down on me today! Lovely weather, slightly less crowds, and the best snowboarding so far, all combined to make this about as good a finale for the week as I could have hoped. Got some great piccies today, did plenty of runs that I've never ventured down before, and finished the week with enough bruised body parts to keep me sore for a while, but luckily with no broken bones.

I woke up this morning, in my dorm room at Patanuk, to be greeted with an amazing view of the lake, straight out of my window. Daym, this has gotta be the best view out of any hostel dorm room in the world! Patanuk is not a bad place to stay, not a bad place at all. Downstairs, that much-anticipated free breakfast of croissants and scones (with fresh, home-made strawberry jam on the side) was the icing on the cake; and the view of the lake was just as divine from the dining room.