1. (1) A Golden Triangle in South America

2. (2) Esperantist in Cascavel

3. (3) To Sao Paulo

4. (4) Esperantists in Rio de Janeiro

(1) A Golden Triangle in South America

The famous Golden Triangle is located in the area where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos share the borders and opium poppy is cultivated. Two rivers merge here, but there are neither bridges nor roads to cross the borders. There was a Golden Triangle in South America as well. Over here bridges connect the borders and travelers can cross the border freely. It is said that drugs are also traded across the borders in this Golden Triangle, however, this is the golden triangle for tourism. There are the largest waterfalls in the world the Iguassu Falls and the largest hydroelectric power plant the Itaipu Dam.

The Iguassu Falls are in the border between Brazil and Argentina. The water of the waterfalls merges into Parana River, which flows down from the north, after flowing about 25km to the northwest. At this confluence the three countries of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina share the borders. Fos do Iguassu is the city in Brazilian side. Parana River flows in the west of the city along the border of Paraguay. There is the Itaipu dam several kilometers upstream. According to the Indigenous language Guarani, I-guassu means "water-abundant", and Ita-ipu "rock-singing".

The Blazilian Highlands lie in the southeast of Brazil and the mountains come close to the Atlantic Ocean. The capital Brasilia is located in the inland of the highlands. Curitiba and Sao Paulo are in the highlands near the coast. Rio de Janeiro is along the sea down the mountains. According to the map, the origin of Iguassu River, which flows from the east and forms the Iguassu Falls, is near Curitiba, and the origins of Parana River, which flows from the north and is blocked by the Itaipu Dam, are near Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The river water of Parana River that flows down the Itaipu Dam collects, as mentioned above, the water from the Iguassu Falls at Fos do Iguassu and travels to the southwest along the border between Argentina and Paraguay. The river keeps flowing down south in Argentina and finally flows into the Atlantic Ocean as La Plata.

From the terminal station you walk to the middle of the river on a catwalk that links several islands in the river. You walk a half of the width of the river, but it is a quite distance. The catwalk leads you to the very edge of the "Devil's Throat". You are so close to the waterfalls that you sometimes find yourself in a cloud of spray. On the other hand, to see the waterfalls in "a long circular arc" closer to the park entrance, you can take the train to the first station Cataratas, but it is a short distance, and so you can walk instead. After walking on the footpath in the jungle from Cataratas station, you hit a catwalk over the waterfalls again. You can see the brown water in the jungle falling down the cliff just under your feet at several places. Under the waterfall you see several sightseeing boats. I took a boat and went to one of the pools of the waterfall as I didn't do so in the Niagara Falls. As the "Devil's Throat" is not so far, the boat also took us there. The spray from the waterfalls was immense and I couldn't see the upper part of the waterfalls well. I thought the fare of 10 dollars for only 15-minute trip was too much. I put on the motorcycle rainsuit. I had seldom used it during this journey, but it served on an unexpected occasion.

I joined a tour for the sightseeing of the Iguassu Falls in Argentine side. I paid $10 each for the admission fee of the national park and the boat trip, and $16 for the minibus. The passengers of the minibus were a Chinese and a Vietnamese youngman who both live in France and I. At first I thought the minibus charged too much, but it might be reasonable as the passengers were only three. I was afraid that the paperwork of my bike would become difficult if I entered Argentina leaving it in Fos do Iguassu in Brazil. So I asked the tour company about it. They told me that the Argentine immigration office would not stamp a passport. So I decided to participate in the package tour. There was no passport check at the Brazilian border. At the Argentine border I gave the document that the tour company had written and only showed my passport. However, in order to see the waterfalls in Brazilian side, I didn't want to pay for an expensive tour bus. I went by a city bus.

The city bus for the Brazilian national park charged me only 50 cents. The bus stops at the gate of the park as in the Argentina national park. In the Brazilian park double-decked buses, not the tourist train like in Argentine side, carry the tourists to the waterfalls. As soon as you get off the bus, you can see, in front, a series of waterfalls in Argentina across the gorge. The waterfalls that aren't seen in Argentine side can also be seen. A footpath leads you toward the "Devil's Throat". The 4 or 5 waterfalls that I had seen from the boat on the previous day came within my vision. Over the waterfalls I saw other wide waterfalls that I hadn't seen from the boat. There was a terrace-like place below those waterfalls. I came to know that the waterfalls that I had seen on the previous day were on the second cliff. There is another terrace with two-step waterfalls at the end of the footpath. A catwalk is built above the edge of the terrace from which water is falling down. You can see the bosom of the "Devil's Throat" from there. However, as the catwalk is below the first-step waterfall, you get wet with the spray from the waterfall. There is an observation tower at the end of the footpath. An elevator lifts the tourists up from the valley. The view from this tower is amazing. It gives a panorama of the Iguassu Falls. The large waterfall that I had seen at first was a thin short line in the distance. The Iguassu Falls were of a tremendous scale. Nature is great and beyond our imagination. Without doubt nature is great. Looking at the Iguassu Falls, I felt like a small existence. Nevertheless, Mankind can do a great thing if it cooperates. It blocked Parana River to construct an artificial waterfall comparable to the Iguassu Falls. That's Itaipu Dam, which has the largest hydroelectric power plant of the world. 18 turbines sized at 700 MW each are installed, giving a total capacity of 12,600 MW. As Kurobe Dam, the largest dam in Japan, has a total capacity of 335 MW, Itaipu Dam is nearly 40 times larger. As a total capacity of the Three Gorges Dam in China, which is under construction, is 18,000 MW, Itaipu Dam will be the largest hydroelectric dam till the dam in China is completed. Its construction cost is enormous. The construction cost of 11.7 billion dollars exceeds that of 9 billion for the Seikan Undersea Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel in Japan.

This dam was constructed by the two countries of Brazil and Paraguay and the electricity generated by the power plant is equally divided by the two. Brazil supplies 25% and Paraguay does 95% of the nation's whole electricity demand. This plant is naturally very important for the two countries. There are plenty of Arabian restaurants in Fos do Iguassu. The three cities at the Golden Triangle of South America are international cities where the people from various countries live, and rumor says that some terrorists from Arab countries also lurk. I guess that the people of the power plant are afraid of the destruction by the terrorists and want to exclude the tourists from their plant. The dam is as long as 7.8km. Mankind made a construction comparable to the Iguassu Falls. The Iguassu Falls flow through the jungle and can wash our minds, but don't directly serve for our daily life. Even if the Iguassu Falls were destroyed by those terrorists, it would give the only effect of making the waterfalls recede a little. But, if the same destruction were given to the Itaipu Dam, the dam itself would disappear. Nowadays we are destined to live in the world that is supported by very fragile technology.

(2) Esperantist in Cascavel

There is the city of Cascavel with a population of 300,000, 140km northeast of Fos do Iguassu where the Iguassu Falls are located nearby. The city's main industry is the production of soybean. It is also a city of students with eight universities and is a new city that was born 50 years ago. Even the cathedral in the city center is a one-story modern building made of concrete. Without its signboard, no one would recognize it as a cathedral. The purpose of my visiting this city of nothing special is to see Alvaro Rabelo, an Esperantist. He is a 70-year-old physician and employs three doctors to run his clinic. He is the only Esperantist in Cascavel. I came to know about him through Sandra Burgues, the Uruguayan Esperantist who read the article about me in the newspaper "La Nacion" and sent me an e-mail. Sandra is a woman doctor and a professor at a university in the capital Montevideo. Alvaro is also a physician and her correspondent. As Sandra let me know the telephone number of Alvaro on the previous day when I left Fos do Iguassu, I immediately phoned him and told him that I would see him in Cascavel on the following day.I called him at his clinic soon after I checked in a hotel in Cascavel. He came to my hotel by his white Ford after work. As he immediately asked me what I wanted to eat, I answered I wanted Japanese food. The name of the restaurant he took me was "Shikai". I expected it would be a Japanese restaurant as "Shikai" means "four seas" in Japanese, but unfortunately it was a Chinese restaurant. However, there was "teppan-yaki" in the menu. The cooked fish on a hot griddle was delicious. He paid for the food, saying "You pay when I visit Colombia". On the second day in Cascavel, Alvaro came to my hotel during lunch break and treated me with Italian food this time. The restaurant Alvaro took me seemed to be very expensive. Various dishes were served in sequence. Main meal in Japan is taken in the evening, but in Latin America in the afternoon. Although the Italian cuisine looked delicious, I had a hangover because I had drunk too much in the hotel on the previous night. I felt like throwing up and didn't have any appetite. The restaurant must have been expensive, but I had only orange juice and a little food.

It was Saturday on the third day and Alvaro finished his work at noon. He came to the hotel to pick me up. The food of that day was Brazilian one. The restaurant we went was a buffet restaurant, where you take the food you want on a plate and pay for its weight. There are many of these restaurants in Brazil. The restaurant was, against my expectation, near my hotel. The restaurant was very busy and there was a long line of the people. We also had to wait. While waiting, I happened to see a Japanese. We sat on the same table with him and his wife according to Alvaro's idea. The name of the Japanese was Masayuki Inomata. He is 62 years old. He came to Brazil with his parents when he was 15. He has been living in Cascavel for more than 40 years. He is making a big business out of selling motorcars and furniture. According to his story, there are 250 families of Japanese or Japanese-Brazilians and the most of the Japanese-Brazilians become physicians or lawyers. He told me that there are some Japanese-Brazilian mayors in the cities near Cascavel. One of his most interesting stories was that he was thinking about making a sister city affiliation with the city of "Kaskabe" in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, for "Cascavel", which means a rattlesnake, sounds like "Kaskabe" when the last "r" is omitted. Brazil is a free and interesting country. Alvaro returned to invite me to a dinner two hours and a half after he dropped me at my hotel. The dinner was Brazilian food again, but in the best restaurant in Cascavel. Various kinds of meats roasted on a skewer were served to the table one after another. This style is peculiar to Brazil. I felt like being rich. The meats were delicious because they were served immediately after having been roasted. Alvaro also ordered a bottle of probably expensive wine. I had not drunk on the previous night after a long interval because I had not been able to eat almost anything on the same day. Therefore, I could enjoy the good food and ate unusually a lot that day.

In Cascavel Alvaro treated me with good food for three days. I thank him for this, but besides this, I remember he put his arm on my shoulders whenever I met him. I am not homosexual, but physical contact can make you feel friendship that exceeds one more dimension than words. One can feel love directly. This is what Latin-Americans can do while Japanese can't, and I think it good. There are lots of Latin-Americans who don't retreat within the walls of noncommunication and open their mind to even the people whom they meet for the first time. Because of this, I like Latin America although I was attacked and punched. And, it is important in our life to meet a person with beautiful mind like Alvaro.

(3) To Sao Paulo

The road went into the mountains soon after Cascavel. Although I had traveled in the mountains for the beginning several days in Argentina, I had been riding on a flat land since then. I saw the mountains after four months. The real excitement of riding a motorcycle lies in the winding road of the mountains. You cannot ride at high speed, but can cut space to the right and then left, upward and then downward. You feel as if you were a butterfly. I had to pay for the toll roads in Chile, but I didn't have to in Argentina except in Buenos Aires. I didn't pay either in Uruguay and Paraguay. But, on some roads in Brazil they charged for motorcycle tourists. There were tollgates at intervals of 50 to 100km and the fare was 40 to 90 cents. The fare itself was not too much, but I felt it bothersome to take the gloves off so as to pay money. Most of the motorcycles in this country are of Japanese make. However, the motorcars are mostly of European or US make and Japanese motorcars are few. The number of Japanese cars decreased in Argentina, although I had seen many of them in North, Central America and other countries in South America. The number of gas stations increased in Brazil. I don't have to worry about running out of gas anymore. In any of those gas stations, alcohol is sold. This alcohol is not the one which humankind drinks. It is alcohol fuel for automobiles. Alcohol fuel is made from sugarcane. Rum or aguardiente, which I drink almost every night, is also made from the same sugarcane. I thought that it would be wasteful and pricey to burn in the engine the same alcohol that we drink, but in fact the alcohol fuel is less expensive than gasoline. It is sold for 40 cents per liter, while gasoline for 60. As a result, aguardiente is also inexpensive in this country. The price of one-liter bottle of the drink is usually $2 to 3, but that of the cheapest one is $1.5.

The Brazilian gas stations often have an attached large restaurant. It is, surprisingly, a buffet restaurant where various dishes are laid. You take any food you want on a plate and put it on the scales at the cash desk. You pay for the weight. As the restaurants in Central and South America usually serve such an enormous amount of food that no one can eat all, this kind of restaurant is very good to me who is a light eater. Needless to say, there are these restaurants in the center of cities or towns as well. And, the hotels in Brazil give a free breakfast in most cases and it is a generous breakfast like those buffet restaurants. The hotels serve cakes, bread, cheese, ham, butter, jam, coffee, juice and several kinds of fruits. The hotels in Brazil charge more than those in other countries of South America, however, they are equipped better. A hotel has two classes of rooms; the less expensive room without a bathroom is called "quarto" and the room of full equipment with air conditioner, television and refrigerator is called "apartamento". The more expensive "apartamento" is very comfortable. Besides, most of the cities and towns in Brazil are young and modern. Because of this, it is relatively easy to find a hotel with a parking lot. The charge for the room of a hotel with a parking is usually about $10. Taking the rich breakfast into consideration, Brazilian hotels are, I believe, never expensive. In order not to miss the breakfast, I began to use an alarm clock in Brazil.

The buffet restaurant is the best. Various kinds of meats roasted on a skewer are also served in sequence at the table. Nevertheless, the price is low. With a bottle of beer, the charge is less than $4. Having this kind of restaurants, Brazil serves the best food in North and South America. However, there is a big problem. Smoking is not allowed there, unusually in Central and South America. It is hard not to smoke when drinking beer. There is another problem in traveling around Brazil. I was able to draw money from an ATM at any bank except Brazil. I tried at several banks in Brazil, but the HSBC was the only bank where I could make it. Brazil might be behind the other countries in computerization. There aren't many cybercafes accordingly. So I have to walk around the streets, looking for a cybercafe whenever I arrive in a city or town. A fewer cafes naturally means a higher charge. They charge $1.5 an hour.

I am still worrying about the weather in Brazil. I have never worried about it during three years since I started my journey in California. I rode in the rain only several times except in Bolivia - twice in the USA, once in Canada, once in Guatemala and once in Colombia till I left Patagonia. Besides, the rain I had was always a sudden rain that lasted for less than an hour. As a result, I never worried about the weather on the previous night of my departure.

Unfortunately the football ground was muddy from rain and most players were kicking the ball without shoes. Seniors had games in the morning. Brazil is a country of football. Even the men with gray hair showed an excellent kicking technique. Sergio's team played the first game of the afternoon. To my disappointment, they lost the game by the score of 2 to 4. After the game they had a barbeque party. I was also invited and treated with meat and beer. They also gave me a shirt of the team with the uniform number of 6. That number is the same with my baseball uniform that I wore in my younger days. I have never worn a football shirt. I heard Brazilians are friendly and it is true.The meat after the game was delicious, however, the Japanese dishes in Sao Paulo were much better. Without exaggeration I felt that the dishes were more delicious than those in Japan. I didn't go out of the Japanese Town and enjoyed Japanese food every day. I had a belly again on account of the Japanese food that I had in Buenos Aires for twenty days. My belly swelled more in Asuncion and at last in Sao Paulo my penis has hidden itself under the belly. If I keep staying here, my belly will not accept the leather pants. So will head for Rio de Janeiro where some Esperantists wait for me.

(4) Esperantists in Rio de Janeiro

Two days later, Aloisio took me to Niteroi on the other side of the bay and I met a married couple of Esperantists. Niteroi is connected with Rio de Janeiro by a 13-km long bridge over the bay. The Portuguese who discovered this bay in January of 1502 mistook the bay for a river and named the ex-capital Rio de Janeiro (River of January). We crossed the bridge by bus. The bridge could have afforded the whole view of Rio de Janeiro if without the fog over the sea. The fog obscured the probably beautiful city and the mountains behind it although the blue sky extended over the head. We arrived at the house of Valmir and Neide. It was a large house which had a music studio on the second floor. The next room was a computer room where three secretaries were working. The husband Valmir is a former high-ranking bureaucrat of the State government, and his wife Neide is a poet and at the same time a singer. We went to see the buildings near the sea designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who also designed the capital Brasilia, in a Citroen driven by a chauffeur. The museum on the cliff was, among all, a novelty in a shape of a flying saucer. It is said that Oscar is 98, but keeps working even now. Then we visited some beautiful beaches near Niteroi. Neide sang to the CD specially made for herself in the car on the way back. Her voice was as beautiful as an opera singer. We were taken to the port by the Citroen and went back to Rio de Janeiro by boat. Unfortunately the fog was not cleared yet.

The president of the Cooperative is Givanildo Ramos Costa. He is in charge of a 55-minute radio program of Esperanto at Radio Rio de Janeiro twice a week. The third day of my stay in Rio de Janeiro he proposed me that I should talk for the program. I asked him the day of the program and he answered it would be Tuesday of the following week. I had the idea of leaving Rio de Janeiro on the next Sunday when traffic would be easy. I thought about it for a while. I decided to postpone my departure and accepted his proposal.

On the same day they were having an Esperanto class as usual. I joined the class and talked about my journey. The instructor of the class was Ademar Dinis. He was teaching Esperanto through Esperanto without using a textbook. He worked for an oil-refinery company as an engineer and was a vice-chairman of the labor union. He retired 10 years ago at the age of 52. He now lives on his pension of US$860 a month. It is sufficient for the living in Brazil. He goes to the Cooperative almost every day as Aloisio does, and teaches Esperanto. He always made the students laugh by his jokes, although I didn't understand them at all. I was shocked to know that the students understood his jokes although they were all beginners. After the class I went to drink with Ademar and his 4 to 5 students. Ademar is the only smoker among all the Esperantists whom I had met during the journey. In addition, he is a heavier smoker than I. He also drinks, but he was drinking non-alcohol beer when I met him because he had lost his health. He is quite an amusing person. I learned from him some Esperanto words like fiki (fuck), feki (shit), furzi (fart) for the first time. The night was far advanced and it was nearly ten. The people who stayed there were four - a lady Neli, a guard Claudio, Ademar and I. Rio de Janeiro is also a dangerous city. Neli called her husband of a taxi driver and took me to my hotel by the car driven by her husband. I felt maximum security as I was also accompanied by the guard Claudi in the taxi. Next day Ademar told me by telephone that I should move to his second house. As I had already paid the hotel for another three nights in that morning, I answered him that I would do so four days later. He doesn't live in the same apartment with his wife and two children, but lives by himself in a three-story house to enjoy freedom. I thought it would be good to stay in his house, because I would be able to smoke freely.

It was Sunday next day. I got up at five in the morning and took a bus at seven with Ademar to go to Resende 200km west of Rio de Janeiro, where a State Congress of Esperanto was to be held. About 50 Esperantists gathered. The Congress began at ten. I spoke at the beginning of the afternoon programs. The Congress finished at four in the afternoon. We took a bus at five and went back home at eight-thirty. After a short rest, I switched on the PC, but it didn't start. Big problem! Four years have passed since I bought it. The life of the PC may be over! Ademar soon called someone and got the name of a repair shop. Next morning I went to the shop with Ademar. The attendant of the shop who examined the part of power supply told me that there was no problem with that part, but that the problem would be in the main part of the PC. He also told me that it would take eight days for repairs. I am traveling and I cannot wait such a long time! The shop was near the Cooperative. We went to the Cooperative. Ademar immediately called Didi who is one of his Esperanto students and a repairman of computers. Didi answered he would come to the Cooperative after work. About two hours later he came with two of his coworkers. They found out on the spot that the cable of the power supply had a bad contact, and fixed it in a moment. They didn't want to take money for their work. So we went to drink as usual. Thanks to the Esperantists, I didn't have to wait for eight days. Next day we went to the Cooperative again. I visited there every day in Rio de Janeiro. I was supposed to give the interview to the radio from three in the afternoon. I already knew the questions to be made by Givanildo, who is responsible for the program and at the same time the interviewer. So I wrote my answers in Esperanto and went with Ademar to the radio station in an island of the bay. As we didn't have enough time, I told Ademar to take a taxi. But he answered with a casual, nonchalant air, "No problem, Toru. Even if we are late, Givanildo has some other topics to talk about besides your interview". Latin-Americans are indeed easygoing. Our bus arrived in front of the radio station several minutes before three. Givanildo was waiting for us at the entrance. We soon sat at the microphones. Ademar also sat at the table with us. Givanildo started speaking both in Esperanto and Portuguese in a rhythmical tempo. He even sang a song. Ademar also spoke a little in Esperanto. The interview took longer time on account of my poor Esperanto and the program was prolonged by five minutes. I had the experience that other travelers seldom could have. This also happened because I had learned Esperanto.

Ademar took me, whenever he didn't have a class, to the famous places in the city such as the mountain with the famous statue of Christ, "Sugar Loaf", where you have a spacious view of Rio de Janeiro from the summit to which two-stage cable cars lift you up, and the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. During ten days in Rio de Janeiro I was with the Esperantists every day. I also participated in Esperanto classes at the Cooperative and the Esperantists' Association. When I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, I hardly could understand what the Esperantists were speaking. However, I gradually came to understand to a certain extent in Rio de Janeiro. Before Rio de Janeiro I had already met Esperantists in Canada at first, and then in some other countries, but I was, to tell the truth, always nervous to see them for lack of the ability of my speaking Esperanto. But it was over in Rio de Janeiro. Now I want to speak more in Esperanto and to improve my speaking ability of Esperanto. I began to learn Esperanto 15 years ago and at last I have taken off.