Paraguay: it’ll be nice when it’s finished

We had arrived in Foz do Iguaçu, the Brazilian town at Iguaçu Falls, and went to a calm campsite a little outside of the town. They probably had the best showers in all of South America. They had great big shower heads with a lot of power to scrub you properly clean. It was possible only that day to cross into Paraguay because we were moving on the next day. Paraguay is known for its cheap electronic goods in South America. I went for 2 reasons: just to get another stamp in my passport and a Paraguayan flag. I only got one. The town we were visiting was called Cuidade del Este. (City of the East) We headed into Foz do Iguaçu with the local bus and came to the Brazilian border. We stamped out of the country and walked across the bridge crossing the Rio Paraná. After almost being burnt by the sun try to walk across the bridge we arrived at the Paraguayan border control. We stamped in and headed for town and this is what we saw:

The day we went was on a Sunday so almost all the shops were deserted. The town had become a ghost town. The people we did see were all a little bit sketchy. It was quite uncomfortable walking around because you didn’t quite know if it was safe or not. Everything was bolted shut with massive metal padlocks and iron bars. It didn’t make me feel comfortable. In addition, there were lone police men on just about every corner of the street with massive shotguns in their hands. You also saw a lot of undercover cops with pistols in their holsters. Hell! Even the pharmacy had a security guard with a pistol at his hip. At one point, Jasper was walking around with his t-shirt off because it was too hot and a man with his hand on his pistol at his hip made him put it on.

Cuidade del Este is a very tacky place with the littered streets. The people weren’t as friendly as the people we had met in Brazil. When we arrived I really just wanted to turn around immediately and head straight back for the beautiful Brazil. It made me realize how lucky we were not to travel through Paraguay on the trip. I’m sure there are beautiful areas in Paraguay too but further north up in the hills and mountains. We walked around maybe for an hour looking for a bandera (flag in Spanish) and headed back to the border. We were all very glad to get the exit stamp in our passports!