Raid in Paraguay

A very short stop in Paraguay on the occasion of a trip to Brazil with a small add-on in Argentina. A tour made in the company of a friend from Perugia with whom I had previously made other trips. Finding ourselves in Foz do Iguaçu to visit the waterfalls of the same name, rightly considered the most beautiful in the world, we decided to cross the bridge to reach Ciudad del Este on the other side of the river. Although the various guidebooks wrote that this city offers nothing of tourist interest, it was our wish, given the proximity, to set foot in Paraguay. We hired a taxi driver in the centre of Foz do Iguaçu who, during the transfer, had us fill in a form for crossing the border. In practice, this way you can enter without particular customs formalities.

On the road to the border a long queue of vehicles had formed, probably cross-border commuters returning home after a day's work in Brazil. The taxi had priority over them, so we quickly reached the mouth of the bridge, preceded by Brazilian customs. We underwent no checks on either side. Curiously, on entering Paraguayan territory, I noticed the watchtower of the local Navy, truly strange for a country with no access to the sea. Here the Navy evidently limits itself to patrolling the river. We went to the very close "Shopping del Este Paraguay" shopping centre, one of the many present in Ciudad del Este as it is a free port. Perhaps because of the hour — it was late afternoon — the shopping centre was almost empty and many of the businesses inside were closed or about to close.

We bought nothing, also because although the local currency is the guaraní, in that place you paid in US dollars, which we didn't have with us. In fact we would have liked to have a coffee at the bar, but that too was closing. All that was left was to take the taxi again and, having crossed the bridge, return to Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. We would also have liked to see the town centre, but the taxi driver advised against it, probably because he wasn't allowed to go there. The big, ugly buildings of Ciudad del Este we saw instead from Brazil, casting our gaze beyond the river. Before landing at Foz do Iguaçu airport I had observed from the plane window both the bridge, Ciudad del Este, and the largest dam in the world, shared between Paraguay and Brazil.