So far in Brazil we had met hardly any travellers who had visited Paraguay and many blogs don’t have too many positive things to say about it. Determined to make up our own minds on the country and with it being so close to Iguazu Falls we thought why not go and check it out?
As we soon found out, Paraguay doesn’t do much to help itself out and encourage travellers. Because I have an Australian and British passport, I was able to travel into the country at no charge on my British one, but poor Xave on his Australian passport got stung with a whooping US$135. If you are from Canada and the US be prepared to cough up some money as well. I’m not sure if it would have been cheaper had we organised the visa from home but because we were doing it at the Paraguayan consulate in Foz do Iguaçu, Xave was also slammed with a terrible, fixed conversion rate. Despite the fee being in US dollars the lady at the consulate was adamant that she wouldn’t accept US dollars and only Brazilian Reals with her conversion rate, which was so bad compared to the actual one. We ended up paying around US$150 instead. I wanted to shout at the lady that this was daylight robbery but thought better of it because I was scared she wouldn’t grant Xave a visa if I did.
This fee almost deterred Xave from going ahead with the visa but through some persuasion and the promise that I would pay for half of it, I was able to convince him to continue with the visa process. It did leave us both feeling a little put-off the country though and we hadn’t even stepped foot in it yet!
Ciudad del Este is probably the most visited place for tourists because it’s so easy to do a day trip here if you are staying at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil or Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. My guide book made it sound like you didn’t need to get a visa if you were just coming here for the day and whilst it is very easy to just stay on the bus and not get out at immigration, I don’t think it’s legal (although the chances of getting caught are probably next to none). There are two main attractions in Ciudad del Este; shopping and Itaipú Dam.
As soon as you walk over Friendship Bridge, you are met with a chaotic combination of taxi drivers, shop keepers and stand alone vendors yelling at you to buy this or that. The traffic is moving slowly as shops have gradually crept on to the street and crowds of people are everywhere but with no where to walk because the footpaths are virtually non existent anymore. Instead someone is now selling clothing, the latest electronical gadgets, shoes or pirate DVDs. It’s like a giant obstacle course that you need to weave in and out of to get to where you want to go.
Because everything in Paraguay is so cheap, it’s very common for neighbouring citizens from Brazil and Argentina to come here for the day and go shopping. They then walk away with multiple ginormous plastic holdall bags (don’t worry if you forgot yours, there are plenty of people selling them) with everything under the sun packed into them. The whole experience was a bit overwhelming for me actually and instead of spending a full day shopping as planned I bought a pair of gloves and then fled to see the dam instead!
The Itaipú Dam was named in 1994 by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven modern Wonders of the World. It is located on the boarder of Paraguay and Brazil and is the second largest dam (196 m high and 7, 919 m long) in the world after China’s Three Gorges Dam. The dam supplies nearly 80% of Paraguay’s electricity and 20% of Brazil’s entire demand. Despite these impressive numbers the building of the dam came at a price. Quite literally it cost just under US$20 billion to build, however in the process it flooded Guaíra Falls (previously the world’s largest waterfall by volume) and forced 10,000 families living along the Paraná River to move. If you want to see the dam catch any bus marked ‘Hernandarias’ from Ciudad del Este, which drops you within 10 mins walking distance of the entrance. Free bus tours in Spanish run between 8am – 4pm daily showing you around the dam. You can see it from the Brazilian side but it costs money for the tour and you only get to see it from a distance.
Despite it’s proximity, Paraguay is in a different time zone to Foz do Iguaçu and Argentina. So remember to wind your clock back an hour and avoid what we did by arriving an hour before our bus was due to depart for Asunción.
Every Country 