Paraguay: Ciudad del Este and Asuncion

We took a bus to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, and inadvertantly crossed the border into Brasil on the way. Unfortunately we haven´t got the passport stamps to prove it, but we were in Brazil, even if only for half an hour!

The border crossing was crowded and chaotic, and very hot. Since Paraguay is cheap for shopping, hoardes of Argentinians cross here and the place was full of billboards and street vendors and cars and noise as far as the eye could see! This didn´t trouble us though, since our bus driver didn´t bother to stop at the border and took us straight in to the bus station. Despite what I had read in ´the Book´, the Paraguayan policeman did not request a bribe and was very helpful, although totally wrong. We took a taxi back to the border and I struggled to fend off an offer of marriage whilst Rich was at the cash point. Eventually we were fully stamped and legal and headed back to the bus station for an onward bus to Asuncion, the capital.

We arrived 5 hours later and rather than drive around trying to find a nice place to stay, we picked the hotel Central next to the bus station, forgetting rule number one, which is never to go to a hotel near the bus station. We got ourselves a thoroughly cheap room which had a double bed and a single. Presumably the extra bed was for all the BUGS! Eurghh.

Luckily it did have air conditioning as outside was around 40 degrees, and also a TV to distract from the BUGS and what looked like chewing gum on one wall!

We put up with it for just the one night and headed to a much nice place with a pool in town. It being a Sunday, the place was deserted but we found a great restaurant full of Paraguayan families enjoying Sunday lunch, and where the waiters wore bow ties and ran around very efficiently - the best service in South America so far. People were very friendly, approaching us whilst we were having lunch. Apparently they don´t have many European tourists here and we certainly haven´t seen any.

We had another good wander around, looking at the Plaza de los Heroes and the old, pink government palace, which apparently we could have been shot for taking pictures of a few years ago. Still, it was too hot to be outside for a very long time, so we retreated to the airconditioned mall to do some updating of the blog and emailing home. We´ll probably have to leave eventuallly. But not yet, not yet...