Blogs from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, South America

Daytrip to Paraguay...... read more

Dnes sme sa rozhodli navstivit asi najznamejsiu stavbu v Paraguaji - priehradu Itaipu leziacu na rieke Parana a vyhlasenu za jeden z modernych divov sveta. Tato elektraren pokryva 80 percet spotreby Paraguaju a asi 30 percet spotreby Brazilie, ktorej patri polovicka Itaipu. V najrychlejsej fazy stavby sa pouzivalo 30 ton betonu kazdych 15 minut, 24 hodin pocas 4 rokov. Pouzite zelezo a ocel by stacili na stavbu 380 Eiffelovych vezi. Navstivit toto dielo sa samozrejme nedalo samostatne a tak sme sa museli prihlasit na recepcii elektrarne, kde nam najprov pustili propagacny film. Napriek uzasnym cislam a statistikam vela ludi povazuje tuto stavbu za ekologicku katastrofu. Vela zvierat stratilo domov alebo zahynulo a boli pri nej tiez zatopene vodopady este vatsie ako Iguazu. Mi sme sa samozrejme dozvedeli len to pozitivne. Prehliadka sa cela konala z autobusu ... read more

Kim left us bright eyed and eager for our bus journey to the mystical land of Paraguay - in a bid to catch up, I'm taking us up to Florionopolis in Brazil, and another from Jamie in a few days will cover Flori and Rio. Anyway, we approached our bus journey with starry-eyed optimism; we'd stocked up on all the essentials and were ready to go. Bus-cake (like regular cake, but typically eaten on buses), cheese-balls and some fruit. Coupled with our complimentary whiskey, meals, films and bed-like seats, we were expecting a treat of a bus journey. Ah, Bolivia. You really couldn't have given us a more fitting farewell. With several erratic gestures and a scurry of his little feet, that bastard-devil man who sold us our tickets pushed us onto a bus that looked ... read more

Alone in nondescript plaza in Cuidad del Este, delivered across, rather than to, the border by a local bus which had no time for formalities, Miles was an illegal immigrant in Paraguay having been deported from Brazil. It was essential that he obtained a Brazilian exit visa. He would return to Brazil (illegally) and attempt to leave again. A bronchitis attack induced by a thirty degree drop in temperature between the Copacabana and this nondescript swamp left him coughing, shivering and slightly delirious as he trudged back from whence the bus had come. Presently he came to a long bridge over the Rio Paraná. The river was invisible below beneath billowing mist boiling into the freezing early morning air. There was little motorized transport across the bridge. On one side of the road ‘smugglers’ unhurriedly pushed ... read more

“I want to see the Delegado,” Miles stated, as a formal statement. “You just did. That was him.” The friendly Federalé continued to steer Miles towards the exit of The Federal Police Headquarters, Rio de Janiero, Brazil. “Remember. Don’t forget. Forty eight hours.” He waved cheerily and pushed Miles out into the esgoto of humanity that was the street. Bade him boa viagem. Dick had spent most of the day alone, in a windowless room, on a plastic chair, under a lightbulb, beside a water cooler. Infrequently the door would open and a variety of men, all obvious police officers, would look at him for longer or shorter intervals, but mainly he had just been sitting. Months, perhaps years before, Miles had overstayed his visa. Now he needed to become legal. In pursuance of such status, ... read more

Our plane landed at Ciudad del Este(CDE) airport, we exited the flight leaving most of our fellow passengers on board continuing on to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Initially I intended to stay the evening at CDE, but a combination of a lack of decent accomodation and some horror stories about the city changed our minds. The new improved plan was to catch a taxi and drive smoothly over the border to Puerto Iguasu, Argentina. Well in theory....... We found a taxi driver happy to drive us, though he told us the fee would be $60.00AUS , which I thought was a bit steep. Fortunately his taxi was not an old clapped out Mercedes, but this time we had the relative comfort of a fairly new looking Toyota sedan. The driver drove it like it was stolen, pretty ... read more

Die letzten Tage mit meinem Bruderherz... fr Cuidad del este... Wenn sich irgendwo auf der Welt ein Schlupfloch in die Hölle aufgetan hat, dann wohl hier... Kommerz, Korruption und Beton prägen das Stadtbild. Sobald wir über der Grenze waren, kamen meine alten Paranoia wieder auf und meine Hände verkrampften sich tief in meiner Tasche. Weil wir noch Einiges an Zeit hatten, bevor unser Bus nach Asunción abfuhr, spazierten wir etwas durch die Stadt. Als wir -in der beginnenden Dämmerung- einen schmalen Parkstreifen durchquerten, lief uns ein ca. 8-jähriger Junge, der seine Arme im T-Shirt versteckt hielt, hinterher: "¡Dame moneda, tengo cuchillo!" (gib mir Geld, ich hab ein Messer). Nur gut, dass Moritz' Spanisch nicht ganz ausgereift ist, er weiterging und den Kleinen mitleidig ansah... Bis uns dieser einen Stein nachwarf. sa Endlich zurück in der Mütter ... read more