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Published: September 22nd 2008
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Hola amigos!
Well, it was a fleeting trip (11 days) through Paraguay but a really great experience. The people here are so warm and friendly...historically holding out their welcoming arms to Mennonites, Nazi’s, Japanese and MOONIES!
The car of choice here is a Merc, there’s plenty cruising the streets, without number plates and no one seems to care. I guess these are the ones stolen from Brazil to ´boost the economy´! Who can blame them when (LP quote) "politicians lead by example rollin’ in their stolen BMW’s"
Encarnacion
Hot and sticky border town but with a real South American flavour, more hap-hazard and smiley than Argentina. Nearby here there are some Jesuit ruins. The Jesuits were quietly going about converting the natives and protecting them from the slave regimes of the Portuguese before the Spanish kicked them out for having too much power and for being too nice to the Indians. It's a pretty tranquil place and I just enjoyed walking through the field of orchids and soaking up the atmosphere.
Asuncion
Met up with my lovely friends Emma and Janine again, unfortunately we had missed the Friday night Paraguayan male stripper performance ; (
It's a
pretty laid back capital city, not a lot going on bit people sitting in parks sipping ice cold mate, naked children playing in the fountains and lots of bored looking security guards with guns. They even have an English pub but guess what; I was the only Brit in there!
Concepcion
Nice town, lots of horse drawn carts clacking about along-side hundreds of mopeds. HOT...like 40 degrees, we treated ourselves to a posh hotel with swimming pool, AC and TV (still only 5 pound, the price of a dorm bed in Argentina). The tropical weather brought with it a tropical downpour the next day so we traipsed about covered in red mud trying to uncover the truth behind the Lonely Liar and it's false boat information.
Rule 1. Always ask at least 3 people about times locations of transport etc, this way you can get a concensus of opinion and usually locate the truth.
Rule 2. Never believe what you read in the Lonely Planet
Ok, the boat wasn’t going back to Asuncion the next day but there was one going further upstream to Vallemi...unknown territory...definitely somewhere off the gringo radar where the LP travel writer has never been...
Up the lazy river Paraguay...Vallemi
So, Emma and I were waiting at the port from 11am. Armed with just the essentials: a small bag, 4 litres of water, 4 litres of wine, a packet of cereal and some dry crackers and about 20 quid between us...we were ready! The Cacique rolled in about 2pm and was loaded up with crates and crates of fruit n´ veg, sacks of flour, mopeds etc (no live animals) and stacks of people. We just stood there getting in the way as everyone else dove for space in the fishy smelling cabins downstairs. Where did we sleep? Under the stars on the upper deck, sat on a lovely orange tarpaulin, kindly lent a blanket from some friendly teenagers.
We were later warned that said teenagers were ‘dangerous types’ but they warned us off the Naval lieutenant we were talking too as "all military personnel were corrupt". Vince the dodgy CD seller warned us off Felix the guy from the cement factory and later led us to the bus company and a nice little hotel, where Blanca made us the best steak dinner.
We nicknamed all the passengers of interest, and then Emma amused them
all by crawling along the plank that led from our deck to the stairs. Sleep was interrupted by a near collision into a small island and another boat; apparently it was the other captain that was drunk, not ours! Intermittently the horn would blast and the search light came on, blinding and deafening us all. Once the sun came up it was unbearable and people made little tents with their blankets, we hid in the stifling hold. Little villages along the way would collect their crates. Some places had furnaces on the river bank and were producing cement. Little children waved, but most just stared, gathered at the river bank for their weekly entertainment. Face down on the deck asleep, Emma missed the giraffes.
Ciudad del Este...You’ve seen Miami Vice aint ya??
Couldn’t resist this quote from www.comebackalive.com
This is a major base for drug traffickers smuggling Bolivian cocaine via hidden landing strips cut out of the jungle. More than US$12 billion moves through here a year. As the Brazilian drug lords have been pushed out of the shantytowns of Rio, they've found a convenient base in Ciudad del Este. In fact, this place has it all-murder, mayhem and
even Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas, who are suspected of using the city to launch bombing attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina. There are about 200 murders a year in this city of 100,000, most of the executions identical in appearance with Brazilian gangland slayings. It costs US$500 to bribe a customs official in Ciudad del Este, and a bogus passport can be had for US$5,000. The city is also a channel for smuggled electronics goods and computers from Miami and stolen cars from Brazil. It's estimated that half the cars on Paraguay's roads were stolen in Brazil.
Ciudad del Este is a tax-free centre and popular with Paraguayans for its bargains on consumer goods. The 400-yard ´friendship´ bridge is usually packed with trucks and passenger cars stuffed with brand-new goods bought in Brazil. It is also a great place to pick up bogus U.S. dollars, anti-aircraft guns, rare and endangered animals, weapons and drugs. The area is also called the "Triangle"- the frontier area between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, with a Shiite Muslim community of about 6,000 people. Lebanese, Syrians and Iranians came here in the early 1980s and brought with them the New World cell of Hezbollah. Hezbollah
trains local recruits in the jungles around the main city of Foz do Iguazu and gets its support from both the local merchants and Iran. To combat Ciudad del Este's emergence as the globe's hub of nastiness, the FBI is opening an office in Brasilia.
Anyway..apart from that...it didn’t seem that dangerous, just a little manic, though I did heed warnings not to leave the hotel at night. It was the craziest border crossing I have ever seen...thousands of people loaded up with shopping bags, cars full of tyres, lots of police with guns and frequent shoot-outs apparently!
Igauzu Falls...actually in Argentina
More than a lot of water falling off a cliff...These amazing falls are also set in a beautiful national park complete with guinea pigs, vultures, iguanas, butterflies, and raccoon things. The falls are huge and actually stretch across the border to Brazil. Watching the calm river turn into thundering powder at the "devils' throat" is hypnotic and vertigo inducing. The force is so powerful that onlookers are drenched from the spray erupting from the drop and rainbows appear as the sun brings colour to the whiteness...beautiful!
Not long now folks, I am currently chilling out
in Uruguay nursing a cold...so it's not all fun and games!
God Bless xxx HRH
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