Blogs from Paraguay, South America - page 34

i know this blog is really out of date but i{ll do my best to catch up! so, we actually walked into paraguay across the friendship bridge from brazil into paraguay, you{d imagine it was a little rope bridge across a jungle or something (or maybe thats just me being silly¿¿), anyway it wasn{t and the border town, ciudad del este didnt look all that enticing. so we trekked across the bridge with our excessively large backpack in about 40degrees of midday heat and arrived on the other side at the customs office v.v.v.sweaty! i handed over my passport first and the guy looked quite confused (by a british passport¿¿) and had to take the suspicious looking pport to his boss and for a moment i did think i wasnt going to be allowed in!anyway, after ... read more

Foz de Iguazu sijaitsee Brasilian, Paraguayn ja Argentiinan rajalla. Tänne saavuttiin aamusella, joten hotellin löytymisen jälkeen hypättiin bussiin ja matkustettiin Ciudad del Esteen Paraguayn puolelle. Kaupunki on tunnettu Etelä-Amerikan suurimpana shoppailupaikkana ja brasilialaiset ja argentiinalaiset tuppaavat itsekin käydä siellä ostoksilla. Paikka taitaa myös olla tunnettu rahanpesusta ja salakuljetuksista. Brasilian ja Paraguayn rajalla ei tarvinnut (tai me ei ainakaan) pysähtyä näyttämään passia vaan sen kuin vain meni bussilla vain yli. Shoppailukojut ja ns. tavaratalot löytyivät heti kätevästi tullin jälkeen, joten ei tarvinnut pitkälle kävellä. Elektroniikkaa oli rutkasti. Vahvasti edustettuina olivat erityisesti kamerat, puhelimet ja kaiken näköiset dvd-laitteet. Sieltä löytyi myös soittimia, vahvareita, tölsyjä, kalastusvälineitä, autojen Tuning-välineitä, sähkö-leluja j... read more

A break from the pouring rain was all I wanted for Christmas...And today I was granted a few hours of sunshine with puffy clouds and blue skies, the best backdrop for the immense ruins that stretch over a hilltop in Trinidad, Paraguay. Even as the storm clouds came rolling back in, they served to just increase the dramatic nature of the scene, and leave me enough time to wave down a bus from the road, to head back to Encarnacion. The day started strangely, as any day would when you arrive in a new city at 6 AM, its residents still asleep and you ready to get going. After the night's bus ride, I quickly checked into a hotel across from the bus terminal (waking the owner), took a shower, and had a short nap. After ... read more

Over the past couple months, almost everyone I told about my upcoming trip to Paraguay responded with the same brand of look, one of those tilt your head to the side, purse your lips funny and lift your eyebrows looks that hints towards something on a scale between 'Whyyyy?' and 'Are you crazy?' and I took it as more encouragement for this adventure. If there's something so weird about Paraguay, then it must be worth going. But the part that some people mentioned with a stronger, wrinkle the nose look, was the weather, the HEAT, that is. It's summertime here and just days ago, right before I arrived, it was supposedly 48 degrees Celsius, which calculates to roughly 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Unreal. I always say I love the heat anyway, but of course that kind of ... read more

Being clever so-and-sos we saved the best for last at the Iguazu Falls. This morning we caught the first bus to the park and we headed towards something called the Devil’s Throat. A mini-train transports all the tourists to the beginning of the walkway, and they obviously knew we were coming as they were playing Gabriel’s Oboe from the film The Mission - more famously it was also the music Gemma walked down the aisle to. We had a brief chat with a young English chap with a fondness for traveller clichés. When we said that we had heard of Eailing, London, his hometown, he slowly shook his head and said “small world”! There is a 1100m ‘catwalk’ to the viewing deck about as close to the Devils Throat as any sensible person would want to ... read more