Where the 3 Countries Meet: Paraguay/Brazil/Argentina

---

Monday 14th April
By 1030am we need to be checked out so enjoy another good breakfast, check luggage into the storage rooms and are ready for our 3rd country in 3 days! We're off to Paraguay (optional extra). No messing around at the border this time... They're there but there's no stamping in/out this time. Across the bridge and we're into Paraguay... Or one town of it where electronics, branded goods, etc. can be purchased cheaply. Just interested to see but manage to replace my camera case and get another memory card. Help Lila and Staurt replace their stolen mobile phones... Engage in a bit of bargaining, but the price doesn't shift much. Amazing what you can buy here!

Next stop, the supermarket. Here there's a chance to buy lunch 'per kilo' - pretty cheap/good option... At least we think so until Shilpa lucks out again and finds a maggot in her food. At least she doesn't have to pay buy Lila says it's not that uncommon and Brazilians would just have eaten it (the meal or the maggot?!). 2nd stop of the day is Itaipu, a large hydro-electric dam (one of the 7 architectural wonders of the world)... A bit of an odd choice, lots of concrete to see, and a bit of a marketing exercise by the company (environmental/socio-economic policies, etc), but kinda interesting.

The weather is the best we've had so far and we're offered the option to go up in the helicopter which was impossible the first day. Stuart, Mark and I are all up for it (I chose this trip for the Inca Trail/Iguassu Falls combination) so drive back to the Brazilian side of the Falls. Price is R150 (about $85) but a pretty unique experience, see the Falls from above... And the helicopter takes about 4 passes over the Falls (carefully never straying into the Argentinian side).

Final stop for the day is the point at which the 3 borders cross. This is well sign-posted so we're sure there must be a good marker and are looking forward to having a foot in 3 countries. Bit of a disappointment to arrive there and find that the central point is in the river and each country built an obelisk in 1903 which can be seen from each riverbank! Some daft photo opportunities though! Just back at the hotel in time to pay up, grab our bags and jump back on the bus for a ride to the bus station. It takes a while to check onto the bus, but we gringos seem to get an easier ride of it than the locals who seem likely to have their bags searched (well, it is near the tax-free haven of Paraguay). 10 minutes after setting off we stop at the Pluma headquarters where we're told to get off as the tyre needs changing and we see the bus disappear with all our possessions! 20 minutes later it's back and we're on way. 8pm Christian throws some kind of strop about the noise and he & Claire change seats. 930pm some more people enter the bus... These guys are super-noisy wide-boys. They start collecting money from people on the bus... Something to do with a bribe for the police to pay for smuggled goods. Still no idea why they expected passengers to pay unless they also had undeclared goods. Anyway. We didn't pay! 11pm the bus stops for dinner. I had supermarket food earlier so at midnight when we're back on the road and things have gone dark, pull the eye mask on (probably the biggest essential after passport/ticket/money/camera!), and settle to sleep.

---