The most corrupt city in South America...

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day 9...my credit card has still not arrived... i am begining to feel like i am stuck in an episode of survivor living off dodgey hostel food.

anyways...the most corrupt city in South America... i have not seen too much corruption in south america although i would have to agree that this place must have it´s fair share.

i decided to get out and do a bit more travel and not let the hinderance of having no accessable funds get me down. As with all australians, canadians and USA-íans we need a visa to enter paraguay...this visa cost 40 dollars US and for 1 day i hardly thought it was worth it. travelling with another fellow from the USA we set off for the contraband capital of south america Ciudad del Este!

as my fellow traveller didn´t have a brazilian visa either we decided to take the scenic boat ride across the river.

It felt like the boat housed some dodgey refugees seeking asylum in another country... it definately had an illegal feel to it and in fact it was technically illegal....but everyone else is doing it so why not me haha. apparently you can go across for one day only to ciudad del este and return with out a visa...

wrong.

we reached the shore of the other side and stupidly followed the crowed to the immigration office on the paraguaian side...a small problem he said and began to explain what we technically already new...then with a bit of winging on out part about how hot it was and we are here now anyway so he should just let us in...he motioned in a soft whisper that mabey we could convice him another way...so 25 pesos later we set off into the great city of ciudad del este. we should have just walked straight passed and not paid at all as we didn´t get a stamp but i think we err´d on the side of lets see if we can get in for 1 day.

The city was definately dodgey markets lined the streets with clothes, boot legged CD´s/DVD´s, watches, cameras, etc... although none of the electronic goods i was promised. so we walked around whilst being mildly heckaled... nothing what i was expecting though like being followed down the street etc. i even carried a camera around a bit and snapped a photo or two and wasn´t totally worried about it being ripped off... but then again i wasn´t confident either.

yes this city wasn´t the prettiest city ever but not as bad as down town bagdad or something like other people were describing and infact i was looking forward to something a bit more hardcore...people tell me at night tho the place transforms and even the locals packup and stay behind locked doors whilst it is dark... one story one of my fellow travellers told me said they were kicked out of a thai restaruant because it was getting dark outside and the restaraunt staff wanted to get home before it got dark!

anyways i finally stepped into proper mall and saw what people had been talking about...i am talking about a whole shopping center filled with electronic goods i.e mabey 25-50 stores back to back sony, panasonic etc... i set off in search of the ultimate bargin ipod but was suprised to find it was cheaper but no where near the bargin i was expecting... mabey my bargining skills were not quite up to scratch.

a bit of average asian food later and it was back across the boarder before dark.

mabey 4 hours in paraguay i am sure it isn´t the city paraguay loves to be known by but i had an enjoyable day. I am sure it is a place where i could have got anything i wanted if the price was right and i talked to the right people but i didn´t get my souveniers mabey another time.

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Photos

boat to paraguay
yeah this is what it takes to get to paraguay

crossing the boarder
the boat ride across the border

ciudad del este
the streets of ciudad del este

the girls by the pool
shirley and carolina back at the hostel

Comments

[Sean]

Hey dude
Man it sounds like youve been everywhere! uruguay sounds ace aye :) not much happening here, but thinking of going to europe in august, fun! oh yeah, sydney made the soccer finals lol