An afternoon in Paraguay

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I almost feel guilty writing an entry that attempts to provide any sort of insight into Paraguay. Disobeying the unwritten rule of backpacking that to really say you´ve ¨done¨ a country you need to spend at least a few nights and visit more than one place, we decided a short afternoon jaunt into Paraguay was still worthwhile, even if it was mostly for the funky exit and entrance stamps in our passports! So apologies to any of you hardcore travellers out there, I hope you´ll pardon the offence. 😉

The first thing apparent to anyone crossing the Rio Parana from Brazil into Paraguay´s Ciudad del Este is the huge economic gulf between two towns which sit so geographically close together. No more than 200m of suspension bridge separates two entirely different worlds. On one side, there is the relatively prosperous, clean and ordered centre of Foz do Iguazu. On the other, you step into the ramshackle, chaotic and slovenly theatre of a third world country. Everything from the piles of detritus accumulating in every gutter and sidestreet, to the disorderly queues of traffic and disgruntled drivers in slowly disintegrating vehicles conveyed the same impression. We certainly weren´t in Kansas anymore. As you step out of immigration, you arrive in the middle of an enormous craft market, complete with bellowing shopkeepers, shrieking children and a menagerie of rabid animals. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to us, we had chosen to visit on National Independence Day, and as such the market was only at half strength. On another day it might have made for an even more incredible welcome party. The national holiday was to continue to blight our day, as the vast majority of shops weren´t open for business (in our desperation to find lunch, we were horrified to see that even McDonalds was shut!) So our morning was largely spent wandering the empty streets, soaking up the frenetic atmosphere and picking our way around the raw sores of poverty. That is not to say however that Ciudad del Este is in the least bit disagreeable. To anyone who like myself and Katie, has been fortunate enough to travel and witness poverty first hand, you can look beyond it, and the chaos that other westerners might sneer at becomes fascinating, even refreshing. In the midst of all the madness, the people are amazingly outgoing and friendly, even letting us sit in on a game of street-side checkers (played with upturned bottle caps on a cardboard base). What´s more, even the city itself, with its dilapidated buildings and pot-holed pavements, has a unique character that is simply inaccessible anywhere in the West. I really got a sense that I was properly exploring, out of my comfort zone, and not just in another exotic replication of Europe, 3000 miles from home. And as far as I´m concerned, those are the kind of moments that we travel for.

When eventually we stumbled upon a tiny hostel-come-cafe, we spent a long while just sitting in the window and watching the world go by. However, by mid afternoon things had started to pick up a little, and we even managed to find a restaurant that was open for dinner, so I was at least able to continue my tour of South American beers! As night fell, we made our way back across the border, slightly upset that we´d been foiled by a national holiday, but nonetheless happy that we had had our first taste of real, out of your comfort zone travelling, more of which undoubtedly awaits us as we press on into Peru and Bolivia (to where, incidentally, we are making the intrepid voyage tomorrow! But more on that in due time.) And anyway, needless to say we were delighted with our stamps! The passport is filling up nicely. Soon I´ll be able to pretend I´m the daring traveller I always wanted to be.

Once back in Brazil, we spent our last night rather quietly in preparation for an early start the next day, as we began our 24 hour trip back into Argentina, to her second city and all round party central, Cordoba.

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