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Posted On Sunday, March 13, 2011 at
at
6:47 PM
by Alvin
We ventured into Paraguay by passing through the interesting border controls of Argentina (very proper and official, getting off the local bus, queued up at Immigration, stamped our passports with Salida/Entrada, getting back on the same waiting bus), Brazil (the same bus went straight through the Immigration of the Brazilian check point, with us scratching our heads thinking we had just become some illegal aliens) and then on to the Paraguayan boarders (the bus drivers just dumped us after we crossed the famous muggers' bridge where walking was not recommended and the stamping of our passports with Paraguayan officials seemed entirely voluntary !). At the end, we figured we had better have our Entrada (and later Salida) stamped properly by the very friendly Paraguayan officials.
Ciudad del Este was a town full of heavily armed and bullet-proof-vested security guards, shopping plazas operated by Taiwanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern and Indian businessmen, casual local street vendors selling CDs, futbol shirts and balloons, wholesalers from Argentina and Brazil as well as tourists utterly bewildered by the odd surroundings which looked as if they were card boards put up temporarily from the night before. We nevertheless did not feel too much threat in the broad daylight and spent a few light-hearted hours exploring the plazas, the back streets, the only Burger King for a coffee and then caught up at the bus terminal back to Argentina with our German friends from Dusseldorf for a good-natured chat about the quirks of this funky Paraguayan city !
We ventured into Paraguay by passing through the interesting border controls of Argentina (very proper and official, getting off the local bus, queued up at Immigration, stamped our passports with Salida/Entrada, getting back on the same waiting bus), Brazil (the same bus went straight through the Immigration of the Brazilian check point, with us scratching our heads thinking we had just become some illegal aliens) and then on to the Paraguayan boarders (the bus drivers just dumped us after we crossed the famous muggers' bridge where walking was not recommended and the stamping of our passports with Paraguayan officials seemed entirely voluntary !). At the end, we figured we had better have our Entrada (and later Salida) stamped properly by the very friendly Paraguayan officials.
Ciudad del Este was a town full of heavily armed and bullet-proof-vested security guards, shopping plazas operated by Taiwanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern and Indian businessmen, casual local street vendors selling CDs, futbol shirts and balloons, wholesalers from Argentina and Brazil as well as tourists utterly bewildered by the odd surroundings which looked as if they were card boards put up temporarily from the night before. We nevertheless did not feel too much threat in the broad daylight and spent a few light-hearted hours exploring the plazas, the back streets, the only Burger King for a coffee and then caught up at the bus terminal back to Argentina with our German friends from Dusseldorf for a good-natured chat about the quirks of this funky Paraguayan city !
