Activity Summary
Sunday 7th January - Day 460
Luke solo trip
Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
Summary
Ciudad del Este
A bit of a shit hole to be honest. Nothing here but shopping malls and because I was there on a Sunday, nothing seemed to be open. Didn’t even manage to get a magnet.
But it was very easy to get to CDE and back to Foz, simply for the weak bragging rights of ‘going to Paraguay’.
The Monday Falls are supposed to be pretty good but the setup to get there is weak as hell and I really didn’t fancy speaking to any of the weird taxi drivers hanging around. It’s also quite expensive.
Transport
Ciudad del Este
Uber from accommodation to border
Stamp out at Brazil end
Walk across the bridge
Stamp into Paraguay
Reverse on the way back
Taxi rank nearby to get back to Foz accommodation for a reasonable R$30 (£5)
Diary
Sunday 7th January - Day 460
Nicola didn’t fancy the outing to Paraguay as it was a toasty 37 degrees and Ciudad del Este looked awful. She wasn’t wrong, but it was an easy country to stroll into.
What wasn’t working in my favour was that I didn’t have a SIM card for Brazil yet as the Claro was closed yesterday. O2 would work in Paraguay but not in Foz.
Getting to the border was easy enough as I could call an Uber using the accommodation WiFi. It costs about £5 to go 15 minutes to the Brazilian border control.
It was a little confusing to get stamped out of Brazil, a pre-register QR code was all over the border control and seeing everyone else complete it I guessed I had to. Thankfully they had free WiFi here that worked alright, if not a bit laggy. I don’t actually think this was needed but it was a perk for quick check in and out, and on seeing I had this form I got moved out of the official queue to a little booth closer to the cars. There was at least a minimal queue.
Walking across the bridge from Brazil to Paraguay was probably the most fun part of the day. The right side of the bridge had views out over the Paraná River.
Ahead was what would greet me in Ciudad del Este, nothing but tall skyscraper shopping malls.
At the Paraguay border control I was stamped in pretty quickly and then off walking around CDE.
It wasn’t a particularly nice place. Being a Sunday, most things were closed apart from the shopping malls and after walking through what felt like very deserted streets, I tried to find some of the cafes I’d pinned. None were open.
So after an hour of walking around aimlessly, feeling a bit sketchy out on my own in a not so pleasant area, I retreated to one of the malls. On the top floor I sat down on a lovely kitkat branded bench, informed Nicola I was all safe using my now available O2 data and that I would be home sooner rather than later.
And just like that I was off back to Brazil. Ciudad del Este is a weird place but for Brazilians they get their shopping tax free and in turn saves them plenty of money on more expensive items, hence the shopping mall extravaganza.
Coming back around midday meant I had to queue a lot at both the Paraguay and Brazil border controls. Thankfully Brazil let me back in.
Once again the highlight was the walk back across the bridge. This time, on the opposite side, I had decent views of Foz and from behind, Ciudad del Este.
At the Brazilian border control there was a half built concrete structure that acted as a nice platform to see CDE in totality, albeit interrupting some people who were rough sleeping.
Safely back on Brazilian soil, I managed to get easily get a cab from the taxi rank across the street for the same price as the Uber so was pretty chuffed about that.
I was back with Nicola by about 12.30pm, so it really wasn’t a particularly big outing although I was covered in sweat.
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