"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”– Lao Tzu

Day 145 – Ciudad Del Este, Paraguay

3 countries in 3 days!! It was a very easy border crossing today – so easy, we almost missed it! Aparently, Paraguay doesn’t care too much about who enters their country as the bus drove straight through, and we had to yell at the bus driver to stop! And the border official was the most laid back ever, putting aside his paper and chatting as he stamped us. Slightly different than our past experiences that’s for sure.

And nothing could have prepared us for our first sight of Ciudad Del Este, or as we call it, ‘The Mall’. Paraguay is a pretty poor country and as their goods are cheaper, all the Brazilians and Argentinians come here to buy stuff. The center of the city looks like Times Sqaure and there are stalls and stalls of everything from socks to Ipads. You can’t walk without being accosted by people trying to sell you leggings or stereos. It’s mental! And of course, impossible to resist – I bought a jumper and Jon got a memory card.

And then we went to see the main tourist attraction of Ciudad del Este – Itaipu Dam. It’s the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, and was recently named one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World (industrial).

We thought this would be a really cool thing to visit, and to be totally honest, we were dead bored. It was raining and cold, the dam had no water through it, and the weather was so bad the tour didnt stop anywhere to take pictures. The best part of the whole day was the comedy photo stands they had dotted around! Those were awesome!! So, if you are considering going, unless you are fascinated by large concrete structures, we’d recommend giving it a miss.

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