We had a bonus trip today to visit Paraguay, we didn't know it was included in the trip but Fernanda our guide likes to offer it as an option as Foz do Iguazu is just twenty minutes drive from Paraguay. So we get to tick off another S American country! Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America, together with Bolivia, with lots of corruption going on. We visited Ciudad del Este 'City of the East' which has the nickname ' the supermarket of South America'. The city is a renowned centre for contraband goods, with cheap rip offs of designer goods everywhere with just a handful of original item shops. We had a wander around a shopping centre and then the street markets, Nigel got an Argentinian and Paraguayan football shirt. We all went to burger king for lunch, the only safe place, food wise, to eat! It was a busy, chaotic place with traffic queuing to get across the border. There was no passport control though, cars just drove in and out, but there was a US $300 value limit to goods allowed to be taken back into Brazil. There is a border/passport control after the shopping area if people continued further into Paraguay.
In the evening we caught the 6pm night bus to Sao Paulo, a long 15 hour drive but an extremely comfortable bus, our most comfortable so far. Unlike the night bus through Uruguay which didn't stop to let you get off and stretch your legs, Brazilian law means the bus had to stop regularly at least every five hours for half hour toilet and food breaks.
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