We’ve wrapped up in Chile, so it’s time to head back to Paraguay. We took an Uber from the hotel to the Santiago airport. Because Uber is illegal, it helps to act like a family member when getting dropped off to avoid questions. Craziness.
The flight to Paraguay was delayed a couple of hours. It wasn’t a big deal as it was a non-stop flight and we didn’t need to be anywhere at a specific time. The only real challenge was ignoring the donuts at the Dunkin’ Donuts shop in our terminal…they were calling to me.
Our first task after landing was to connect with a driver that had been sent to the airport with the Noah. Remember the Noah? While we were on the road, the Noah was repaired (fingers crossed). Apparently the mechanic was initially unable to find anything wrong, so he asked to drive the car as his full time vehicle until it failed, which it did after a week. Then he knew what part to replace. When’s the last time any of us had a mechanic show that level of commitment? Total repair cost: $150. It was great the repair was so inexpensive, but also a bit frustrating as the $150 repair caused us to rearrange our trip and spend more on airfare. So it is.
Miguel was actually back in the country and staying at his house, so we stayed with John (father-in-law) for a couple of nights. We had some of the coldest weather I had experienced in Paraguay. Houses in Paraguay typically don’t have heating systems built in as the cold season is so short, so we survived with the fireplace and space heaters. It’s a good thing there were lots of blankets.
Over the next few days we took a short break and Tracy shifted back into tour guide mode. Our next adventure was to meet one of Tracy’s clients in Ciudad del Este for a day+ of activities. It promised to be an interesting visit with more things I have not yet seen.
The next post has us back on the road, so stay tuned…
We were back on the road to meet Tracy’s client in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. This is the same city we took the adoptee to at the end of the TIES trip so he could meet more of his extended family. The plan is a bit different this time though.
I will start by saying the Noah performed flawlessly. Heavy sigh of relief!
Even though we are staying in Ciudad del Este for two nights, the activities are actually in Brazil. It would have been more convenient to stay in Brazil, but there was a very good reason to pass on that arrangement this time through. The client was flying in and out of the Ciudad del Este, with both flights scheduled very, very, very early in the morning. The main route over the boarder into Brazil is unpredictable at best, and can at times create hours of delay. That’s to be avoided when trying to make a flight. I will say the arrangement did make things somewhat comical at times, but more on that in a bit.
We made the airport pickup. Tracy bribed our way out of another police stop, which I feel was somewhat my fault as I suggested she take an illegal turn, not realizing it was illegal. Then we grabbed some breakfast and headed out for the first stop…the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. I was very excited to see this as, you may have figured out from previous posts, the falls are one of my favorite sites ever.
To get to Brazil is is necessary to pass through the market district of Ciudad del Este. This is the district that is responsible for the city’s international reputation as a crime haven. There is much illegal trading going on here, and there can be violence to go along with it. At the very least one should keep a close eye on one’s wallet or purse. By the end of each day the streets are littered with garbage and it’s just not a great area to hang out in, if you get my drift.
It was morning for our first trip through so the primary annoyances were traffic and vendors…everywhere! After a quick stop at the immigration office for passport stamps we crossed over the river to Brazil on the Friendship Bridge.
Even thought it’s called the Friendship Bridge, it’s not very friendly at all. The bridge is incredibly important for commerce between the two countries, but because of the illegal trading the bridge has been fenced in using multiple levels of concrete and metal barriers to stop illegal goods from being thrown over the side to boats waiting below, or as a means to dump cargo (or oneself) if one is being pursued by the police. It felt a bit prison like to me. Traffic on the bridge can also be backed up for extended periods. What’s friendly about that?
Light trafficWatching smugglers drive by…Not everything is trashedBarriers
We were lucky and made decent time across the bridge. Upon arriving in Foz do Iguaçu Brazil we made another stop for passport stamps.
Before going to the falls, the client took a helicopter ride which files down the river towards the main falls, Devils Throat. The report back confirmed it was a fantastic view and the flight was worth the $140. I had given some thought to going along, but I have some reservations about the impact the flights have on the natural setting. They are anything but quiet when they buzz by overhead. I don’t like it. So, I passed.
Then we made our way into the park. The paths on the Brazilian side are much shorter than on the Argentina side, but the views were still breathtaking. From this side it is possible to get a clear view into Devil’s Throat at water level. Cool beyond description.
We decided to grab some lunch before leaving the park. The thieving Coati were in full force and one boy’s job was to make noise to keep them away.
There were a few hours to kill between activities, so we crossed back over into Paraguay for naps, etc. And yes, we stopped for a stamp on the way out of Brazil and a stamp on the way back into Paraguay.
We gathered a few hours later and made our way back over to Brazil for the evenings activities. When we stopped for the stamp on the way out of Paraguay the staff had a good chuckle over our back and forth. Tracy flat out asked if it was really necessary to get the passports stamped as they rarely stop anyone at the boarder. We stopped voluntarily, not because we were forced to. Citizens of the two countries can flow back and forth freely, so it’s very possible to just drive right on through. The clerk grinned and said we should probably get the stamps.
The evening event was the Rafain Churrascaria Show, which is a large Brazilian steakhouse with a dinner show. The show is a collection of traditional South American dances performed by a house dance troop, with a bit of comedy thrown in along the way. Entertaining…definitely. Authentic…according to my trusted resource for this type of information (Tracy), not so much. Cheesy…Oh Yeah! The food was good, and all-in-all it was a fun evening.
After the show we crossed the border one last time and made our way back to the hotel. Tomorrow is another early day.
It is another early morning, especially for Tracy who had to drop her client off at the airport. Today’s destination is the Jesuit ruin of San Ignacio Mini in Argentina. I still find the history of the ruins to be very fascinating and am looking forward to visiting another site. This site has a light show they put on at dusk, which is supposed to be worth the visit. More on that later.
The first task of the day is to take the ferry to Argentina. It was a beautiful morning and the wait for the ferry was short, so we got underway fairly quickly. Once we made it across the river things took a turn in the wrong direction.
Immediately after we pulled up to the immigration building to get our passports stamped for entry into Argentina, the Noah started to get an unwarranted amount of attention from the folks in Customs. We got the stamps and then came back to the car to find out what was so interesting. The guess is they were wondering why Americans are driving a car with Paraguay plates, but who knows for sure. We had to run our luggage through the portable scanner they have on site (not a first), and eventually they asked Tracy to see the papers for the car. Here’s where things start to go south.
While looking through the papers they find a document in the folder from a previous entry into Argentina. The customs officer gets rather animated while explaining the document should have been turned into customs on the way out of Argentina last time, and the car is now entering Argentina illegally. The conversation immediately moves to threats to impounding the vehicle and the customs officer takes Tracy into his office to fill out paperwork.
This is where Tracy’s experience in South America is invaluable. Her approach is to wait them out. She very calmly keeps explaining that she was not informed the document needed to be turned in and that there was no issue when she left the country before. She hasn’t done anything wrong and doesn’t understand why there needs to be an issue. The customs officer keeps threatening. Tracy keeps calmly responding. I think we were there between 30-45 minutes. Eventually he calms down, fixes the old document situation, and issues a new document with a clear expectation this one will be turned in when we leave the country. All of this for less than 30 hours in the country.
There are a couple of things that I find very interesting about this whole exchange. The first is the customs officer would not have even know there was an issue if the document had not been in the folder. Lesson learned…keep the folder cleared out. Second, the document in question was not from the previous trip. It was from an older trip. Remember when we went to Iguazu with the adoptee? We entered Argentina through this same port of entry. No documents were issued and there were no issues entering or leaving the country. You have to love the lack of consistency.
After this little ordeal we started our drive to San Ignacio Mini, stopping to tour a number of hotels along the way for Tracy’s tour business. She’s had trouble finding good lodging in the area and wanted to check out some new places. As the day progresses we realize it’s getting late and we need to leave immediately to make the show at San Ignacio Mini.
San Ignacio Mini is one of the most popular ruins, in part because of the show. There was a San Ignacio reduction in Paraguay, which was much larger, but little remains of it today.
The show is meant to depict scenes from everyday life in the reductions. The technology is projectors aimed at sheets of water that are sprayed down to act as screens. They also project against the ruins. It’s a very cool idea, and as you can see in the pictures it creates an interesting effect. It was fun wandering the grounds after dark to take in the show.
After the show we grabbed some dinner and tracked down some lodging for the night. We stayed at a small place a husband and wife had recently opened to bring in some additional income.
Tomorrow we see San Ignacio in the daylight and make our way back to Paraguay.
The first stop of the day is a return to San Ignacio Mini to see it in the daylight. This is the most complete set of ruins I have seen to date, and even though it was a smaller reduction it provided a great perspective on just how large they could become.
There is also a nice museum on site with smaller artifacts from the ruins.
After the ruins it was time to make our way back to Paraguay and the long drive back to Caacupe. It should have been an uneventful drive, but…
About a half hour into the drive we came across a police stop on the only road leading to the ferry we needed to take back over the river to Paraguay. Getting on this road we took a turn lane which turned out to not be a turn lane. The officers stopped us and immediately started giving Tracy a hard time. There were threats of impounding the car, which gave way to threats to keep her drivers license until she met with the judge to determine an amount for the fine. After quite a bit of back-and-forth, and some emotions on Tracy’s part that were part real and part acting, the police finally backed down and let her go. When they figured out we were on our way to Paraguay for meetings and our flight home, I think they decided she might not be coming back for her license. Good choice on their part as Tracy had implied as much.
At one point Tracy tried to go down the bribe route (how much is this going to cost me?) but the police just blew past it. Dorothy, we’re not in Paraguay anymore.
We drove into the night and eventually arrived at the Camp and Miguel’s house.
The next few days were mostly relaxing and catching up, with a few business related calls and meetings for Tracy. It was also another exercise in living without decent internet. The camp loses internet frequently due to lightning storms, etc. Equipment fries or cables are damaged. It’s a good reminder we’re not in a first world country.
In a few days we’ll pick back up with our stop in Panama.
When planning the trip, we intentionally flew on Copa Airlines because of the stopover in Panama City. The thinking was if we’re flying through Panama City, we might as well stop for a few days. We flew out of Paraguay at 1:00am this morning and arrived in Panama shortly after 6:00am. Unfortunately, we couldn’t check into our Airbnb right away as there was someone checking out later in the morning. So, we had to kill a few hours at the airport before heading to the apartment.
After checking in we both crashed for a nap. I have never been able to sleep on airplanes so the overnight flights can definitely take a toll.
We were staying in a loft apartment on the edge of Casco Viejo, also know as the old quarter. Panama City has a very interesting history.
In 1519, the first Panama City was established just outside the location of the current city. Over the decades the city survived multiple fires, pirate attacks, slave rebellions, and earthquakes. Then in 1671 pirate Henry Morgan (the namesake for Captain Morgan rum ) lead a force which sacked the city and then destroyed it with fire. Today this location is a set of ruins called Panama Viejo. We attempted to visit but when we arrived it was already closed for the day.
After the defeat at Panama Viejo, leaders realized it was necessary to build the new capital in an easier to defend location. The second incarnation of Panama City was constructed on a peninsula a few miles west of Panama Viejo. In more recent times the city has migrated to a modern downtown area and the peninsula has become know as Casco Viejo. Both Panama Viejo and Casco Viejo have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Our first night out we we wandered Casco Viejo a bit and tracked down a grocery store to stock up for the next few days. The area is an eclectic mix of historic buildings, abandoned buildings, trendy restaurants, gift shops, and community stores. Because it’s a UNESCO site, progress on renovating some of the more dilapidated buildings moves at a snails pace.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Diablicos, which displayed a large collection of devils masks used during celebrations throughout the year, but most notably the religious feast of Corpus Christi. We heard multiple explanations as to why the masks exist in the first place. Some claim they were introduced by Christians attempting to teach the concept of the devil. Another told us the masks represent slave owners and yet another indicated they were introduced to promote discussion regarding the battle between good and evil. I’m not sure which is true, but I can say they are fascinating to see in person.
When we were hunting for a grocery store it didn’t take long to get out of the more touristy area and into the poor neighborhoods surrounding it. I never fell unsafe, but these areas are not anything you would ever see in a tourism brochure. We picked up some food and made our way back to the apartment for the night.
