Okay, so we’re not quite done with the Ties trip. One of the young men on the trip contracted Tracy to take him to the city of Ciudad del Este on the other side of Paraguay. She will translate for him as he meets more of his birth family. I won’t go into detail because it’s really none of my business, but I will say it was an incredibly emotional trip for this individual that raised as many questions as it answered. It was a privilege to be let into this person’s life and to witness first hand what some adoptees face.
We drove to Ciudad del Este in the Noah. Remember the Noah? I distinctly remember having a mechanic make some repairs for us a few days ago. About half-way through the five hour drive, Tracy tries to pass a vehicle and floors the accelerator to pick up speed. Only the car doesn’t speed up. It starts hesitating, and shuttering, and the check engine light comes on. The engine can no longer go over 1000 RPM without sputtering. We pull off to the side of the road, ponder what to do, ask a passerby for directions to the nearest mechanic, and limp along until we reach the shop. It turns out to be a motorcycle shop, but the owner agrees to look at the car. He pulls a part from the air intake system, cleans it, and tells us we should be good. At this point the car is running fine. But, most of us are suspicious he may not have fixed anything and it’s a fluke. Remember, Paraguayans don’t like to say no or admit they don’t know something. Sure enough, a few miles later the same thing happens again. We decide to risk shutting the engine off, and after it is restarted the problem disappears…for a while. This happened four times during the drive.
Unfortunately, at one of our trouble stops, Tracy turned the headlights off and forgot to turn them back on. In Paraguay a driver is required to have headlights on at all times on the highway. You guessed it, we got pulled over for not having headlights on. Tracy negotiates an acceptable bribe with the officer, and we’re off. It would be fantastic to have a picture of this last event, but I didn’t dare risk upsetting the police officer.
The bribe process is interesting in and of itself. The conversation typically starts out with a comment from the officer about how many days pay a fine will cost the driver, and in some cases the fine can be hundreds of dollars. There is a negotiation process that includes the officer trying to get a good look inside the wallet/purse to gauge how much money is available. A good practice is to hide the bulk of your money, and keep a much smaller amount in a wallet that can be flashed to the officer. After some back-and-forth, the parties reach an agreement and payment is made. In our current situation we had an upcoming toll to pay, so the officer made sure Tracy had enough money left over for the toll. Corrupt, but incredibly considerate at the same time. My mind is officially blown! In some cases the officers document the bribe in a ledger. We’re not totally sure why, but believe it may be incorporated into their pay somehow. And I find in very interesting that the officers never ask if anyone else in the car has money they can contribute to the cause. Must be a pirates code type of situation.
Earlier this year Tracy tangled with an officer over an illegal turn (you can’t turn left at a stop light unless there is a sign allowing it). She refused to pay the bribe and went in to fight the ticket. They just laughed at her. The officer’s feel they are providing a service by taking a bribe that is much lower in cost than the fine. Locals will tell you to just play the game.
The trip wasn’t all heavy emotions, car troubles, and bribes. We did have some fun as well. Salto de Monday is a beautiful waterfall just outside Cuidad del Este.
We crossed over into Argentina to see Iguazu Falls. This was my second visit there. The water levels were much lower because it’s not the rainy season, but it is still one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen.
The first step was to take the ferry from Paraguay to Argentina. It was rather foggy when we arrived, so we had to wait for the fog to lift.
Foggy morning 
The Noah patiently waits for a ride
Once we were across the river, it was on to Iguazu Falls. Iguazu is a large series of waterfalls on the Argentina/Brazil border that vary from 60 to 82m in height and can number from 250 to 300 falls depending on water levels. There will be more pictures towards the end of the trip from the Brazil side. I also added a picture below from our trip in March of 2017 so you can see the difference in water levels between the two visits.
The small animal shown below, the coati, is a master at stealing food. During our last visit, one actually crawled up Tracy’s arm to get at a bag of empanadas, and was able to score one of them. Tracy wasn’t having it and fought back. I just watched the scene with a look of disbelief.
Coati – watch your food 
Iguazu Spring 2017 
A backpacker we met going through customs 
Devil’s Throat
We also toured the Itaipu Dam on the Paraguay/Brazil border. It is really an amazing engineering feat. Paraguay got the short end of the stick when they partnered with Brazil to build the Itaipu Dam, which generates electricity for both countries. Each country owns 10 generating units in the dam, but Paraguay only uses 2-3 for its own needs. They are required by contract to give Brazil first shot at any surplus energy. But, the contract locks them into the same rate that was used when the dam was built, which is much lower than current market rates. Paraguay has lost out on huge revenues. The contract will finally be renegotiated in 2023.
Not far from the real dam there is a scale model that was used for testing the design before the dam was actually built. This is most definitely not the type of project you want to get wrong. The model is still used today for testing when changes are proposed.
Scale Model of Itaipu Dam 
Spillway 
Generating units
We made it back to Asuncion with the Noah stalling only one time, but it definitely needs to go to the shop.
A few days of prep/catch-up and we are on the road to Bolivia.