Greetings from the city of Ciudad del Este, which used to be named
Puerto Presidente Stroessner, until Stroessner rather abruptly ceased to
be presidente in 1989, due to a miltary coup. Stroessner had siezed
power in a 1954 coup and, upon removal, was
the longest serving dictator in the world. In the long and sordid
history of Latin American military strongmen in the 20th century,
Stroessner was one of only two who actually had combat experience, in
the Chaco war. (The other one was Humberto Castelo Branco,
who fought with Brazilian forces in the Italian campaign in 1944, and
who removed Brazil's President in 1964.)
I am trying to write this on my tablet. As smart phones become
more ubiquitous, they are driving cyber cafes out of business. Next
trip, I am going to bring a small laptop.
On Friday, I rode 23 miles from Caaguazu to Campo 9, getting in
just before the skies opened and it poured down rain. Nothing
particularly exciting happened on Friday. It rained all night, but
stopped by morning. It was cool and the wind was out of
the south, ie not in my face. I set off thinking I would ride 45 miles
or so to Colonia Yguazu, but it was a good day for riding, I felt good,
and when I got to
Yguazu, I decided to keep going. A few miles on, Route 7 expanded
to 4 lanes, and Route 9 cut off south towards Encarnacion. I will be
riding back the 20 miles to his point tomorrow and turning south. I rode
on, entered CDE, as Ciudad del Este is known,
and at exactly 70 miles on my odometer found a decent hotel for 150,000
Guaranies a night. I paid for two nights. I was filthy, covered in
sweat and dead bugs, which I did not even notice, and staggered into the
shower for half an hour. Emerging, I went
to a restuarant recommended by the hotel and ate a pizza, after fending
off the waitress's pleas that "that's for four people!"I I ate all of
it...
CDE is a zoo, I like it. Imagine Tijuana 30 years ago on steroids.
EVERYTHING is for sale, the place abounds in multi story shopping
malls, and hundreds, literally, of buses bringing Brazilian shoppers
cross the bridge from Foz do Iguacu every day.
Paraguayan customs can be lax, shall we say, in their inspection of
merchandise entering the country, for a small donation, and as a result
CDE is one of he biggest black markets in the world. Almost anything
for sale in Brazil is cheaper here, and a lot
of things NOT for sale in Brazil, like guns, are for sale here also if
you know where to look. (Paraguay has very good gun laws, by theway,
and a homicide rate about one quarter that of Brazil where they are
almost banned.) Anyway, I like it here, and
have a feeling I would fit right in if I got stuck here permanently. I
like living on he border as it is, and here there are not two, but
three borders.
This morning I decided to go look for an open internet place in
Brazil. Half a mile from my hotel is the Puente Internacional de la
Amistad, or Ponte Internacional da Amizade, (international friendship
bridge) depending on whether you are speaking Spanish
or Portuguese. It is about 3000 feet wide, I rode across, waved to
Brazilian immigration, who ignored me, and found myself in Foz do
Iguacu, the westernmost city in the State of Parana. It was like
crossing into the first world, every thing was very neat,
cars stopped at red lights, the streets were clean, and it was utterly
boring. Had I ridden about 10 miles south, I would have come upon
another bridge, across which is Puerto Yguazu, Argentina. Not finding
an internet place, I rode around for about an hour,
bought a Coca-Cola in a gas station (paying with Guaranies and getting
murdered on the exchange rate.), and finally rode back across the
bridge, being happily ignored by Paraguayan customs on the CDE side of
the bridge.
I am about 20 miles from Iguazu Falls, one of the natural wonders
of the world. Why aren't I visiting? Because I already have, twice, in
2003 and 2007. To properly visit the falls takes two days, one day for
the Brazilian side and one day for the Argentine
side. They'll still be there if I want to visit again in the future.
Slightly north of here is "Itaipu binacional", the largest (by far)
hydroelectric complex in the world. The Parana River was dammed at
Itaipu, creating an artificial lake that stretches about 100 miles back.
Paraguay and Brazil each get half the electricity,
but Paraguay cannot come close to using it's half, so it sells about
90% back to Brazil. Paraguay is presently up in arms because Brazil may
have been fiddling the meters to the extent of billions of dollars over
the years. As I rode into CDE yesterday,
on boh sides of the highway were endless lines of transmission towers,
marching west like Martian fighting machines from "War of the Worlds."
Were it not Sunday (sigh) I would love to take a tour of the generating
complex.
Tomorrow I will retrace my steps 20 miles to the west, nand then
head south on route 9 to Santa Rita, probably. Eventually I will make
it to Encarnacion.
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