While we were at the Iguacu Falls, we ventured across the border into Paraguay. If you ever want to be enlightened on a fascinating part of history of South America, look up the Great Paraguay War, or the War between Brazil and Paraguay. Truly, an incredibly unknown yet incredible history.
Anyhow, Ciudad del Este is the biggest city in Paraguay second only to its capital, Asuncion. Ciudad del Este is reached by crossing the Friendship Bridge (Ponte de Amizade) that connects Brazil to Paraguay. It was a mass of every form of transportation you can imagine crossing the border. The city itself is an overgrown flea market that carries every item under the sun. We really didn't want to buy much of anything, but rather to experience the city itself and pass a morning there. This is exactly what we did. Our trusty Argentine cab driver, Ramon, drove us there and led us through the never-ending maze of shops and sellers. Everyone is trying to sell you something. (If only I needed white socks--it seemed like that was the deal of the day.) It was quite a challenge and quite fun to keep the six of us in our family linked hand to hand as we slithered like a snake through merchants and stalls. The one place where we did stop to buy some stuff was at a neat fabric store, so that we could get some native patterns and designs. Mares has become quite the seamstress, and hence this stop seemed like a great way to take advantage of Paraguay!
