Ciudad del Este

Tuesday, April 19^th found us leaving the city of Asuncion, making a 327 kilometer drive to Ciudad del Este. Located on the eastern boarder of the country (hence the name “city of the east”), Ciudad del Este connects to both Brazil and Argentina, making it a hotspot for the sale of stolen goods, drug and human trafficking, and all sorts of illegitimate businesses. Good times!

We left Asuncion in the late morning and spent the afternoon driving along a two-lane highway that stretches eastwardly across the country. Similarly to the states, the center lane line was a double orange line that occasionally changed into a dashed line for passing. But alas, as with most traffic “laws” in Paraguay, the dotted line meant little to drivers. We wove in and out of traffic, playing chicken with oncoming diesels and scooting between cars with precious centimeters to spare. And motorcycles traded the madness of the highway for the safety of the shoulder. They had to share the “lane” with pedestrians and stray dogs, but it seemed to be a worthwhile swap.

Bailey spent most of the trip in her car seat with the straps securely fastened around her shoulders. It’s amazing though, in the absence of a law requiring car seats, how quickly we allowed her to sit in our laps instead of leave her crying in her seat (and how nice it was to nurse her without having to stop). About thirty minutes outside the city we stopped for a much needed bathroom break and enjoyed some amazing soft-serve yogurt. Brandon even let Bailey try some when my back was turned!

The city itself was nothing extraordinary. It was dirty and crowded, with the sidewalks packed with street vendors competing for business with the storefronts just steps away. I do wish I had taken a picture of the streets, though, to show just how congested things were. Imagine the streets of Victoria Gardens (a dirty, run-down VG) with the sidewalks lined with carts selling everything from cell phone cases to underwear, imitation crocks to blenders. And by lined I mean jam-packed with no room between carts and the carts placed only two-shoulder widths away from the doors of the storefronts. The streets hosted cars parallel parked end-to-end the entire length of the avenue on both sides with (barely) room for one car to drive in between. Throw in several thousand pedestrians clogging up the narrow walkways and braving the traffic in the streets and you’ll begin to see an image of downtown Ciudad del Este. For a full picture, you’d also have to add trash piled in the gutters, and cardboard lining the sewer grates, and police officers, and mobile money exchangers, and food vendors, and . . .

One more note about the city; rumor has it that the buildings you see above ground are only half of what’s actually here. Supposedly there are several stories of rooms below each store where the black market goods are kept. Then, when you ask to buy an item, they send a runner downstairs to fetch a stolen version of the item, keeping the legitimate inventory in the store. At least that’s what we’ve heard.