Okay, so i´ve just returned from a trip north in Argentina to Iguazu falls- apparently one of the wonders of the world- and to be honest, it deserved this title. No words, pictures, could do it justice... it was awesome. walked all around the waterfall and at one point the path went as close as say, around, say, 10 metres from the actual falls and you had to lean forward to stop yourself falling backward from the wind created by the falls.. huge!!!. anyway, thats the boring travel story... but seriously, it was incredible just nto something i can convey here...
However, i decided to take a side detour to Paraguay (very small country just north of argentina and west of Brazil) and to a town like no other i have seen. Ciudad Del Este )City of the East- really creative i know, is situated right on the border of these three countries and is a dirty, incredibly corrupt town of smugglers, thieves, and the poor where there is no tax on most products... I was warned not to go by my hostel but mmm, i figured with my luck so far, id be fine ;o ... anyway, so met this girl from Argentina, a doctor named Paula, at the hostel who also wanted to go but was too afraid to go by herself.. To be honest, i couldnt have done it without her.... apart from the fact that i dont have a visa for Brazil and you have to pass through Brazil to get to Paraguay, very few people speak any english in paraguay and bartering carries a lot more weight if youve got a fluent speaker with you... Anyway, the town centre is just a few streets lined with touts, stalls, shops selling everything, i mean everything to you from guns to underwear to electric toothbrushes and dildos.. no really,.. and all in the same stall sometimes too! And these guys can tout... it was madness, you couldnt stop still cause youd be bombarded by people with baskets of stuff and then kids selling softdrinks, then touts for electrical gear and all the while trying to hold your backpack in front of you cause its too risky to leave on your back... awesome,,, i laughed the whole afternoon... it was so crazy you just had to laugh...SO, touts arent attached to any one store. they get a commission from anywhere.. it funny as, like one minute their telling you this story is the best and then you see them later at another stall.. great, really friendly guy we fouond though who led us around and even did some bargaining on our behalf ahead of our arrival at a place... so, like he-ll tell the shop, well theyre already down to 180, and then you go from there so less starting ridiculous and walking out of the store 4 times just to get reasonable.
With Paula`s help managed to get a replacement camera from the one stolen last week of much better quality. Plus, the fact that the one they were originally going to sell me he quickly took off the counter and said, oh no, sorry not this one its stolen, made me all the more confident in our salesman, known only as Detroit, cos hed lived there a few years... ;o) uh, ok, sure...??????
