After Iguazú Part 1 – Paraguay

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After Iguazú we travelled to Encarnacion in Paraguay to see some Jesuit ruins. To get to Paraguay we had to travel to Posadas, which is just the other side of the river from Encarnacion.

There are two ways of crossing from Posadas to Encarnacion, we wanted to go by boat but the Lonely Planet said that there were no border controls on the boat and that the fines for crossing without the right paperwork were ´ridiculus´, so we took the bus, it was only 2 pesos.

Paraguay is an extrememly poor country and apparently the second most corrupt in South America. There seemed to be a hired gun on every street corner (either that or the police didn´t have uniforms) and a hell of a lot of Mercs with blacked out windows being driven around. We spent two nights there in a hotel with apparently hot running water but an electric shower that looked so dangerous I didn´t what to turn it to hot for fear of electrocution.

The Jesuit ruins were impressive, we took the bus out to them on what seemed the hotest day so far, and had to walk half a mile to get to them. The bus journes was entertaining as for almost the whole way we were lectured in the benefits of the Aloe Vera plant by a bloke who sounded very knowledgable (although it was all in Spanish so I couldn´t understand a word) and wanted to sell us: eye drop; skin cream; and toothpaste made from it.