(A very short visit to) Paraguay

After our day trip to the Argentine side of Iguassu Falls, we had the option to visit Paraguay so we decided to go for a couple of hours.

A few facts about Paraguay:
- There are a lot of immigrants in Paraguay. A lot of people live in the cities in Brazil and commute to Paraguay every day.
- Paraguay is predominately a farming country.
- Guarani is the native language.
- Many Brazilians travel across to Paraguay for cheaper shopping (duty free), especially for electronics. Therefore, there are thousands of shopping malls in Paraguay!
- It is the only country in the world whose money notes have two faces.
- It used to be a very rich country until it lost the "Paraguayan War" which was fought by Paraguay against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
- Paraguay had a dictator for 35 years from 1960 to 1995.
- The friendship bridge is 575m long linking Brazil to Paraguay.

We were taken across the bridge to the border (no passport checks!) and visited a huge mall where we had a delicious pasta dinner and explored the shops for a couple of hours. It reminded us of an airport with large department stalls, arcade games and food courts. We had an early dinner with some drinks of beer and wine. After a couple of hours, our guide met our group to travel back across the border (there is nothing much else to see in the town besides shopping).

We then crossed back into Brazil with no border checks and made it back to our hotel!Read more