Cuidad del Este - Paraguay

It only takes 5 hours to drive from the west to the east part of Paraguay. Cuidad del Este is an interesting place for its chaotic feel, the cheap electronics and various other crap that is sold on the streets. Everything is quoted in Brazilian money, although this is the other side of the border. There is a lot of rubbish on the streets (more so at the end of the day), and it does appear grubby. There are before and after advertising pictures showing what improvements have been made to the city though. We only stayed the night to use the border crossing the following day. That in itself was mad. We sat in a taxi for ages in a traffic jam waiting for the border bridge to be opened. Vendors streamed past wanting to sell you anything and everything. Even the taxi driver told us to wind up our windows when we were crossing over the bridge (no mans land) between border controls, as there are heaps of people walking across the bridge, and we got the impression that anyone could lean in and try and take our bags. If you believe anything the Lonely Planet says it states that the city has an ¨unfortunate reputation as one of South Americas most corrupt cities, frequented by smugglers and money launderers¨.