Do you want to successfully cross the border between Argentina and Paraguay?
So there are various ways to cross the border between Argentina and Paraguay - I went from Puerto Iguazu, ARGENTINA to Ciudad del Este, PARAGUAY. Back in December 2010. Although looking back, this border crossing seemed easy compared to others I've passed through, there is still a need to be careful, read on and I'll tell you exactly what I did. This was one of the strangest border crossings I have ever done, for the reason that in the space of 45 minutes I was in three countries!! Confused? Yes it confused me a bit...this is the first of a series of reports on crossing world borders from my travels...
The first thing to know is - you board a bus at Puerto Iguazu bus station with PARAGUAY as the destination on it. These buses are yellow and single decker with the words El Practico on it. They leave fairly regularly throughout the day. I did my crossing on a Sunday morning, around 10 am I think. I don't think you can buy tickets in advance, just check out of your hostel or hotel in the town of Puerto Iguazu and head to the bus station (there is only one main bus station in Puerto Iguazu). I would definitely recommend doing this early morning - no idea if the border would be open at night - nor if it would be safe to risk it.
I was on my own and I was basically wanting to get across into Paraguay and then onwards to Asuncion.
Ciudad del Este, the name for this city means City of The East, is on the other side of the river from Argentina. The river acts as the border, and the bridge is the preferred crossing. As this is a post about the border crossing, I won't change the subject but I had already been to Tres Fronteras - the point where you can see all three countries. It gets confusing when you realise that your bus to Paraguay goes VIA BRAZIL.
So I pay 5 Argentine Pesos for my bus and ask the driver to confirm if he will stop at the border for me to get my passport stamped. I was the only one on the bus that didn't come from either Brazil, Argentina or Paraguay. Those countries have some sort of agreement with one another that prevents them needing visas or passport stamps to border cross into the other.
I actually thought that a lot of "backpackers" (I don't like that term, but I guess I probably am one...) would be going on the route from Iguazu across the border into Paraguay next to see Ituapu Dam and the famous Jesuit Ruins at Trinidad. But I spoke to lots of people at the hostel (the wonderful Hostel Inn Iguazu Falls) and none of them were going to Paraguay. A few of them even said to me "why are you going there?"! That kind of statement that makes me realise that some of us are made to be travellers and some are just not. An avid traveller will always go anywhere, anytime and often for no reason. Someone who is not an avid traveller will be more fussy about where they go. I am not - I will go anywhere. In any case there were no other "backpackers" on my bus or in the station that morning.
When you travel in South America you should have some kind of knowledge of Spanish at least (I actually studied in Montevideo but my Spanish is still shocking) so you can chat to locals and bus drivers. Once I saw the "queue for Paraguay" developing, I joined it, bag laden to the core and sweaty. But I had my passport in hand and had already all of my money changed into Paraguayan Guarani. This is important - make sure you change ALL your Argentine Pesos (except for the price of the bus) over into Paraguayan Guarani in Puerto Iguazu. You can do this anytime in daylight hours, even on a Sunday morning - I found a small bank/exchange place in town open around 9am to got mine changed in there.
After getting on the bus you will be taken out of the town of Puerto Iguazu to the border bridge with BRAZIL first of all. Yes, don't be surprised at this point, as you are still on the bus to PARAGUAY! At the Argentine exit customs you need to make sure you ask the driver to let you get off to get your passport stamped. A lot of those on the bus may not need it - the majority of them are locals.
Get out, taking your bags with you and get your passport stamped and then straight back on the bus. Make sure the driver waits for you. Then you will cross the Iguazu River into Brazil but you won't stop at Brazilian border control. This is a regular route and the sign on the front of the bus lets you know that you are heading directly to Paraguay. So we are now in BRAZIL, "in transit on a bus" officially.
You arrive in the city of Foz Do Iguacu which you drive through quickly, I have written a lot more about the actual waterfalls and my first trip across into Brazil elsewhere on this blog. You'd be crazy to be on this route without having visited the nearby Iguazu Falls.
After twenty minutes roughly in Brazil on the bus you will arrive at an odd bridge. You can see a border checkpoint here, but bypass it. This place is the Brazilian border checkpoint. You will remember being in Brazil for twenty minutes, but your passport will not have any proof of it. You do not need to get your passport stamped at these two Brazilian passport checkpoints, BUT once your bus arrives onto the bridge to Paraguay, keep checking for the Paraguayan entrance border checkpoint. Basically the driver won't stop so charge to the front of the bus and yell to be let out!
Unfortunately when you tell the driver to stop and you get out, he won't wait for you as the passengers onboard Don't want to hang around waiting for a gringo to get their passport stamped. You get out and are immediately in the madness of Ciudad del Este, while your bus continues on its route.
It is not recommended to cross this border by foot by the way, mainly because of robberies and safety issues. For the sake of 5 Pesos you might as well get the bus. I had to run to the front of the bus and yell at the driver to stop, this was a few kilometres ahead of the checkpoint. I had assumed he was stopping soon. SO I had to get out on my own. I asked him if he would wait and when I realised he wouldn't, then I had to grab both my bags. This was my arrival into Paraguay!
I had to find the place to stamp the passport now - it was hidden shyly in a very obscure spot in the middle of a building site on the Paraguay side of the bridge. I wish I had a video from above of my trip that morning - it was just crazy. It was hot and I was bag laden, but within a few minutes I found the passport place and was the only person in there. They stamped my entry and I was now legally in Paraguay! In the last hour I had been in 3 countries, though officially just Argentina and Paraguay.
I can't promise you that this is the simplest way across the border into Paraguay from Brazil (or Argentina) but I loved it partly because I was the only real traveller about. I could tell instantly that Ciudad del Este was a crazy city. Lots of locals asked me if I wanted to buy stuff. You can stay a night or two in this border city known as Ciudad del Este if you want but I had no time to linger as I wanted to get to Asuncion fairly quickly.
So from opposite the passport control, I found a taxi driver who would take me to the central bus station in Ciudad del Este for a fee of a few US Dollars (but thousands of Guarani). These are normally trustable but agree a price first and get yourself off the busy, crazy streets!
This is part of my ongoing series on border crossings to hopefully help my fellow travellers out there. Get in touch and share your stories especially if you have done similar border crossings!
Safe travels!
So there are various ways to cross the border between Argentina and Paraguay - I went from Puerto Iguazu, ARGENTINA to Ciudad del Este, PARAGUAY. Back in December 2010. Although looking back, this border crossing seemed easy compared to others I've passed through, there is still a need to be careful, read on and I'll tell you exactly what I did. This was one of the strangest border crossings I have ever done, for the reason that in the space of 45 minutes I was in three countries!! Confused? Yes it confused me a bit...this is the first of a series of reports on crossing world borders from my travels...
The first thing to know is - you board a bus at Puerto Iguazu bus station with PARAGUAY as the destination on it. These buses are yellow and single decker with the words El Practico on it. They leave fairly regularly throughout the day. I did my crossing on a Sunday morning, around 10 am I think. I don't think you can buy tickets in advance, just check out of your hostel or hotel in the town of Puerto Iguazu and head to the bus station (there is only one main bus station in Puerto Iguazu). I would definitely recommend doing this early morning - no idea if the border would be open at night - nor if it would be safe to risk it.
I was on my own and I was basically wanting to get across into Paraguay and then onwards to Asuncion.
Ciudad del Este, the name for this city means City of The East, is on the other side of the river from Argentina. The river acts as the border, and the bridge is the preferred crossing. As this is a post about the border crossing, I won't change the subject but I had already been to Tres Fronteras - the point where you can see all three countries. It gets confusing when you realise that your bus to Paraguay goes VIA BRAZIL.
So I pay 5 Argentine Pesos for my bus and ask the driver to confirm if he will stop at the border for me to get my passport stamped. I was the only one on the bus that didn't come from either Brazil, Argentina or Paraguay. Those countries have some sort of agreement with one another that prevents them needing visas or passport stamps to border cross into the other.
I actually thought that a lot of "backpackers" (I don't like that term, but I guess I probably am one...) would be going on the route from Iguazu across the border into Paraguay next to see Ituapu Dam and the famous Jesuit Ruins at Trinidad. But I spoke to lots of people at the hostel (the wonderful Hostel Inn Iguazu Falls) and none of them were going to Paraguay. A few of them even said to me "why are you going there?"! That kind of statement that makes me realise that some of us are made to be travellers and some are just not. An avid traveller will always go anywhere, anytime and often for no reason. Someone who is not an avid traveller will be more fussy about where they go. I am not - I will go anywhere. In any case there were no other "backpackers" on my bus or in the station that morning.
When you travel in South America you should have some kind of knowledge of Spanish at least (I actually studied in Montevideo but my Spanish is still shocking) so you can chat to locals and bus drivers. Once I saw the "queue for Paraguay" developing, I joined it, bag laden to the core and sweaty. But I had my passport in hand and had already all of my money changed into Paraguayan Guarani. This is important - make sure you change ALL your Argentine Pesos (except for the price of the bus) over into Paraguayan Guarani in Puerto Iguazu. You can do this anytime in daylight hours, even on a Sunday morning - I found a small bank/exchange place in town open around 9am to got mine changed in there.
After getting on the bus you will be taken out of the town of Puerto Iguazu to the border bridge with BRAZIL first of all. Yes, don't be surprised at this point, as you are still on the bus to PARAGUAY! At the Argentine exit customs you need to make sure you ask the driver to let you get off to get your passport stamped. A lot of those on the bus may not need it - the majority of them are locals.
Get out, taking your bags with you and get your passport stamped and then straight back on the bus. Make sure the driver waits for you. Then you will cross the Iguazu River into Brazil but you won't stop at Brazilian border control. This is a regular route and the sign on the front of the bus lets you know that you are heading directly to Paraguay. So we are now in BRAZIL, "in transit on a bus" officially.
You arrive in the city of Foz Do Iguacu which you drive through quickly, I have written a lot more about the actual waterfalls and my first trip across into Brazil elsewhere on this blog. You'd be crazy to be on this route without having visited the nearby Iguazu Falls.
After twenty minutes roughly in Brazil on the bus you will arrive at an odd bridge. You can see a border checkpoint here, but bypass it. This place is the Brazilian border checkpoint. You will remember being in Brazil for twenty minutes, but your passport will not have any proof of it. You do not need to get your passport stamped at these two Brazilian passport checkpoints, BUT once your bus arrives onto the bridge to Paraguay, keep checking for the Paraguayan entrance border checkpoint. Basically the driver won't stop so charge to the front of the bus and yell to be let out!
Unfortunately when you tell the driver to stop and you get out, he won't wait for you as the passengers onboard Don't want to hang around waiting for a gringo to get their passport stamped. You get out and are immediately in the madness of Ciudad del Este, while your bus continues on its route.
It is not recommended to cross this border by foot by the way, mainly because of robberies and safety issues. For the sake of 5 Pesos you might as well get the bus. I had to run to the front of the bus and yell at the driver to stop, this was a few kilometres ahead of the checkpoint. I had assumed he was stopping soon. SO I had to get out on my own. I asked him if he would wait and when I realised he wouldn't, then I had to grab both my bags. This was my arrival into Paraguay!
I had to find the place to stamp the passport now - it was hidden shyly in a very obscure spot in the middle of a building site on the Paraguay side of the bridge. I wish I had a video from above of my trip that morning - it was just crazy. It was hot and I was bag laden, but within a few minutes I found the passport place and was the only person in there. They stamped my entry and I was now legally in Paraguay! In the last hour I had been in 3 countries, though officially just Argentina and Paraguay.
I can't promise you that this is the simplest way across the border into Paraguay from Brazil (or Argentina) but I loved it partly because I was the only real traveller about. I could tell instantly that Ciudad del Este was a crazy city. Lots of locals asked me if I wanted to buy stuff. You can stay a night or two in this border city known as Ciudad del Este if you want but I had no time to linger as I wanted to get to Asuncion fairly quickly.
So from opposite the passport control, I found a taxi driver who would take me to the central bus station in Ciudad del Este for a fee of a few US Dollars (but thousands of Guarani). These are normally trustable but agree a price first and get yourself off the busy, crazy streets!
This is part of my ongoing series on border crossings to hopefully help my fellow travellers out there. Get in touch and share your stories especially if you have done similar border crossings!
Safe travels!
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