Photography by Samantha Demangate
Words by Matt Dursum
Ciudad del Este, one of the world’s largest tax free markets and one crazy place to drive through. Just a short trip over the International Friendship Bridge between Paraguay and Brazil, it is the second largest city in Paraguay. Along with the nearby Itaipu dam, the largest hydroelectric dam on earth, and the sprawling commercial center, the city produces over half of Paraguay’s GDP.
Before the Itaipu dam, not much was here. After the construction of the dam, people flooded in and a tax free zone for imports developed. With a loose control over taxation and its convenient location at the confluence of Argentina and Brazil, illegal activity soon followed. And this, unfortunately, has given the city a less than stellar reputation.
A Shopper’s Haven
When you cross the bridge, you start to notice something. Motorbike taxis carrying people and empty bags going in and the same taxis wheezing by the narrow spaces between cars and trucks with their passengers filled to the brim with goods. How these drivers can drive like this without dying, I don’t know.
We slowly chug along and make it across the border. We stop at the supposed border checkpoint to show our passports. There’s nobody there. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t. We continue on and check out the sprawling market.
For miles, commercial centers and markets stretch intersected by narrow avenues and back alleys. Huge appliances, furniture, clothing, tech, you name it is being sold beside us. If it exists, you can find it here. And its knock-off counterparts.
Every day, Brazilians, Argentines, and people from every corner of the planet descend on the streets and malls of Ciudad del Este to find the best deals. It takes a savvy shopper and sometimes a local’s eye to find the best items and resellers.
A Smuggler’s Dream
Along with legal commerce comes the illegal. Guns, drugs, and counterfeit goods are bought and sold here. According to many estimates, over $18 billion a year flowed through the city’s black market. It’s hard to see any evidence of this superficially, but just given the geography of the place, you know it’s there.
This situation has brought the negative consequences of high crime with it. Smugglers can easily cross between Paraguay and Brazil. What makes it more precarious is the relatively narrow width of the Paraná river, an easy crossing for those wanting to trade in the triple frontier region.
Regardless of this, the people in Ciudad del Este are warm and welcoming. More often than not, they’re surprised that you’re here, beyond the markets. For any visitor, a trip to the local food markets and cantinas to try the simple yet delicious Sopa Paraguayas or Chipa Almidón cheese breads will make you and the locals happy.
The Birthplace of Mate Culture
South Americans drink a lot of Yerba Mate. We’re talking upwards of 4 liters a day per person. And in Paraguay, this seems to be an underestimate. What makes Paraguayan mate culture different from its neighbors is their use of medicinal herbs in the mix. The country is also home to the plant and the ritual of consuming it, a tradition it inherited from the indigenous Guarani people.
Every day, people form lines around small herbal tea stations in the city. The server prepares the tareré, the ritual of adding yerba mate and sometimes other herbs into a hollowed gourd or wooden vessel and only using cold water. The cold infusion is uniquely Paraguayan and far different from the hot water rituals of Argentina and Uruguay. What you get is a refreshing herbal tea that’s seldom drunk alone.
The Monday Falls
Stepping into the lesser visited and oh-so-underrated Monday Falls (pronounced Mon dá uh), you feel overwhelmed, or at least I did, by the natural hydraulic power in front of me and the open jungle surrounding it. The waterfalls carry heavy amounts of water from the Monday River and catapult it over 45 meter cliffs, creating a thunderous roar through the river valley.
Few tourists visit the Monday Falls. Most people opt to spend a day or two on the Brazilian and Argentine sides of the nearby Iguazu Falls. At the entrance to Monday, there’s little in the way of guard rails or ropes to separate you from the falls. Workers stand perilously close to the edge of the shore, working tirelessly to prepare for the construction of Paraguay’s answer to the popular walkways their neighbors erected that stretch out over the edges of oblivion.
I walk down to the defunct elevator and snack shop and just stare. The small birds, known as Great Dusky Swifts, nesting between cracks in the cascades, dart out from the mist, bringing food back to their nests. Between the predatory hawks circling overhead and the unpredictable form of the waterfall, their lives are consistently in a fury of chaos.
Across the Bridge to Brazil
Heading back into Brazil is different. More secure, less traffic, and border guards who are actually present. For a quick visit, it was fun, but we only scratched the surface of a beautiful country. People don’t come here often. Tourism is by no means a major industry. What we found was a country that’s still feeling the pains of a war between its neighbors that ended poorly for Paraguay over 150 years ago. During the War of the Triple Alliance, the country lost nearly 60% of its male population and a large chunk of its territory. When you take history into account, Paraguay has overcome a lot.