Wed, 10:30. At the bus terminal in Puerto Iguazu. Checked out OK despite snoozing until 9:40 because I'm like that.
I just asked someone and apparently there's a bus to Ciudud del Este once an hour. I have no idea what time so I can't get anything to eat. The information display here is world class incompetence. There are two TVs. One shows nothing but a blue screen (not even a blue screen of death). Both are positioned for maximum glare and are almost unreadable. The other one shows a page-based display of buses, about half an hour's worth of buses per screen, which covers A TWENTY FOUR HOUR PERIOD and therefore takes literally five or ten minutes to get round to showing 'now and near future'. I also think it's a complete lie as it showed a bus to CdE for 10:20 and I was here already having watched a complete day's listings on the display at 10:24, i.e. I'm pretty sure I was here at 10:20. That bus still comes up in the rolling listing, as do buses at 07:00. I have no idea if they are today-and-already-gone or tomorrow 07:00. Either way, it sucks.
12:30. Oh my fucking god. I am at the bus terminal in CdE. The bloody bus didn't stop at immigration - my guide book helpfully warns you about this in the Paraguay section but completely fails to mention it in the Puerto Iguazu section when saying you can get a bus to CdE. So I am an illegal alien right now.
I spoke to the police and some admittedly very helpful chap has shown me somewhere to leave my suitcase (I was able to pay with Brazilian cash, I kept my backpack with me just in case, plus it has water in it) and where to get a bus back to the border so I can go through immigration. Even allowing no time for waiting for buses, this is going to take at least two hours. Still, right now I just want to get through immigration before anything happens.
The bus turned up at the bus terminal in Puerto Iguazu moments after I finished whinging.
There is someone selling live and somehow-dead-but-completely-intact (no heads cut off or anything) looking chickens at the bus terminal here in CdE. Maybe the dead-looking ones are just asleep.
12:50. Two buses to Brazil so far, none to Argentina. It is vaguely tempting to just go to *a* border rather than *the* border where I just entered. Given the current Brazil bus is in the terminal slot the guy pointed out to me, I do almost wonder if he meant for me to go to *a* border. But I will play it safe unless I appear to be totally screwed in terms of getting to Argentina.
Since it took two hours to get here before I am assuming we are actually looking at more like four hours plus bus waiting time. When (if?) I finally get back here legally I will make a call whether or not to go onto Asuncion today. I don't really want to get there at 10pm or similar. On the other hand, there is no cash machine at the bus terminal (I was told I can pay with Argentinian cash by some bloke on the bus, who in hindsight could have clued me in on immigration - FFS, the driver must have been able to tell I'm a foreigner) and I don't much fancy wandering the streets with my bags looking for a cash machine and a hotel to spend the night here.
I did try to get back on my bus when I arrived here (I finally dragged the guide book out five minutes before we got in) but after telling me I could do immigration here and sending me off to find it and be told I couldn't, I went back to the bus and he muttered something about 'other bus'. I would assume he is doing the return trip but maybe not.
13:10. Same cop I spoke to earlier just came past and I asked if I could or should go to the Brazilian border. We spoke for a couple of minutes but I don't think he understood, or seemed to think I was suggesting something a bit underhand. He seemed to be getting slightly curt so at the end I just pretended I understood. I will go to the Argentinian border if that's possible, which of course it should be.
Even though I've offloaded my suitcase I feel so damn vulnerable. I can't even leave this spot to go to the bog as I have no idea when there might be a bus, fortunately I don't need to go but fuck knows how it will be over the next 4+ hours. I've already had a couple of people talk to me who seemed slightly weird, though this is probably my paranoia right now, and I am just stuck here until a bus comes. I can't walk away if I get stuck with a nutter.
Keeping it together fairly well though I am mentally keeping an eye on myself. Next goal is to get to the border and get my passport stamped. Once I'm in the country legally, even if it's a hassle getting a bus back here from the border and goin on etc, that's all just a matter of time and boredom, there is no actual problem per se.
13:20. Yet another Brazil-bound bus has turned up.
Since we drove through a massive swathe of Brazil between leaving Argentina and entering Paraguay I half wonder if the border post is in the same place, but I doubt it.
In any case, I really do want to enter Paraguay at the Argentinian border as otherwise I will be worried someone (e.g. when I leave the country) will notice the locations of the Argentinian exit and Paraguayan entry stamps don't match and stir up shit. Better to get the thing resolved perfectly today if possible.
13:30 And *another* Brazil-bound bus. I suppose Brazil is nearer but man is this frustrating.
15:15. An Argentina bound bus turned up 5 mins ago and I am on it. Shortly after the last entry I asked a couple who were loitering around where they were going. Spent the last three hours chatting with them, he is Brazilian but speaks 8 languages, she is his German wife. They are going to Argentina and also need to stop at immigration as she needs a stamp too (the story is complex and I am not sure I remember it). He's a writer, he has a book published (in Spanish) which I will look up when I get out of this mess. Anyway, it's very handy having a native speaker (he's bilingual in Spanish and Portuguese) on side and even better that they are getting off where I am.
All these times are Argentinian, I only found out when I asked the guy the time when we got on the bus that Paraguay is an hour behind. That just may help in terms of the left luggage office being open and an onward bus being available when I get back to CdE.
15:40. We are picking up more people in CdE. It's standing room only. I have a seat and plan to keep it unless really guilt-tripped or forced out of it. I guess it's partly the big interval between buses. I just hope I can get on one back from the border. If push comes to shove I can follow the guide book's belated advice in reverse and cross back into Argentina and get a taxi to Puerto Iguazu, spend the night there and have a second try tomorrow. But I do hope to make it back to CdE today and ideally on to Asuncion.
16:35. I don't believe this. We got to the Argentinian border about ten minutes ago. The driver forgot to stop at the Paraguayan immigration place as we asked. Alex (the Brazilian guy) has now asked some people here and it turns out the immigration place is (logically) next to the bridge on the Brazil-Paraguay border and we could have walked or got a cab there from CdE bus terminal.
This explains why the guide book says about getting a taxi to the border then a bus on in the Paraguay section, since it is relevant when going from Paraguay to Argentina. It doesn't explain why there was no clear advice on going the other way.
This also explains why the bus driver didn't want me to get back on his bus to return to where we just left and where I thought I needed to be.
It doesn't fully explain the behaviour of that policeman in pointing me at that bus stop, although I guess he figured I'd get off in a few minutes at the immigration place. I didn't understand most of what he said so he may well have done.
The one consolation is that Alex was as confused as I was about all this, despite being a native speaker of both possibly relevant languages and in some sense a local.
I would just maybe have figured this out without all these delays and repeated trips across Brazil if I hadn't been blinded to everything by the not unreasonable assumption/fear that I'd missed immigration and was fucked already when I arrived in CdE at the terminal.
Just checked the guide again, in the Argentina section for Puerto Iguazu it says the buses wait at the border for you to complete customs formalities. So I think the initial mistake is clearly on the guide book, even if I exacerbated things afterwards by not understanding what I was told.
(The bus *did* stop at Argentinian border control where everyone got out and went through. Given we just left here and are having to go back to Paraguay, I think it's clear Paraguayan immigrations are *not* on that site (as opposed to me missing them after exiting Argentina) and the bus did not visit Paraguayan immigration.
Looking up Ciudad del Este in the guide book, I still don't see any useful information which would have allowed me to avoid this confusion. In hindsight you might be able to piece it together but otherwise no. The bridge where immigration is is 300m from the bus terminal! For fuck's sake man...
I think a certain amount of confusion occurs because the trip goes via Brazil but you don't need to enter or leave Brazil formally. The guide book's emphasis on crossing into and out of Brazil confuses the issue of immigration on the Argentina-Paraguay route as it looks like the immigration advice doesn't apply. Sort of.
I am not trying to make excuses here, just describe what's happening and why. I definitely think the guide book is totally unclear or out of date. Beyond that I can only blame myself for poor Spanish language skills and assume I was told the real situation in CdE on arrival, but it was far from clear and everything I'd read led me to believe I was already in the country illegally and liable to a fine (and more importantly, hassle) on trying to leave if not before.
I suppose it's an adventure and it's been cool to meet these guys. But man, I can't wait to be on a bus to Asuncion, if that isn't counting my chickens before they hatch at this point. I don't fancy the 300m walk from immigration to the bus terminal but at least it's daylight. I guess these guys may come with me as they will want to wait for yet another bus to go back to Argentina for real, and they may decide not to wait in the street for it.
18:30 (Paraguay). I just got on the bus to Asuncion. I am slightly dubious as people kept asking me which terminal I was going or saying things I didn't understand which contained the word 'Asuncion', so I just said 'Asuncion' or 'Asuncion si' and that seemed to answer. I am downstairs and as of now no one else is on down here, but it must be OK.
Where were we? Oh yes, back at the Argentinian border. Alex spoke to some guy and we ended up getting on a Brazilian bus which wasn't going to Paraguay but was going past the bridge which is the border. So that was the third bus trip.
I assume if we had got a Paraguay-bound bus (which could have taken a while to wait for one to turn up) we would have gone into Paraguay no questions asked as I did originally. Since we ended up on the Brazilian side we had to clear Brazilian border control before walking across the bridge. Alex (thank fuck he was there) explained in Portuguese and the guy let us through. The Paraguayan immigration office was a long 50m on their side of the bridge but just in a building at the side of the road, with no barriers or anything. So I finally got my passport stamped and entered Paraguay as a fully fledged legitimate tourist at 17:20 (Argentina). Alex's wife whose name has sadly slipped my mind got her exit stamp from Paraguay, which was what she needed.
They were going to wait for the bus back to Puerto Iguazu there so I said goodbye and thanks and tried to walk the 300m along the road to the bus terminal, as shown in the map in my 2007 guide book. The road, as I'd seen from the bus this morning, was heavily lined with street market stalls and it was absolutely terrible trying to make my way along. Insane amounts of litter too.
I asked some guy where the bus terminal was when I came to a roundabout helpfully not shown on the map in the guidebook. He asked me where I wanted to go. I didn't see the point of this as the guide book showed a single bus terminal, but I gabbled something about Asuncion and he pointed in roughly the direction I expected and said something I didn't understand about 'collectivos'.
The traffic was insane, motorbikes weaving in and out, cars, no end of fucking enormous American-style articulated lorries and no pedestrian crossings. It wasn't gridlocked either, so crossing the road resembled nothing so much as Frogger. I got stuck in the middle of the roundabout and had a minor temper tantrum. This was the first and only time today I lost it a bit.
Eventually escaping I continued up the road, veering off at one point as a lot of buses seemed to be going down there. I stumbled across a cash machine and withdrew a million guaranis, partly just because it seemed a cool amount to take out. I was then finally able to take a taxi, but I figured I'd press on down the road a little more. Shortly after I stumbled across a sort of bus terminal full of obviously local buses and equally obviously not the terminal I had been at that morning.
At that point I decided I'd get a taxi even if it was only going to be for 50m. There was a taxi rank fortuitously opposite. Some guy asked if I wanted a taxi and waved me at a guy on a motorbike. I told him I needed a car and walked down to the taxi rank proper.
It might have been cool to take a motorbike taxi but I had my backpack on and I've never been on a motorbike in my life and with the backpack and that insane traffic it didn't seem like the time to give it a go.
I probably got ripped off by the taxi driver but I don't know. It was a good five minutes or so, clearly the bus terminal is nowhere near where the guide indicates. I got here about 18:00 (Argentina).
Evading a hoard of bus touts I went to pick up my suitcase. The place seemed shut but the same cop who I'd dealt with earlier came past and told me the attendant would be back shortly, which he was. The cop wanted to see my passport and looked through it very slowly and at first clearly couldn't find the stamp. Despite having seen it done I suddenly started to wonder if it wasn't there for some reason. Eventually he found it and after staring at the passport for far too long I asked him if everything was OK and he said it was and gave it me back. I thanked him again and he left me. I don't know if he was hoping for money but even when it clearly wouldn't be a bribe (after all, he'd already said it was OK) I didn't fancy doing it. Plus I think it would probably have been insulting anyway.
I bought a ticket for a bus at 18:30 (I just went with the first company I saw really) and checked with the clock on their wall that Paraguay was an hour behind Argentina and set my phone clock accordingly.
I then went and bought a load of snacks from the place I'd bought a bottle of drink earlier. (Once I met those guys I was able to ask them to get the bus to wait if it turned up while I was away.) After some initial language difficulties with the owner offering suggestions as I tried to decide what to buy, we had quite a decent chat after I paid. I was kind of enjoying it but at the same time wanted to get away and eat. I escaped, hopefully not too rudely, when another customer came in.
I guzzled down some snacks and thought I ought to go to the bog. Despite their being three uniformed attendants and the fact they charged me a thousand guaranis to get in (OK, not much, but still), not of the three cubicles was working. The attendants clearly have a sense of humour as I was given some toilet paper in return for my entrance fee. Fortunately I didn't really need to go, I mainly wanted to wash my hands.
At about this point I noticed that both the clock at the unattended information desk and the massive illuminated clock outside the terminal said it was 7pm. Yeah, because it's only a bus terminal, WHO'D MIND THE CLOCKS BEING WRONG? I went and double checked with the woman at the ticket desk but even so my mind was not totally at ease until I got on the bus.
I spotted a small restaurant after this and had a ham & cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee before going to get the bus.
I felt a bit let down all of a sudden once at the terminal, almost as if I'd done something wrong. I don't think that's fair, I coped OK and met people in a very natural way and it all worked out. Ho hum.
Due into Asuncion about 11:30. Not great but Alex says the terminal is quite nice and so I should feel moderately safe while trying to locate a taxi. Must try to relax now while I'm on the bus.
19:15. Just did a number two in the toilet on the bus to find the conductor waiting outside afterwards to tell me it's not allowed. He was OK about it, but for fuck's sake - put a sign up if you're bothered, and HAVE SOME TOILETS THAT WORK IN THE TERMINAL.
21:10. I keep getting little twinges of anxiety about having lost my suitcase. I know full well I picked it up and I remember handing it to the luggage guy to put on the bus because he asked me some unintelligible question involving the word 'Asuncion', but nevertheless my brain keeps forgotten that periodically.
The inevitable compulsory films are showing but at least the volume is low. Both in English. They've just started showing "My Life In Ruins" and before I think it may have been "The Hot Chick", it was some sort of body swap comedy. I am deliberately not really watching (though I half saw first film and could get the gist of the Spanish subtitles) and have my headphones on listening to music.
21:40. I actually started paying attention to 'My Life In Ruins' and it seemed moderately promising, but it kept skipping and they seem to have stopped it. (I anticipated the pun in the title before the film started.)
Not particularly looking forward to having to get a taxi at this time of night. Mainly on safety grounds but also as my guide book, though to be honest I am starting to totally mistrust it on Paraguay, says there is a 30% surcharge on fares after 10pm.
FWIW, Alex told me Asuncion was safer than Buenos Aires, in short almost the exact opposite of the guide book. He said taking taxis in BA was a bad idea (or at least that other people had told him that) but my guide book partly pooh-poohs such fears. I didn't have any problems but maybe I was just lucky. I am starting to think this whole business of judging the level of danger of any given city is largely subjective.
All the same, I'm not totally happy about the idea of taking taxis at 11:30 at night from the bus terminal. It has to be done of course and I'm sure it will be fine. At least today is a day off the beer as it turns out. :-)
While I'm rambling, the first wierdo who came up to me while I was waiting the bus back from CdE was some chap who came up and I think asked me something and I said (all this in Spanish) "sorry, I don't understand". He sort of stared at me unpleasantly and asked me again. I said the same thing. He then slowly iterated through a few cycles of saying "you don't understand anything?" (to which I replied "sorry, no" or "I am a tourist") and pausing to stare at me. It felt slightly like having a dog stare at you and growl intermittently. Fortunately he got on a bus a few minutes later.
23:10. I have this feeling we are nearly there. Getting a bit jittery about this damn taxi. I have visions of having to wave off loads of touts and not knowing which taxis are 'official'. Am sure it will be fine but man I could do without this.
23:25. Just pulling in...
00:10. No problem with the taxi, no touts and a proper rank outside, though it was miles and on the meter plus the 30% came to 50000 guaranis. I do wonder if the meter puts 30% on automatically but the guy did have a laminated printed lookup table to add it, so that sort of adds an official touch. Seemed like miles and at times down slightly dead streets but no problem.
Got here about 23:50 and checked in OK tho I have to print my expedia voucher (free at least) for them which seems a bit off. Haven't negotiated re my separate two night booking and not having to check out and back in yet, I will have to be up earlyish to print the voucher and negotiate that before checkout. Anyway, quick shower now then bed. Can't get GPRS signal so who knows when this will make it out..
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