Ciudad del Este

Up to now in my travel blog I've only added a place if I had stayed the night there. I've decided to change it for Ciudad del Este for 2 reasons. The first is it's in Paraguay and so a new country and secondly it's not the kind of place you would want to stay the night :o) On loosing my camera, I had checked alot of shops around Argentina and different possibilities for buying a new one. Electronic goods in Argentina are ridicously expensive. US$750 for an iPod gives you an idea, US$650 for a point & shoot Canon camera. In short, at least twice the price.

Ciudad del Este (literally City of the East) is a place which I had heard about and did some searching on (there's not too much info out there on it). It's essentially a massive black market located just inside the Paraguyan border. 1000+ shops selling all kinds of goods. From an electronics point of view they had everything. Cameras, MP3 players, Camcorders, Laptops, phones, the list goes on. With the prices much cheaper then in Argentina and approaching those in America I decided to get a new camera here. So, this morning myself and Kev hired a taxi to bring us there and back. After visiting the bank and getting our maximum allowance (we could only get pesos; if you can bring dollars do as the shops conversion rate is 3.1-3.2 pesos to the dollar). The advice I received was to get there early and to get out early as huge traffic jams build up as the day progresses. As does the weather which gets stifling. We passed thru Argentinian & Brazilian customs, getting stamped in both, before arriving in Paraguay. There are no custom checks in Paraguay. Nada.

Ciudad del Este..

Our taxi driver was a nice man and walked around with us while there. As did a young boy who knew the streets, alleys and shops like the back of his hand. After comparing a few different prices I eventually bought the same camera as I had (or more likely my one back :o) plus a memory card and case for US$300. That's the same price as on ebay so I was pretty happy with that. You can buy cameras here with no guarantee and/or refurbished ones for alot cheaper. Your just taking more of a risk then - essentially your taking a risk anyway.

We decided to go into a department store after buying the camera and what a great decision that was. The store was full of girls wearing tight red shirts and about 6 inch black shirts and high heels. It was great!! hehe. And I had just bought a new camera. Nah, just kidding. In all honesty, you could spend a whole day here shopping. We just picked up a few other items and then where on our way. As we were Irish or non-Argentinian we didn't have to pay taxes on anything we bought. For everyone else, car trunks and bags are searched. So, that was our few hours in the dodgy place that is Ciudad del Este :o)