Ciudad del Este

[Johan007]

I am planning to go there later this week for 2-3 days, and see the waterfalls and something of the town.

AS I heard from some PY guys the city itself hasn´t much to offer besides many cheap electronic shops.

Johan

[Gustavus]

I'm heading to Paraguay and wondering if Club Eros is still there. This kind of thing is right up my alley and Rio sounds stupid at this point. I Gustavus still around. Is this this still a paradise or is the violence and danger taking over?

Damn. I wrote a long answer to this, but I lost it. Must have taken me more than 30 minutes! So, my short answer: I returned to Club Eros in February. Laura (names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent), it turned out, had gone to Spain to make her fortune, and her younger sister, Marie, no longer worked at Club Eros. The short time I was there, it appeared that there were more young and pretty girls there than ever. But the doorman called Marie for me, and she agreed to meet me in town.

Although she had just turned 18, Marie was strikingly poised, and attractive in a more sopisticated way than she had been when she was 16 (note--when she was 16, I only looked, nothing more). She spent the night with me, a wonderful night. Foolish old American that I am, I inexplicably gave her all hte money I had brought for a 10 day adventure in CDE. Foolish young girl that she is, she spent the next 10 days with me. 2nd best 10 days of my life (the 1st best, I have to say, was in Thailand many years ago).

So, yes, I still love Paraguay. I see poverty, but I still see no violence. It's lush and green and verdant and, yes, it seems like paradise still. (I do note that the entire country seems to be being bought by big agricultural conglomerates. So hurry! )

[Trash Talking]

I'm heading to Paraguay and wondering if Club Eros is still there. This kind of thing is right up my alley and Rio sounds stupid at this point. I Gustavus still around. Is this this still a paradise or is the violence and danger taking over?

[Helpmann]

I tried a couple of times to get to Club Eros, but was unsuccessful. Not many Brazilian or Paraguayan taxi drivers want to drive in Ciudad de Este at night.

-Helpmann


The Brazil Side: Day Two
The Brazil Side: Day Three

[Helpmann]

please follow through with report on this place. as i might be heading down there in the next couple of months. thanks.

if this place is that special, you may not hear a peep from me.

-helpmann :d

[Mangera]

Hi Gustavus,

I saw your post on Club Eros and I have to go. In two weeks I will be in Foz, with plans to visit Ciudad del Este.

I'm curious, what happened between you and the girl and did you return Club Eros?

Thank You,
Helpmann

Please follow through with report on this place. As I might be heading down there in the next couple of months. Thanks.

[Helpmann]

But it was the Eros Club that really did it for me. Call me crazy. The place makes the raunch clubs in Tijuana look like the Ritz Carlton by comparison. But there's something about it that grows on you--and I think that would have to be the girls...

Hi Gustavus,

I saw your post on Club Eros and I have to go. In two weeks I will be in Foz, with plans to visit Ciudad del Este.

I'm curious, what happened between you and the girl and did you return Club Eros?

Thank You,
Helpmann

[HappyGoLucky]

Hey Lexton!
Thanks for the advice bud! I remember reading somewhere about a ferry which crosses over to Puerto Iguazu, but I can not remember where I read it, perhaps virtualtourist.com or tripadvisor.com. My memory fails me, so I guess I will have to spring for the $100 visa for Brazil to see the falls from the Argentina side. I have read that there is a catwalk which runs under the Garganta del Diablo on the Argentina side, and I am sort of anxious to see it. Some say it is one of the wonders of the world. Anyway, thanks for your helpful advice. I always enjoy reading your posts on Asuncion!
-HGL

Happy, I looked at my tourist guide for Missiones province and it shows nothing. It does show a ferry crossing to El Dorado, Arg way(150km?) south of CDE, but from the map getting there would not be for the faint of heart. It is quite a way from ruta 6 on bad road.

I am not surprised. Puerto Iguazu is about 18km south of CDE. The detailed maps show nothing to support such a crossing. The Mercosur citizens don't have any problems with the route thru Brazil. Who would use an 18km ferry?

I would check it out very carefully before putting any faith in its existence. Unfortunately, I can't even think who to call. You could try the tourist office in Asuncion or look for a number on "www.senatur.gov.py", the government tourism web site. Here is what they show for CDE, maybe they can help:

Centro de Información y Atención Integral al Turista
Dirección: Av. Eusebio Ayala esq. Pampliega Nº 352
Teléfono/Fax: (595 61) 510332

Don't mess with Brazil. ´They fined Nibu $800 for not receiving a passport stamp on his last Brazil exit. Also, you probably have to get the Brazil visa in Asuncion at the Brazil Embassy. You almost certainly cannot get it at the border. You could look for a Brazil Consulado in CDE, but call them before going.

The Paraguay Consulado in Foz do Iguazu messed me up up on a Paraguay visa. I wrote a report in General Info. So check it out carefully.

You could just go around the long way if you REALLY want to go to Iguazu.

[Lexton]

Happy, I looked at my tourist guide for Missiones province and it shows nothing. It does show a ferry crossing to El Dorado, Arg way(150km?) south of CDE, but from the map getting there would not be for the faint of heart. It is quite a way from ruta 6 on bad road.

I am not surprised. Puerto Iguazu is about 18km south of CDE. The detailed maps show nothing to support such a crossing. The Mercosur citizens don't have any problems with the route thru Brazil. Who would use an 18km ferry?

I would check it out very carefully before putting any faith in its existence. Unfortunately, I can't even think who to call. You could try the tourist office in Asuncion or look for a number on "www.senatur.gov.py", the government tourism web site. Here is what they show for CDE, maybe they can help:

Centro de Información y Atención Integral al Turista
Dirección: Av. Eusebio Ayala esq. Pampliega Nº 352
Teléfono/Fax: (595 61) 510332

Don't mess with Brazil. ´They fined Nibu $800 for not receiving a passport stamp on his last Brazil exit. Also, you probably have to get the Brazil visa in Asuncion at the Brazil Embassy. You almost certainly cannot get it at the border. You could look for a Brazil Consulado in CDE, but call them before going.

The Paraguay Consulado in Foz do Iguazu messed me up up on a Paraguay visa. I wrote a report in General Info. So check it out carefully.

You could just go around the long way if you REALLY want to go to Iguazu.

[HappyGoLucky]

Does anyone know if there is a ferry which goes from CDE to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina?

I have heard rumors that there is a ferry service south of CDE, but I do not know exactly where. Otherwise, I may have to buy a $100 visa simply to cross from CDE through Brazil into Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.

In the past, I heard one could hire a taxi in CDE and drive to Puerto Iguazu without the Brazil visa, but I have heard that border authorities in Brazil have recently clamped down on North Americans.

[Crypton]

The girl had 3 sisters, 2 of whom also worked at the club, and she LOVED her sisters, so much so that during the course of my stay in CDE each of the sisters spent the night in our bed with us at one time or another. I'll never forget that girl, nor her sisters, nor her friends.

Nice report Gustavus - some of us who cannot make it some of these "remote" countries really enjoying reading these things.

One question: when you say the sisters "were in bed" with you... you mean just sleeping or more than that???

Cheers and be safe.

[Gustavus]

I just spent several months in CDE towards the end of 2005. I must say that I was skeptical when I first arrived, but I left with Paraguay fever, and would give anything to be back there. There's a little street action over near the Pizza Hut, but the most attractive ones are usually TV's. There are also a couple of Casa de Citas right in town, but they only have a couple of girls, at about $20 inside and $40 to go.

But it was the Eros Club that really did it for me. Call me crazy. The place makes the raunch clubs in Tijuana look like the Ritz Carlton by comparison. But there's something about it that grows on you--and I think that would have to be the girls.

The place itself is about 8 KM out of town on Ruta 2, off the highway down a little dirt road. After paying the entrance fee of 6000 Guarani (about $1.00), you enter a big nightclub that seems to have seen better days. The first time I went there were only about 10 girls, mostly over-the-hill 4 and 5's, sitting around the perimiter of the room, a few of them dancing to the latin music. I probably would never have come back--it was sleezy and tawdry. But there was one young one who caught my eye. She was already with someone, but it was enough to bring me back several nights later.

When I came back, it was like a different place. There were still some over-the-hill ones, but there were at least a half dozen very cute 18 & 19 year olds. And plenty of more experienced by still attractive girls in their 20's. The younger ones don't approach you. You have to approach them. None of them speak English--NONE OF THEM. They ALL speak Spanish, Portuguese, and MOSTLY Guarani. But don't worry. if you are "Nordamericano", they love you.

Let me tell you about the standard procedure at Club Eros: there IS NO standard procedure, other than paying first. You can choose just about anything: you can take a girl in one of the back rooms (not recommended--their filthy). You can take her to the short term motel right next door (same owners--but its really quite nice, for about $8). You can take her to the very fancy short term motel up the highway back towards CDE. You can take her to your hotel (most hotels in CDE won't blink an eye). You can keep her for an hour, the night, the week, the month, the...forget about it.

I myself fell for a perky 18 year old. After the first two nights together, I asked her if she wanted to spend the next couple of months with me. She found a furnished apartment for $200 a month. I moved out of my hotel, paid her $200 a week, and ended up SAVING money because my hotel had been costing about $300/week.

The girl had 3 sisters, 2 of whom also worked at the club, and she LOVED her sisters, so much so that during the course of my stay in CDE each of the sisters spent the night in our bed with us at one time or another. I'll never forget that girl, nor her sisters, nor her friends.

Even when she was my "full time employee", she liked to take me to Eros Club at night. She liked to dance, to see her friends, and she also liked to kind of show me off--which is was an odd experience for this chubby old man. But a "Nordamericano" is apparently a great catch down there...even if only for a couple of months.

In summary: it don't look like much, but CDE and Club Eros are absolutely amazing places. If you are a monger on a budget and you're not trying to prove anything--just to spend some unpressured time and have some unpressured sex with a lovely young thing, this is an untapped virtual paradise.

Now that I think of it..why am I even telling anyone about this? What am I thinking? OK, never mind. I'm just kidding. The place stinks. Don't go there. You'll hate it.

[Lexton]

Ciudad del Este Trip

I went to Ciudad del Este on a Monday in August to check it out. I only stayed 2 days because I was unable to obtain a visa in Foz de Iguazu(see my rept in General Info). I was primarily occupied with issues of the visa and customs.

In summary, if you think this is a wild gold rush frontier type environment with saloons and fighting in the streets Barbary Coast style, forget it. Ciudad del Este is almost totally residential/commercial and orderly. Because so much of it is relatively new, there is much less of the wild open bar/brothel environment than in Asuncion as best I can tell.

The other reports I have seen on Ciudad del Este remind me of the story of 4 blind men describing an elephant: one describes the trunk, another the tail, another the side, etc. People cross the bridge to the shopping district, walk around a few blocks of the market, and think they have been to Ciudad del Este. They should have read the sign for tourists when they crossed the bridge; the free non-visa area is a 30km radius of the bridge.

The descriptions of the garbage in the streets is accurate, but misguided. This applies to the market area, and it is the wrappings of all the stuff that is sold, which is a huge amount. It is a lot like the US stock exchange floors at 3:00PM. What they did not see is that every night there is a big crew of municipal workers that cleans up this mess in preparation for the next days business. The majority of the Zona Comercial has relatively clean streets, and the bulk of the areas I saw from the bus were normal working class commercial/residential, relatively decent. Pioneros del Este is a large street with a Plaza/Park in its center, well lit and pleasant to walk at night.

It appears that much of the sordid image of Ciudad del Este is lies and propaganda from the US state dept and CIA, and various UN agencies. All of them have a huge axe to grind. It is true there is a lot of smuggling. It is a little silly, really. There is a sort of slum street one block behind the open market area north of Ruta 7, the International Avenue to the bridge. Walking down this slum street in the afternoon, one passes many Volkswagen buses(they were the most popular for this), with people layng on the ground busily stuffing cartons of cigarettes under the body somewhere. This was done openly, and I was ignored as I passed. This is not real smuggling. Obviously, if the police wanted to stop this, it would be simple to walk down the street and take note of the vehicles, and then stop them as they cross the bridge. But obviously it is a sort of game/business. The smugglers are gainfully employed, and the manner of delivery of the product keeps them from smuggling enough to really effect the economies of the countries. The attitude seems to be to make them keep it down.

Ciudad del Este is huge in area. The bridge takes you into the Zona Comercial, which is kind of an El Centro. It contains the major free market and the big banks, etc. Also most of the hotels. It also contains many upper class apartments and houses. The rest of Ciudad del Este is divided up into areas, Area 1 to Area 5 and Barrios, each with an individual name. Each area and Barrio is kind of like a town unto itself, it appears. A planned suburban development community. The bus travels thru miles of commercial and residential streets during the arrival via Ruta 5 and Ruta 7.

The Zona Comercial is quite small, about 9 blocks E-W and about 14 blocks N-S. Ruta 7(International Avenue) goes E-W thru the Northern part of the Zona. South of Ruta 7 is the nicest part of the Zona, for about 10 blocks N-S. North of Ruta 7 is a couple of blocks E-W of market area, and then a lot of very poor slum area. South of Ruta 7 the main shopping area is about 3-4 N-S blocks of the East side. So the market area is very small, about 30 square blocks.

South of the Zona Comercial is some suburb and then another town, Presidente Franco. There is no open space between Ciudad del Este and Pdte Franco. It appears to contain a city center of it's own also. It also contains a number of areas and Barrios outside the city center, and is very large in area. North of Ciudad del Este is Hernadarias, with it's own city center also. They together form one continuous very large city area.

I stayed in the Hotel Executive. I do not recommend this hotel. The room was nice and spacious but it had roaches, the first I have seen in Paraguay. I killed 4 roaches in the 2 days. There are other possible hotels: Munich, Austria, Convair, Cosmo Apart-Hotel. All the hotels are chica friendly, but in many you must have a double for TLN. The prices are in the U$D15-20 range. All are located in the Zona Comercial.

I saw in one description that the city of Ciudad del Este is only about 40 years old. It was deliberately created with the bridge as a free trade city. This shows in the construction of the city. It does not have old slum type sections that are popular for SW hotels and brothel bars. And it has no brothel bars, as far as I can find out. There are none in the Zona Comercial. Also, the City Areas are very spread out, kilometers apart, like a huge suburb of planned developments. So getting around the city is going to be difficult without a car. Lots of taxi fares in the GS15,000+ range, GS20,000 for Pdte Franco. Lots of buses to Hernandarias.

There were a few SW working on Calle Pioneros del Este abot 10:00PM both days. Pioneros del Este is a main drag that defines the west side of the Zona Comercial. I saw maybe 6 or 8 each day. They looked to be about 5-6 quality, nothing special. I did not ask prices. Probably about GS50,000, the same as Asuncion. I covered all of the streets in the Zona comercial, and saw no other SW.

North of Ruta 7 north of the market(about the 1st 2 blocks) is a large area with much poverty and bad housing. There is probably action in this area, but too dangerous for the tourist.

I talked to a couple of young guys in an internet cafe about finding women. They told me there was an Eros Club outside of town. I saw the sign for this from the bus. It is located near the km 17 stop of the Omnibus on Ruta 7, well out in the suburbs. Interestingly, they mentioned Palma and Estrella in Asuncion, and one of them said he had taken a woman from there once. The significance of this is that he could mention nothing similar in the greater Ciudad del Este area.

There is no local paper for Ciudad del Este. There are a few adds for Ciudad del Este in some of the Asuncion papers. The usual massage and companion type stuff, probably for private apartments.

I was not able to check out either Pdte Franco or Herandarias or any of the Areas 1-5 or Barrios individually. I hope to do this another trip. I only saw the Zona Comercial and the parts the bus travelled thru on arrival.

There are some hotels in Pdte Franco, Hernandarias, and some of the areas. Not many, and I don't know their condition. But it is possible to lodge outside of the Zona Comercial.

At the first opportunity, I plan to return to Ciudad del Este and check it further. I especially want to check the city centers of Hernandarias and Pdte Franco, and some of the older Areas. There is a possibility of more SW action, and private apartments. But maybe this can give people an idea of how to proceed further.

[Art Fartzalot]

For US folk who want to go to CDE from Iguazu, Paraguay Consulate in Foz Iguazu has moved. Its about one block from the Hotel Raifain on the other side of the street

Had a nice looking gal at Consulate who had just started working for them,

Address is: MARECHAL DEO DORO, 901 , CENTRO
TEL (45) 523 2768
523 2898

Miami Paraguay Consulate is (305) 374 9090

Be prepared to have a copy of your onward boarding pass 2 passport sized color photos.
$45 US Fee to obtain VISA. I was leaving Foz Iguzu 2 days later but asked for as long as possible, they gave me 1 entry for 5 days though wasn't asked going in or out on the city type bus from Puerto Iguazu , Argentina thru Foz Iguzu, Brazil to CDE but was told in Argentina not to be riding those buses in the evening as much violent crime often happened, robberies.

I would also advise reading the following US Dept of State Consular Info Sheet on Paraguay which was found at http://travel.state.gov/paraguay.html regarding SAFETY AND SECURITY when traveling outside the capital to or from Ciudad del Este and Pedro Juan Caballero "where I did not go" , and this states more or less the same as I was told, I was in Tijuana, Mexico on my way to Ensenada in 1975 and CDE reminded me of some of the nasty parts and smells of Tijuana back then if that helps anyone. I heard TJ has since d its act but never been back since and hope so.

My birthday is St. Patrick's Day and was in CDE on my birthday and they don't celebrate it there and a gal I met at bus stop on way back and who rode bus back to Foz Iguazu with me, my Spanish for a gringo isn't to bad though far from perfect and the gal told me, Ciudad del Este doesn't have tourists or tourism and she is a native. FYI.

Rumors of Hezbollah being in the area and many Lebanese settled in Triple Border area supposedly back in 70's. I had no problems as a white gringo.

My advice stick in Foz Iguzu a nice place or Puerto Iguazu where I spent a tiny amount of time and seemed typical small border town type place. Argentine customs checked Passports in and out of Brazil on bus while Brazil did not.

[Art Fartzalot]

Ciudad del Este, Not recommended by this Monger.

I've been in 80's to Key Largo in San Jose , Costa Rica, since to Habana, St. Maarten , DWI to name a couple, resided in Bogota, and Cali, Colombia in the 1970's and I understand in 2004 it has changed but reminded me of a Nasty area of Tijuana, Mexico in 1975 that I visited then. I didn't feel comfortable at 5 pm in the afternoon and left by bus before dark arrived.

Its a contraband place, trash, strewn all over, I did meet a girl friend that I am staying in touch with but this was more by accident and was told by her that Ciudad Del Este doesn't have tourists, I was in and out within 2 hours by bus, cross the river in Foz Iguazu much nicer, better place.

US Citizens now need a VISA for Paraguay, unbeknownst to most town people in Foz Iguzu the Paraguay consulate has recently moved to Marechal DeoDoro, 901, Centro, Foz De Iguzu, Tel (45) 5 23 2768 or 523 2898. Miami (305) 374-9090

Must have onward ticket, US $45.00 2 copies each of your US Passport photopage, and your Brazilian visa page, and complete there paperwork, I was given a 1 entry 5 day VISA.

I am told one can buy anything in Ciudad del Este, lot of electronics, etc plus illegal type things, most folks reading this board can find newer cheaper computer equipment than these folks have, a person I met was bragging about his new Pentium 3, which while was a nice computer isn't exactly the most current thing out there in March 2004

I was by an Argentina gentleman that I met near the national park that after Sept 11 that the US military has a team in Northern Argentina and a lot of Mossad/CIA folks operating in the area-supposedly 12 years ago when the Isreali embassy was blown up in Argentina the trail stopped in Ciudad Del Este, and that its often a violent city, since I'm not carrying when I'm in Brazil or there , not even on any type level playing field surface so why take chances with your Life.

The waterfalls are awesome and are worth the visit alone next door in Brazil and Argentina, better places to monger in my opinion.