God Bless America!

I really like Paraguay. I do. The people are friendly, the weather is perfect (at least the lovely winter weather here), and I just love new places and experiences. BUT...it is also super dirty and ugly in places and has crazy drivers and motorcycles all over the place. I guess that is something I love about traveling...it helps me realize how lucky I am to live in the United States of America where littering is not legal or socially acceptable, where dogs are spayed or nutered, and where at least we have a government that is less corrupt than most of the governments in the world.


We really are so lucky. Sometimes seeing places that aren't as great as the USA or knowing people who are in tough situations of poverty makes me feel bad and a little guilty. I guess I just wonder why I got born into such ease and luxury relatively speaking compared to the rest of the world. And I take so many things for granted like the opportunity to progress, to gain an education, to feel safe, to be clean, to have clean hot or cold water run right into my house, to not have to disinfect every fruit or vegetable I eat, to have and be able to afford medical care, dental care, food, clothes and some things that I want too. Our government isn't perfect, gas prices are ridiculous, and we have problems of our own, we do, but we are SO BLESSED. Anyway, not to give you all some big speech or something...it just has been on my mind lately.



So most of the other interns and I headed to Iguassu Falls this weekend. I'll add more pictures of the trip (of course including tons of pictures of the amazing falls) but here's a start of some pictures from the trip.



We took the midnight bus from Asuncion to Ciudad del Este. We payed the extra five bucks and got on the executive bus with the seats that fold down almost all the way. It wasn't too bad of a ride...especially thanks to my good friend Nyquil. Oh yeah and those who know me best will be AMAZED to know what I'm carrying in this picture is all the luggage I brought with me for three whole days. I guess losing your luggage changes what you see as necessary.

Bus terminal coffee shop...may I interest you in a lollipop, or maybe some hard liquor?

Or maybe a doll of 50 Cent...or some more hard liquor...that bus ride can be pretty long...

We stayed at a super cheap hotel in Ciudad del Este. I was called Hotel My Grandma ... I guess that would be the direct translation anyway. It wasn't much like my Grandma's house at all though. The pictures don't really do it justice but it was pretty bad. It actually wasn't too dirty or anything but it was just old and moldy. There was mold all over in the ceiling of the bathroom...my grandma's bathroom doesn't have mold in it (at least not a lot).

Nor does my grandma's house have orange paint sponged onto white walls.

Or a bathroom so tiny that you can multitask. The only problem is that the shower gets water EVERYWHERE in the bathroom. This is good because your bathroom gets cleaned everytime you shower but bad because then there is water everywhere which is a great breeding ground for fleas. I never have been bit by a flea at my grandma's house but I was at Hotel Mi Abuela. Oh well, it's not like it's the first time I have been bitten by fleas.

You can't see it very well, but the beds have pillowcases with leopard print that go so well with the flowery bedspread...my grandma can decorate better than that!

We survived Hotel Mi Abuela however and were able to get ready for the day and go out on the town. Ciudad del Este is a very interesting/dirty city. Probably the dirtiest city I've been to in South America or Central America for that matter. There is also a huge black market there...I guess one of the biggest in the world supposedly.

Garbage, garbage everywhere!

But luckily there is an entire store of cheap stuffed animals to make you feel more warm and fuzzy inspite of the garbage everywhere.

What a crazy place!

They start them young. What a cute little boy...he obviously takes his business seriously...but how sad too. He is selling cigarettes and lotto tickets, something he wouldn't even be able to buy in the US...and not for several more years.

I wonder how this orthodonics place in Ciudad del Este got Denise Richards to do their advertizing for them? Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Everything in this city is black market...even the advertizing.

Friday night we went to Itapu Dam. It isn't the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world but it creates more energy then any other hydroelectric dam in the world. It is pretty huge...I couldn't even get it all in the picture. It supplies 95% of all of Paraguay's power and 25% of all of Brasil's power...plus I think that Brasil sells a lot of its power from the dam to Argentina. Pretty amazing and they are pretty dang proud of their dam.

The next morning we crossed the bridge over into Brasil...sort of illegally. I have a visa to Brasil but no one else in my group did so none of us went throught immigration. We just walked right past the passport control on both the Paraguay and Brasil side...no one seemed to care though...they weren't even paying attention. We had heard it was a pretty loose border, which is why we dared try. I wasn't too worried though because I actually had a visa and figured that I could just play dumb if we got caught..."What passport control? Oops. I guess I didn't see it. Look though, I payed my 200 bucks for this visa so I am legit, right?" Anyway, I guess it isn't at all uncommon for them to not stop people who are tourists going to Iguassu Falls. They both want the money tourism brings.

I love this one...as we were crossing the border there was a fence that must have gotten hit down or something so the police were creating a new section of fence using packing tape...that'll keep them out, I'm sure.

When we got to Brasil we got a ride in Jesus's taxi to our hostel.

To be continued...