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Iguazu & Brazil - water, hills, caipirinha, samba and football

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A bus ride that felt like eternity through the plain and barren centre of Paraguay (by now I was grateful and happy we had not taken a bus into the country from Bolivia) and we found ourselves in Ciudad del Este on the border to both Brazil and Argentina, separated by the Rio Parana. While the city itself is a mere tax haven and (tech) shopping spot for Brazilians, a 20min taxi ride gets you across the border to (first) Brazil and then Argentina (the direct road to Argentina takes way longer and the drive through Brazil didn‘t require customs or passport control). Since we had missed the last bus to Argentina and it was already dark, we found a nice Argentinean couple to share the taxi with; unfortunately it was Saturday evening and there was a long queue at the Argentinean border, so we were glad we hadn‘t booked the Argentinean cooking class that same night (also one hour time difference between Paraguay and Brazil/Argentina didn‘t help) as we made it to the hotel in Puerto Iguazu on

Bolivia & Paraguay - colors and contrasts

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If we believed some weeks ago that Ecuador didn‘t make it easy for us to leave, crossing borders in Bolivia (in and out of the country!) was another level; at least for one of us and of course, this story is not about the almighty German passport.. Since Peru and Bolivia share access to Lago Titicaca, naturally we needed to cross the border at some point. The bus driver in Puno already questioned Diana about her visa, but we had read up on a visa for Bolivia could be retrieved on arrival for Romanian citizens.. and so is the case, unfortunately not without hiccups and hassle. The border control needed a full itinerary, confirmation of hotels, flights and an exit ticket, plus two passport photos - all in printed paper version. Luckily, there is a small shack at the border crossing that offers to take passport photos and printing services; so it could resp. should have been easy to arrange. The elderly guy working there preferred to exchange money with all other tourists first, only to t