Ciudad del Este international border crossing · International Border Crossing in Ciudad del Este
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International Border Crossing in Ciudad del Este
International Border Crossing in Ciudad del Este
The most common way to arrive is through "Ponte da Amizade" (Friendship Bridge) which connects Ciudad del Este in Paraguay and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. There are frequent bus connections, also to and from Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. Taxis sometimes do the trans-border trip as well.
A couple of kilometers south of Ciudad del Este, where Rio Paraná and Rio Iguaçu join, is a ferry crossing to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina without crossing Brazilian territory. The ferry runs hourly during daylight hours for AR$5. There´s a bus to Ciudad del Este passing close-by.
It is also possible to take a bus from Puerto Iguazu bus terminal through Brazil (Foz do Iguaçu), across the "Friendship Bridge" and into Ciudad del Este. The bus is specially marked "Foz,Puerto Iguazu, Ciudad del Este" or simply "Paraguay" and leaves from Puerto Iguazu bus terminal at platform 7 every hour and costs 5 Pesos. The ride to the Friendship Bridge will take approximately 45 minutes and you will be required to disembark at the Argentine border crossing to obtain an exit stamp before re-embarking the bus for the rest of the journey. If you do not have a Brazil visa, before boarding the bus, be sure that the bus will take you all the way across the Friendship Bridge and into Ciudad del Este. If it does not then it will drop you off right before the bridge and you will have to walk through immigration (exiting Brazil) and run the risk of being stopped and questioned by the Brazilian Federal Police about how you got into Brazil without a visa. Explain to them that you only wanted to visit Ciudad del Este and were unaware that the bus would not take you all the way. Also add that you will be returning straight to Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) at the end of the day.
To leave Ciudad del Este back across the Friendship bridge one has three options.
1) Walk back across the bridge and wait in line at Brazilian immigration along with scores of people returning from Shopping.
2) Take a bus from the bus terminal that goes into Brazil or directly to Puerto Iguazu and wait in the long line of cars.
3) Hire a motorcycle to take you across the bridge through the line specifically for Motorcycles that is rarely ever stopped by immigration officials. This can be rather dangerous as the driver will weave in and out of incoming traffic. This option is by far the quickest and took the Author 3 minutes to get from one end of the Friendship Bridge on the Paraguayan side, to the other end of the bridge on the Brazilian side - Past immigration. Cost = 10 Argentine Pesos
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Ciudad del Este Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.