Buying Tyres in Paraguay's Duty Free Cuidad del Este

Just across the Paraguayan-Brazilian border from Foz de Iguazu, on the Paraguayan side, is Ciudad del Este. You  simply cross a bridge to get there. Indeed, you can also get to Cuidad del Este by taking a ferry from the Argentine side, Puerto Iguazu, as the borders are made by the meeting of 2 big rivers, with each country having it's defined territory on each side. 

Being that we were in Brazil already, we entered by the bridge. 

Technically, as an Australian, I need a visa to entered Paraguay, but we'd been reliably informed that if we were entered for just a day, to Ciudad del Este only, we could skip immigration. Even if I didn't need a visa, why waste a page or more (of our passports) getting in and out?

So, at the border Brazilian immigration let us straight out, but the Paraguayans on the other side kept stopping us (we were in the campervan) and telling us we should do immigration. H just kept telling them that he didn't want to waste passport pages and refusing to go through immigration and they let us through. 

A note here: Paraguayan borders are known for corruption, so if you do get processed you have to be careful to get your paperwork correctly in order or they'll be trying to bribe you. 

The reason for going to Ciudade del Este is that it's a big duty free city. It's full of Argentines and Brazialians buying what they can get away with (without paying taxes on re-entry to their country). We were in need of new tyres and we had heard it was one of the best places to buy them in South America. 

I wasn't excited about tyre shopping, but Ciudad del Este isn't known as a safe place, so H needed me along to sit in the vehicle (guarding it) while he shopped for a good price.

It took H about 1.5 hours to find what he wanted at a good price: 4 new tyres that are Chinese but seemingly well made, fitted, for $US520. This is a great price for tyres for this vehicle, so H is very happy. 

While the tyres were being fitted H watched their work (we'd been told to keep an eye on everything) and I walked to the shops nearby. There's was everything you could imagine available. It was the sort of place where as soon as you paused to look at something you had a shop assistant right there offering assistance... I hate that!, so I'd always leave without anything. I bought AAA batteries and a camera memory card. 

On leaving Paraguay we drove straight through immigration, but were stopped by the Brazilian side who entered the camper and were clearly looking to see that we hadn't bought a truckload of stuff to sell in Brazil (if we had I guess we'd have to pay taxes).

And that was our Paraguay tire shopping experience.