Things we learned:

Currency: Pounds (3.7 Israeli Shekels=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Jerusalem

Check border crossings on how to get into Israel without a stamp because other Middle Eastern countries will not accept you into their country if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport.

Many people speak English in Jerusalem.

Saturday is the sabbath or “Shabbat”.  Take time to go to the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on the Friday before Shabbat to observe people shopping and preparing.

There are many rules being observed in Jewish culture, especially during holidays.  The following is a list of what we learned about the different holiday requirements…

For Passover, the rule is not to eat bread or bread products

For Sabbath, varying degrees of rest are observed.  For the most religious Jews, this includes not driving, cooking or even turning electricity (the modern equivalent of candles) on or off.

Due to kosher food restrictions, dairy and meat are kept completely away from each other to not “contaminate” the dairy.  There are even separate ovens for meat.  In most cases restaurants only serve one or the other because even dishwater, pots and pans are not allowed to touch both meat and dairy.

It is cheaper to get a bus ticket that allows for ten rides.

Israeli women and men are obligated to join the army around the age of 18.  Men join for 2 years and women join for 1 year.

Security is top notch here.  Expect to be screened before going into any holy site, bus terminal, mall, etc.  Sighting soldiers with big guns and army vehicles will be a norm.

When going to the Wailing Wall, men and women will be segregated and men will need to wear a kippah.  Cardboard kippahs are provided for foreigners at the site.

Israeli’s are not allowed to go into Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Palestinians are not allowed to go into Israel unless they have special permission.

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Gotta agree with Ben on those cookies from the market, we ate so many!
• Experience: Walking around the Dome of the Rock, Wailing Wall, and Church of the Holy Sepulchre
• Something to remember: Continue to read up about the history of this region.

Ben´s list…

• Food: Cookies from the market!
• Experience: Following the route of condemned Jesus as he dragged his cross to his own execution site.
• Something(s) to remember: The Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, with everyone donning black clothes, black hats long sideburns and frantic shopping for the Sabbath.

Currency: Guarani (4800 Guaranis=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Asuncion, Encarnacion, Ciudad del Este

In order to enter this country, you will be required to pay a $45 (one entry only) visa fee and provide a bunch of paperwork beforehand.  Think seriously about what you are doing before you decide to go there.  You might want to spend more time here or visit other parts beyond the ones we visited to get your money’s worth?

Paraguay is the most corrupt country in South America.  You will see a tremendous income gap between the obscenely wealthy and the poorest of the poor.

Although one of the poorest countries in South America, it was very hard to find restaurants or hostels that were as budget friendly as those in Bolivia or Ecuador.  In our experience, the cost of everything was comparable to Argentina or the U.S.

Guarani is a currency and a language in Paraguay.  Many Paraguayans speak Spanish and Guarani.

People are crazy for mate. (See post)

We did not see many travelers (or foreigners) in Paraguay until we reached the Itaipu Dam.

Tours of Itaipu Dam are free, but don´t expect the 30-minute documentary preceding (and included in) the tour to be in English.  Additionally, the tour guides will not speak English…only German or Spanish. There are only 2 tours offered per day (9 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and they are an hour each.  On weekends, there may be more tours.

The Jesus and Trinidad ruins are outside of Encarnacion and require a bit of planning to get back and forth using public transportation.  If you have already seen any of the ruins in Peru, you may not get too much from going here.

Bus companies in Paraguay are especially tricky and fraudulent.  The buses will not leave on time, they are not direct, and they will not have airconditioning.  Additionally, expect the time of travel to be double what they tell you.

Bring mosquito repellent; dengue and malaria are prevalent.

Despite what the Brazilian border patrol people (teenagers) say…there is a bus that goes directly from Paraguay to Argentina and it´s yellow!  It will not be stopped as it crosses the Brazilian border and you will not need a visa.

Things we liked:

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Empanadas of meat
• Experience: Being sick for 2/3 of our time in Paraguay didn’t leave room for too many experiences outside of the ones posted
• Something to remember: The people we met in Paraguay made the trip bearable.  Thanks Alison, Will, and Maria for your advice and Sunday experience with the kiddos.  Thanks Sandra for hosting us in Encarnacion and teaching us about mate.  Thanks to the two men who picked us up at the bus stop on the side of the road near the ruins to get us back to town on that hot, humid day. Thanks Gene and Meredith from North Dakota who showed us that traveling is possible at any age.

Ben´s list…

• Food: Steak
• Experience: Getting scammed by a bus company who switched our bus two blocks away from the terminal from airconditioning to non-airconditioning in 90 degree heat
• Something to remember: Walking down a random street in Asuncion and seeing a man carrying a giant guinea pig cradled in both arms.

The Problem

In making the decision to travel through Paraguay on our way to Iguazu Falls in northeast Argentina, we knew that we would have to travel through this border post.  The problem is that Argentina and Paraguay do not share a border in Ciudad del Este.  Brazil fills the gap between these two countries and as American citizens, we require a reciprocal visa to enter Brazil which would cost us $135 each.  To avoid this, we had heard that there is a 1-hour bus from Ciudad del Este that goes directly to Argentina, through Brazil, which requires no papers to enter Brazil.

Confident in this fact, we walked to the border station in Ciudad del Este and completed our exit formalities from Paraguay.  As we had a single entry visa, there was no going back.  After doing this, we started asking people where we could find the direct bus to Argentina.  Everyone from run of the mill locals to military men kept pointing us towards the Brazilian border until we had crossed the river and we were at the immigration post.  We decided we would just go ahead and ask the Brazilian security where we could find the bus.  One problem…they told us we needed visas to enter Brazil and take the bus to Argentina.  There was no other option and after talking with a number of the teenaged border security we had no affirmative answer.  According to them, there is no bus directly to Argentina without a visa being required.  The last border agent was particularly annoying.  He lectured us for a few minutes on his necessity to have a $135 visa to come to our country to visit his mother and  in return we have to have the same visa to enter his country.  We wanted to remind him that if we planned on actually visiting his country (instead of going through it), we would have paid for one.  With no help from the Brazilians, we sludged back over the river to figure out what to do next.

The Solution

On our walk back, I could not help but entertain ideas of boycotting Brazil if we did somehow make it to Argentina through Brazil without a visa.  As we approached the Paraguayan border guards once again, we were not thrilled.  We were on our way to Iguazu Falls, one of the highlights of our time in South America and it would be lost if we could not go through this border post.  When we arrived, we dejectedly told them that the Brazilian officials would not allow us through, we could not continue onward and had to return to Paraguay.  They looked at our passport, saw we had been stamped out and refused to let us back into their country with our single entrance visa.  As we started to protest (were we supposed to spend the rest of our life stuck between Brazil and Argentina?), the Paraguayan guard told us in an annoyed manner that we just needed to cross the street and wait for the bus.

We crossed to wait with no idea what we were looking for.  We decided to ask another border guard to confirm and finally got the information we needed.  We were told to wait for a yellow bus that would take us to Argentina directly with no visa required.  As we waited, we started to worry more and more about all kinds of scenarios.  Where would we go if the bus didn’t come?  What would happen if the Brazilian border guards did what they said they would do and stop the bus?

We waited for an hour, which was probably the longest hour of our entire trip.  Perseverance, advice of Paraguayan border guards, and the help of locals eventually led us to the yellow bus.  It appeared behind a long line of trucks and was close to being a religious revelation by that time.  We boarded and crossed our fingers as the bus sailed through the Brazilian border post on its way Argentina.  A local man even realized he was on the wrong bus while we drove through Brazil, but he was not let off until we had passed through the exit gates for Brazil.  We finally made it to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and poor Brazil will not be enjoying the presence of our travel dollars or opportunity to return the favor of reciprocal visa fees for a long, long time.

Moral

You can cross from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina without dealing with annoying teenage brats that disguise themselves as Brazilian border agents.  The key is the yellow bus.