Ciudad Del Este is located where the Rio Paraná and Rio Iguazu merge and the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet. The population is roughly 330,000.
El Centro at dusk.
El Lago
The crossing at the Friendship Bridge between Paraguay and Brazil.
The entire city is lined with a type of jacaranda tree that have either yellow or red blooms.
The outskirts of Ciudad del Este have red dirt roads.
Ciudad Del Este is a town of many contrasts. The city is filled with bright unrelenting light in its open space and deep dark shadows in the shade of its billowing trees and alleyways. Merchants come from all over the world to set up shop in downtown CDE, from places like Lebanon, Taiwan and Korea. The merging of the three borders as well as the many cultures present in CDE influence and shape it.There are those who have so much and those who have so little. There is tension pared with general lawlessness that give Ciudad Del Este its frenetic life.
An assortment of air conditioners.
A counterfit version of anything you can imagine can be found in El Centro, not to mention firearms and narcotics. These booths line the streets. You must pass by the booths in order to entire the shopping malls.
El Centro is comprised of a roughly a dozen malls many of which house electronic stores.
The alleyways of El Centro are filled with recyclable goods dumped by the malls. Entire families come to pick through the different recyclable materials. At the end of the day you see horse drawn carts piled high with cardboard and styrofoam.
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