Just across the river from Foz do Iguaçu, the town, in southern Brazil lies this small bordertown Ciudad del Este of Paraguay. This is not really an ideal spot for tourists. It's a hub of a number of illegal activities which include smuggling cigarettes, selling stolen cars or chopping them into resellable parts and, of course, dealing drugs. In front of many shops are armed guards with sawed off shot guns, machine guns, or other heavy fire power. I could buy virtually any gun at a street vendor's stand.
It has quite a wild west feel and we were always looking for the speeding car and awaiting the sound of passing bullets. You can buy anything here, and very cheap, - cheap CD's, leather goods, imported perfume as well as imported and indigenous clothing. This makes it a real destination for the Brazilians and Argentinians.
City of the East, City in eastern Paraguay, on the Parana River, to near the Brazil to border. Founded in 1957 and formerly known ace Port President Stroessner, City of the East grew from to village to an important City during the annoys 1970s and early 1980s. This rapid expansion coincided with the construction of the massive Itaipu Dam (1975-1982) on the Parana.
Though many people left eleven the hydroelectric project was finished, City of the East maintains to workforce activates in services that support the surrounding farming area of eastern Paraguay. The Bridge of the Friendship (for Spanish "Friendship Bridge") across the Parana links City of You are economy with that of neighboring Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, to City heavily dependent on the tourist industry associated with the nearby Iguaçu Falls. Highways connect City of the East with capital Paraguay's, Asuncio'n, and eastern area of Brazil; the Parana to cities in Argentina.
Ace to other cities in border regions, City of the illegal East is plagued by smuggling and the drug trade.
and i found a travel report, maybe you don't want to go there anymore:
Man, that´s a lot of street activity. With sketchy reports swirling around in our heads of a city overrun by robbery, murder, and mayhem, we crossed the border into Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Obviously we survived, evidenced by this latest posting. When we entered Bolivia what seems like ages ago, we started hearing of a fabled city where anything goes- Ciudad del Este. ‘Do not find yourself in this place after dark!’ warnings were heaped upon us. Unfortunately, due to the impossibility of selling our ride in Argentina (there are laws against selling a car with foreign plates and a serious lack of flexibility in such laws not to mention our lack of desire of breaking such laws) we aimed the Explorer at the place with easiest reputation for transferring goods on the continent.
After a lot of visiting car dealers we finally found a buyer and had the transfer done by a lawyer so everything is all legit. By the way, the city failed to live up to its dangerous rep, but there sure were a lot of people running around. The guy we hired to guide us calls it the ‘Hong Kong of Latin America’ and that pretty much sums it up.