BRAZIL!

Well, there you have it: my last stop in South America, Brazil. I can hardly believe I'm here and I've already had a bit of an experience...

I took a taxi to cross the border from Puerto de Iguassu (Argentina) to Foz de Iguassu (Brazil). It only took half an hour and then I had to sit around for an hour or so to wait for my bus to Curitba (where my Brazilian firend lives). Puerto and Foz de Iguassu are both very near to Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) where hundreds of people go to get cheap electronic devices. Apparently all these devices come directly from China and no import tax is levied and no income/VAT is charged either, making them VERY cheap. Therefore many "businessmen" take advantage of this, and smuggle loads of things out of the country and into Brazil or Argentina to sell on the black market. This has made Brazil instal many custom stops on the route to Sao Paulo and Rio. You must be thinking: Why am I telling you all this???

Well, I again chose my bus wisely. We got stopped at 2am in the morning by one such depots, woken up and three guards came onto the bus and searched all our bags. They took some poeple off the bus, and as it turns out, they hit the jackpot. Some guy had celotaped HUNDREDS of small electronic devises to his legs (under his trousers). I think they were all memory cards and things like that. So he was searched even more and then ALL our luggage was searched. We were there for over an hour, while the police confiscated all the stuff and went through a bunch of paperwork. This guy came back on our bus (I'm surprised they didn't arrest him or something) with a huge fine and a very angry face.

I've lost count how many times my bags have been searched lately (and it's not just prodding and x-raying either...it's physically taking EVERYTHING out of your bag and checking everything indiviually). When I crossed the border between Paraguay and Argentina, they found a bag of washing powder in my bag and they had alarm bells ringing, thinking it was cocaine...yeah, me, cocaine!?!?!?! I just laughed and told them it was soap, which of course they had to check out for themselves....

I've got 22 days here in Brazil. That's hardly anything, so I've decided to spend most of it with my friend, Rafa, see some things with him and then go to Rio. This country is like a continent....there's no point trying to see it all becuase you never will. I also need to learn some Portugese....Spanish is just not going to cut it...