Posadas

This past weekend, Jesse and I traveled to a smaller town in the southern part of Paraguay, right along the Argentina border.  Our reasong for travelling to this town was to see the Jesuit Ruins UNESCO site that Paraguay has to offer.  However, upon arriving in the city of Encarnacion, hot and sweaty from a 6 hour bus ride with a broken a/c, we decided to do the ruins the next day.  For our evening entertainment, we decided to go across the border into Argentina, to the city of Posadas, where we heard they have a different atmosphere and some delicious restaurants. 

So, we boarded a crowded city bus and went across the border.  It was actually an interesting experience, since buses would leave people behind at the immigration checkpoints, but it wasn't a big deal, because we would just show our tickets to the next bus and hop on.  It amazed me how many people were crossing the border; full buses every 20 minutes or so.  Below is a picture from Posadas of the bridge across the river that connects the two countries.

Once we had crossed into Posadas, we went on a search for the boardwalk.  Posadas has really embraced their location on the riverside by placing a great walking/biking/running path along the riverside, complete with benches, miradors (viewing areas), and riverside restaurants.

We walked along the path for awhile, then we chose a restaurant with a great view of the river.  The food wasn't very good, but we couldn't complain about the location.

After dining, we headed back to Encarnacion and our hotel.  We were a little concerned about the border closing, or the buses not running.  We were able to catch a bus between the two immigration posts (leaving Argentina and entering Paraguay) and that might have been the most crowded bus I have ever been on.  We were crammed into the bus, and literally, we touching at least five different people each, crammed in to get every last person on the bus.  Not too shocking, the bus didn't wait for us at the second immigration station, and we had to take a taxi back into the city.  It was an interesting border crossing to say the least, and we got to spend some time along a riverfront that reminded us both of Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

View of Encarnacion from Posadas.