We came here for God, but also to get rich

A Spanish conquistor once uttered these famous lines (or something approximating it), when describing the Spanish Crown's motives for colonizing Latin America. Although many came here to bring Catholicism to the new world, many simply came to plunder its riches.

Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, reminds me a bit of this sentiment. Ciudad del Este rests at the confluence of Rio Iguaçu and Rio Parana (two rivers) on the border with Brazil. The entire region, which includes the famous Iguazu Falls, is a tri-border area where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. Brazil is a ten minute walk away (across a bridge over Rio Parana), and Argentina is a forty minute bus ride away.

The city is crazy. Brazilians come here for day trips and buy cheap electronics and other merchandise, then cross the border back to Brazil. Foz de Iguaçu, the Brazilian sister city, is comparatively nicer, and many wealthy merchants from Ciudad del Este in fact live in Foz and commute to Ciudad del Este for work.

So why does this city exist in the first place? Well, it used to be called "Puerto Stroessner," named after the ignominious Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner. It is a free trade zone, thus giving it its capitalism-gone-wild ambience, and with no taxes and direct imports of thousands of electronics from Asia everyday, it appears to be the cheapest electronics outlet in all of South America. Or so I am told.

Within the city, there live approximately 4,000 people of Chinese descent. 3,000 of these are Taiwanese: Paraguay is the only country in South America to recognize Taiwan diplomatically (most countries, like the US, don't have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan because of their ties with China).
There are also about 3,000 Koreans and an unknown number of Arabs. But their influence is felt: Korean barbeque restaurants, a Korean methodist church, Shish kebab cafes, hookah cafes, a Mosque are all within the city limits. And in a city of about 200,000 inhabitants, these outsiders' presence is felt quite strongly.

People also seem to come here for religion. Within the city, there are five Chinese-language churches, a Buddhist temple, and perhaps more. A beautiful, modernistic Catholic cathedral is just three blocks from my hotel. I've only met one American: a pastor from North Carolina. He lives by the Pizza Hut.