September 30, 2018
Trying to enter Paraguay from Bonito, which, after some googling turns out to be more complicated than I expected. But it worked out and I'm now in Asuncion, Paraguay!
I’ll start out by saying that this might be a pretty boring post for some readers, but other people might stumble upon it while googling how to cross the Brazil/Paraguay border from Pantanal or Bonito so I’ll add the latest information. And I guess some people like to have a laugh about all the burocracy of travelling that we usually don’t have to care about in Europe.
By looking at the map there’s a really convenient border crossing at Bela Vista, a town just south of Bonito and easily accessible by bus. That was my original plan. Turns out though, after some time on google, that they don’t have an immigration office on the Paraguayan side, meaning I would be in Paraguay illegally until I find an immigration office that might or might not be able to help me, or until I leave the country and end up paying a (potentially bad) fine.
Plan B was to travel south from Porto Murtinho along the Paraguay River, something that seemed like quite an adventure. This turned out to be rather tricky as well. To begin with it’s not that easy to get tickets, especially not from outside of Paraguay. It’s probably possible to solve on the spot though. But on top of that the ship only passes Porto Murtinho going south once a week, Friday afternoon or evening. That would have been perfect timing for me, except Porto Murtinho doesn’t have an immigration office on the Brazilian side. I would have to make a detour to Campo Grande for my exit stamp or potentially get problems next time I enter Brazil, and with that detour of a few hundred km I would definitely miss the ship.
Plan C, Crossing the border at Ponta Porã. This seemed to be the way most people giving up on Bela Vista go for. The tricky part here is finding the immigration offices. The city is literally on the border and you can walk freely across, which many Brazilians do for cheap shopping. The immigration offices are however not on the border. One blog mentioned that the Brazilian immigration office is way out of town. That’s old information. Another blog mentioned that the immigration point is at the airport, which is correct. Open 8-18 on weekdays and 10-13 and 15-18 on Saturdays and Sundays, something I realised when getting there at 9 in the morning on a Saturday. Eventually the line got huge though so probably good that I was early. A few questions I couldn’t understand and then I got my exit stamp.
The Paraguayan immigration office is close to the border just west of the mall Shopping China. The hours were a lot better, something like 8-22 most days. I couldn’t figure out if the woman there spoke Portuguese, Spanish, or Guarani, but I got my entry stamp and could make my way to the bus station and catch a bus to Paraguay’s capital Asuncion.
Both of these points can be found on maps.me but I noticed that the Brazilian immigration is not on Google Maps. No photos this time, but hopefully this info helps some other travellers in the future.
One extra side note. I’ve finally learnt the days of the week in Portuguese, and saying obrigado as thank you comes pretty natural by now. I’m now entering Spanish-speaking South America and both thank you and week days are completely different in Spanish…