Puente de la Amistad

The Puente de la Amistad (Friendship Bridge) connects the cities of Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Built in 1965 as a symbol of goodwill between the two neighboring countries, the bridge offers beautiful views of the Paraná River just miles from the popular Iguazú Waterfalls.

Crossing the bridge can feel less like international travel and more like entering an enormous open-air shopping trip. Thanks to Paraguay’s lax tariff laws, Brazilian locals and tourists stream across in search of deals on electronics, clothing, food, and other goods in Ciudad del Este. The bridge is packed with pedestrians, cars, buses, and sacoleiros—shoppers who make frequent trips to Paraguay to buy goods for resale in Brazil. “Shopping Paris” is a popular mega-mall just feet from the Paraguayan customs office, boasting four floors of stores, restaurants, and even an indoor snow park for skating and sledding.

The bargain-hunting frenzy has a stranger side, too. The bridge and its surroundings are notorious for smuggling and tax evasion, with authorities often intercepting goods that exceed customs limits or were never declared. For visitors, the experience is a strange mix of tourism and commerce: you can cross the bridge to score bargains, watch shoppers haul bags of merchandise back to Brazil, enjoy the gorgeous scenery, or simply for the novelty of saying you've walked across an international border.