Paraguay! One of the least well known countries in South America. Landlocked with a population of just under 7 million it has, until recently, been relatively isolated with an air of mystery about it. In the nineteenth century it attracted a number of groups looking to set up utopian colonies - German anti-semites (including Nietzsche's sister), Australian communists and Mennonite missionaries all came looking for their version of nirvana (none found it). A succession of brutal and mad dictators (brilliantly reimagined in August Roa Bastos's novel 'I The Supreme') - the last, General Alfredo Stroessner who was in power for 34 years was only deposed in 1989, made it the epitome of a banana republic.

Books about Paraguay tend to have bizarre titles, 'The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig' is one, and paint a lurid picture of a country filled with strange characters, a dangerous place where everyone carries a mini arsenal and anything can happen and probably will.

Very few people visit Paraguay. A good enough reason to go, then.

Entering from Foz do Iguacu was, we were warned, not easy. It was necessary to go through Brazilian immigration, walk across the bridge over the River Parana that connects the two countries, before going through the formalities in Paraguay. It could take two hours. And Ciudad del Este, the city on the Paraguayan side, was a dangerous place.

None of this was true. The longest part of the crossing was the taxi ride from our hotel to the Brazilian border. We went straight through immigration and after a five minute walk over the bridge, repeated the process in Paraguay. Crossing the border took about 15 minutes.

And Ciudad is no more dangerous than anywhere else. It probably gets its reputation from the fact that it has been described as the largest shopping mall in Latin America and is a haven for counterfeiters and smugglers. Hordes of people come from Brazil to buy goods far cheaper than they can at home. Naturally this attracts a fair number of less desirable traders but that doesn't seem to deter the large number of people who were shopping at 9 o'clock in the morning. Electronics, white goods, perfumes and alcohol seem to be the favoured goods but I suspect you can pretty much buy anything you want to in one of the many shopping malls or market stalls that line the road from the border crossing.

Paraguay is one of those places where you can't obtain the local currency - in this case the Guarani - outside of the country so my view of the shopping experience came from looking for the cash machine in the nearest mall. Once found I became an instant millionaire - the Guarani trades at just under 8,000 to the pound, although even it has benefitted from the pound's declining value since last year's referendum. Seemingly nowhere is safe if you're a British tourist.

1.5 million Guarani safely tucked in my wallet we went to look for the bus to Encarnacion, our first destination in Paraguay. Finding out details of the buses had been a frustrating task. One guide book said there were four a day, a website said they were every hour but Patricia, the woman at our hotel in Foz who organised tourist trips, informed us, from a reliable source, there was only one a day. When we got to the bus station it turned out that there were several companies running buses to Encarnacion and all of them offered around 6 departures throughout the day and night. We opted for Crucero del Sul who offered us 'executive comfort' which meant reclining seats and air conditioning. Pretty essential on a trip that was due to last four hours but ended up taking five and a half. We even got to experience the VIP Lounge in the bus station whilst waiting to depart. Superior toilets apparently. That probably meant being given 3 sheets of toilet paper rather than 2.

But apart from the extra time taken the journey itself was pretty uneventful. The scenery was rather dull and would not have been out of place in southern England, rolling hills covered with wheat fields. Only the occasional remnant of the original forest reminding us that we are, in fact, in a sub-tropical zone. Because the weather certainly didn't, that also being reminiscent of England - grey skies, low cloud rain and a temperature of about 15 degrees. Not what we came for.