Coyote

The next morning we were off to Paraguay
As we were walking the four blocks to get to the border, I began to think that Cindy might need a visa to get into Paraguay.
"Do you need a visa to get into Paraguay ?", I asked
"Yeah"
"Do you have one?"
"No"
"How do you supposed you will get in?"
"Surely they will issue one on the spot"
Surely they did issue it, at a cost of 80 pesos (roughly 25 American dollars). Cindy was mad like hell and refused to pay the fee.
"It is ludicrous that a country would charge money just to let someone in" she said.
"The US charges 100 dollars, four times more", I said.
"But we have a lot to offer...", she replied without batting an eye
I thought how funny it was that an American gets asked for a visa and cannot comprehend the concept around it.
She was aggravated enough and I didn't want to make things worse by lecturing her about how the only reason Paraguay requires a visa from Americans was because America requires a visa for Paraguayans. At this point she was already crying, and mumbling something about how she could get a dress for 80 pesos and blah blah blah, so I suggested we went for a glass of water so we could cool off a little bit.
I asked the border patrol where we could get some soda and he pointed me towards this whole in the wall place that sold drinks.
We walked there and while she was getting a soda, I realized we were like 200 meters away from border control, inside Paraguay.
I looked at Cindy she had this big smile on her face.
"Do you realize ..."
"That we are actually inside Paraguay", I interrupted... " yes, I do..."
"Are you actually gonna go in?"
"Hells yeah", she said
The bus spot for the missiones is right there !!!!"
We walked from the soda kiosk to the bus stop, took a bus and went our way to the missions of Trinidad and Jesus. The entire time we kept making fun of Cindy, saying she was an illegal and if she couldn't find work, maybe she should try sitting in front of the Paraguayan Home Depot.
"How does it feel to be an illegal immigrant?"
On our way to the missiones de Jesus, the bus driver kept on making eyes with her, so I suggested she married him so she could her Paraguayan green card.
We had a lot of fun that afternoon.
On our way back to Argentina, I went to get my passport stamped and she waited, walking back and forth between vendors, guards and people getting in and out of buses.
I came back with a stamp and there was a border patrol officer who asked the people on the way to reenter Argentina to make a line for document check. I instantly crapped my pants and I imagine so did Cindy. We got in line and she sighed "What now?"
I was actually very surprised how she was rather cool about the whole thing. She looked at me and simply said "I guess I should have taken your advice"
"About paying the 25 dollars for the visa?", I asked.
"No... about marrying the bus driver for my green card !!"
The border officer barely looked at people's passports and when it got to us, I shoved my passport out front and he said:
"Brazil... bueno, tranquilo, sigue" (Brazil, great, go in)
So I said "the three of us" pointing to the two girls...
The guard grabbed the two girls and pushed them through. We walked the four blocks back to hostel, laughing our asses off. We only stopped laughing to get some durazno ice cream.
I had a bus to catch so I just had enough time left to get my backpack at the hotel and go. I stopped at their room real quick to say good bye.
Cindy came to the door on my way out and gave me a huge hug.
As I struggled to put my enourmously awkward backpack on, she leaned over and gave me a little pec on the lips...
"You are my favorite coyote ever..."