To put it mildly, 2020 is not the most fortunate year. We feel a bit guilty complaining about our luck, because the coronavirus epidemic has taken other people’s jobs, good health, or even lives. In our case, it just ruined our plans. We said goodbye to family, friends and “normality” in general, without a specific return date, and we definitely did not expect to be heading back home after only a few months.
Where all bad luck began
In February, at the Sao Paulo airport, we were welcomed with screens proudly announcing that there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil. The virus came to South America later than to Europe, so we completed the first stage of the route without major problems. Mid-March, when we arrived in Paraguay, there were some complications, but we definitely didn’t expect that traveling would stop being possible in a matter of days.
We wanted to hide somewhere in Patagonia, away from cities. Our timing, however, turned out to be terrible, because we arrived at the Argentinian border exactly on the day when it was closed to foreigners. To make it worse, after half a day of arguing with immigration officers and even contacting the Ministry of Health, the border guards gave us permission to enter the country, where two hours later the local police practically deported us back to Paraguay because they received other guidelines.
Three months in Paraguay
After forcibly returning to the Paraguayan side, we received a 14-day quarantine order. With the help of the local police, we found a nice hostel where we could comfortably isolate ourselves. As you can easily guess from the title, it didn’t stop on two weeks. Argentina, along with other neighboring countries, regularly announced the extension of the closure of borders.
In the end, we stayed in Encarnación, the capital of the Itapúa department, for three months. In the meantime, we moved from a hotel room to a full-fledged apartment and returned to work part-time.
The fact that we were stuck in Paraguay had its pros and cons. On the one hand, it is probably the most boring country we have ever been to, but on the other, the local authorities dealt with the epidemic really well, so we felt pretty safe.
Time to go home
During these monotonous months, we went through a mental crisis on average once a week and thought about coming back more or less seriously. We’ve never had to make such a difficult decision together. It’s very hard to give up on your biggest dream. Finally, we came to the realization that there is no chance to continue traveling in the near future, but after overcoming the mental obstacle, we still had to actually get back, which was also a big challenge. Paraguay is such a remote country that you could count on a flight to Europe at most once a month. Prices were also discouraging, because counting in the necessary transfer from Madrid to Poland, we would have to pay almost $2500 for the whole experience.
Our way to Europe
The breakthrough took place in June. We are constantly in touch with the Polish Embassy in Buenos Aires, but decided write an email to the German embassy in Paraguay, whom a EU law obliges to “look after” us too. We concluded that if the embassy actually resides in Paraguay, they might know more than the Polish one in Argentine. Turns out they did.
It turned out that it’s possible to obtain a special permit to enter Brazil, from where there were flights to Europe everyday. We had to provide confirmation of purchase of tickets from the border city of Foz do Iguaçu to São Paulo and from São Paulo to Europe. We chose a surprisingly cheap connection to Faro in Portugal.
We were supposed to wait two business days for permit, but in the end, it took a whole stressful week. With the documents printed out, we moved to the border city of Ciudad del Este, where we had another surprise - the first flight was canceled. We discovered it only when trying to check-in, i.e. the day before planned to enter Brazil. We were panicking pretty bad! [Mainly me, Maciej only needed a few minutes to recover - W.]
In this whole misfortune, we were really lucky, because there was a second connection to Sao Paulo the next day at 6.00 am, which was early enough for us to make it on the flight to Portugal. Still, we were almost dying of fear at the border crossing, because technically we had a permit for a non-existent flight. Fortunately, the immigration officer let us through without unnecessary bureaucracy. It was one of the best moments of our lives.
A small summary
We try to treat this whole experience as an unplanned adventure. It was certainly a lesson in humility and gratitude. We hope that we will start to appreciate the little things a bit more, like a walk without a mask, as well as the fact that this beautiful world is open for us to explore.