PARAGUAY - THE CAPITAL!

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ASUNCION - DAY 1!

After jumping into a taxi, we arrived at the bus station early hoping to pay our way onto a decent bus. The first one which seemed nice enough and the stickers on the side boasted AC and a DVD player to keep us happy for our 6hr journey.

Something our Spanish translation books seemed to skip on was that in Paraguay AC doesn’t mean Air Conditioning instead that the windows open and DVD actually translates to large objects that stick out into the isle so you have something to bang your head on. It was also a bit of a shock that the previously quoted 6hrs was actually 9hr.

Despite all this, the journey wasn’t too bad and went rather quick. We also got to take part in Paraguay’s world record attempt for most people on a bus at one time.

Arriving into Paraguay Saturday tea time, we got to our hotel, switched rooms after a incident with a Cockroach (Sam is now the Roachio Catcher), hit our first pay per kilo Chinese restaurant (Amazing!) and got a early night in anticipation for our first day in the Capital of Paraguay!

ASUNCION - DAY 2

We woke to a breakfast of coffee, hit the town and.....nothing. Literally nothing, practically everything was closed and nearly all the streets deserted. It was something similar to a film, with no one passing us for minutes at a time and all the shutters down.

We eventually found somewhere to eat and a bar that opened on a Sunday so decided to head back to the hotel for the only course of action possible in a situation like this; Afternoon Nap.

Later that evening we had an exotic tea at the local Esso station (the only place selling food at that time) and bought some beers to drink in the town square before the pub opened. Weirdly enough the attendant would only sell us small bottles of beer, if we wanted a big one we had to drink it in the petrol station?!
After a quiet beer in what seemed like a scene from 28 days later, we headed to Britannia pub for a few beers and the chance to see more than 4 people in the same place at once. Amazing!

ASUNCION - DAY 3

Today was a Monday the city was back in business, the street where bustling, buses flying round and vendors hollering their trades. It was a bit of a shock to the system after the previous days wondering but we still managed to get a good few hours shopping, wondering, eating, drinking and the use of our poor Spanish in.

Asuncion has a unique charm to it to and was the most interesting city we’d seem so far in my opinion. It stands by the river Rio Paraguay whose banks you can literally walk down to from the business centre, through the park, museums and the little shanty town on the shore. The city was thriving with everyone from bankers, to street stalls, electronics market to shoe shiners, students to grandparents, all walks of life took to the street (except on a Sunday of course!). The skyline was what i found the most interesting, shining new office blocks and apartments stood alongside decaying and desolate car parks and burnt out buildings. It seemed for every new building reaching for the clouds, two old and decrepit ones mirrored it, struggling to maintain their structure in such a diverse skyline.

After a hard days wondering, we jumped on the local bus to the airport for 30p each and headed for our flight to Bolivia.

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Photos

The Town Square
Beautiful contrast of Palm Trees and buildings.

The Hotel Espania
Open to humans and Roches alike!