Asuncion 28th May

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Asuncion is, well, pretty off the gringo trail. Most people usually go straight from BA to Iguazu falls in northern Argentina, but we felt that we shoudl at least see what Paraguay was like (especially since it was a minor detor from the the route to the falls anyway).

Paraguay is a small (by South American standards) country between Argentina and Brazil, which has been pretty devestated by wars and a corrupt dictator during their short time as a soverign state. This means that there wasn't the huge buildings in the capital city left over from days of greater glory or the amazing cuisine that is so common to some of the other SA countries. There is however an extremly interesting (although very sad) monument to the huge number of men that have died in service of their country (as an example, after the Chaoco War with Bolivia, a population of 400,000 was reduced to 220,000 - 200,000 of whom were women). Plaza de los Heroes is a huge central square that houses a building covered in commemorative plaques; the most striking perhaps being one marking the tomb of the unknown child soldier.

Panteon de los Heroes.

The sheer number of memorials in the panteon is very striking.
Other than that, the other striking feature of Asuncion is the fact that the city slums come all the way up to almost the door of the presidential palace (right in the centre of town), which is something that we hadn't seen in any other city. Pretty striking the effects that all those wars have had on Paraguayans.

A statue of the former - and apparently very unpopular - President Srossener.
There isn't alot to say that is uplifting after that, but I guess that's the flip side of the coin in South America. The Paraguayans did seem very friendly though (even if car drivers did view STOP signs as if they were just suggestions) and seeing gringos was still kinda novel to them (as was out poor spanish). We only spent on day in Asuncion, but we felt that it was well worth the detour (even if the immigration official on the border coming into the country kept our passports for a disconcertingly large amount of time).

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