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Published: June 10th 2009
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FUTBOL FEVERAfter checking in at Pension de Silva , I walked towards Plaza Uruguayo to find the El Pais supermarket where I can find some quick eats, I had trouble finding it and asked around, i noticed lots of brown uniformed men, the police and so I feel safe walking around at night here, the plaza is full of squatters who decided to live there, lots of black trash bag and cardboards made into a home. the park was a bit dark too but the cops made me comfortable, anyway found it then looked for an internet then back to the hostel.The senora of the house keeps talking to me in Spanish, telling me stories and stuff i could not follow her, all I understood is there will be another person in my dorm tomorrow. Despite the street noise I slept well. Not as cold as Encarnacion. had a hot shower then asked the people in the house/pension where the lavanderia is and how to get to the US Embassy. The instructions were clear so I thought, but took me ages to find the lavanderia shop kept going in circles, it was hidden in a building! easy to miss. Anyway found it
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EX ESTACION FERROCARIL CENTRAL only to be told they cant do it today as there were lots before me, the old lady pointed me to another one on the next block, dropped laundry off and had some empanadas from a corner bakery, so delicious!! Then asked the lady at the laundry shop which buses go directly to the embassy, she said to take bus#12. It dropped me off right at the entrance, got in through lots of security checks as usual, then had to fill up a form to add pages to my passport. The lady consul said 15 minutes, so i waited, then she called me again, they need a phone number, as i have no cell phone and cant remember people's cell phones at that time i wrote down my old work phone, which surprisingly i still know by heart. 5 minutes later, another consul came to the window and called me, she was amused on how well travelled my passport is and also her last assignment was Manila and wanted to chat with me, she talked fluent Tagalog! anyway she said she'll add the pages right away, 5 minutes later my thick passport was handed to me.
i asked the
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EX ESTACION FERROCARIL CENTRAL security guard at the embassy how to get to the downtown area, they wanted me to take a bus, esta lejo, he said when I asked if it's walkable. I cant find the streets on my LP map we must be really far, but i remember where the bus came so I decided to walk anyway until the streets I recognize from the map started to appear, and 30 minutes later I am at the main drag. First stop the Ex Estacion Ferrocaril which is actually near where i live, same street! i checked it out, and I remember a train excursion to Aregua, asked for tickets for Sunday but is not running, It goes every other Sunday and next one June 14. So walked again until I get to a church, i think this is the Catedral Metropolitana, i took photos, there were some girls in black standing at the front, they looked like models, then I hear someone calling me from behind,an middle aged lady, she said she will take my photo with the girls etc, but I said no thanks, i dont know why but at the back of my mind i felt this might be a
scheme, I give her my camera then she runs away with it, or maybe she was just trying to be nice. i just left the scene quickly. this is plaza Constitucion says the book, some gov't house/ building, some statues in the plaza, then went to the adjacent park Plaza de Armas, where they have the Senate house, the building is nice, i went out the back as I saw a statue behind it and saw lots of police or military surrounding the area, some have metal shields. i tell you police, military, security guards, they are allover this town, weird but I feel safe due to that. I walked further as i noticed from the distance a palace looking house, which turned out to be the Palacio de Gobierno near the Plaza de Desaparecidos. Just behind it is a wall of ramshackle hosues near the water, quite ironic, huge palacial government houses then at the back are the poor people living in poverty in their dilapidated abode. I smelled some grilled meat cooking so i followed my senses and ended up at the ferry port, an old woman selling asados, i looked and they have costillas(pork ribs) and chorizos,
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CALLE ELIGIO AYALA yummy, she served me and I sat with the locals, lots of vendors around selling trinkets, they did not really paid attention to me, they were chatting drinking their mate'. I asked for one more costillas, then having my fill i paid the lady 8,500 guaranis, close to $2! this is more like it!!
After a good breakfast at Bar San Roque accross the street from our hostel, we had a walk around town, at Plaza de los Heroes there were kids performing on stage dancing folk dances, we watched them for a bit then went to look for a nice cafe to chill but cant find one decent so we kept walking and took pictures along the way, we even have pictures taken with police officers! They were more than happy to oblige. we found out from some guys working at a downtown mall while Matt was looking for havainas that Chile plays here tonight and that if we go to the stadium we can still buy tickets and so that is what we did, getting off near the estadio, on the island separating the lanes, tons of vendors selling souvenir stuff, shirts, shorts etc. We decided if
we are to watch it live tonite we better have some jerseys on of the naqtional team so we walked the length of the strip and bargained hard for good bargains, then sclaped our tickets for 70,000 guaranis, about $12!! To make sure we didnt get duped we asked people around if it is authentic, people in uniform, with badges etc. Then we walked down the estadio to see where we need to get in later. lots of activities already and it's just past 12pm, we were told the game kicks off at 10 to 7 and we need to be there by 5pm at least to get a good seat as we have no seat assignments, first come first serve basis. we walked back trying to flag a bus to the center, we got distracted by some group playing drums in the corner next to a grocery store, we chatted with them a bit then left. We asked to be dropped off near the Excelsior mall then we had a wander around, then back to the hostel after picking up Matt's laundry, we chilled for a bit then got ready and off we go to the stadium. Big traffic,
the local team came through so we have to wit for their bus to go through, lots of singing, dancing, chanting on the streets, we got off and the street is alive! Got to the stadium area, had our hamburgers, we cant buy beers, not allowed so we went straight to the stadium,got in fine chose our seats and enjoyed the atmosphere, as you guys know Latinos are so passionate about their futbol, Paraguay is at the top of the South American qualifying, so we are excited to see them. Lots of bantering in the crowd, happens to be that the Chilenos are just to our right, the group is well separated from the rest and guarded by police with metal shields.
We filmed some actions, i mean the chanting Paraguayos taunting the visiting team etc. then game started, 90 minutes later it's over with Chile winning 2-0, the locals were not happy, they even booed their own players during substitution, tough crowd!It was a circus, getting out of the stadium we were lucky to find a bus going for downtown, we got stuck in traffic naturally, the fans in our bus are still ticked off, some young guys
at the back of the bus started yelling at teenage fans outside walking with Chilean flag on their backs, the dudes in our bus went mental and shouted at the driver to open the back door and they chased the Chilean fans, we dont know what happened after then as the bus sped off. Back in town walking to our hostel, the mood was somber no celebration of course. We found Sam, one of the 3 English dudes staying in the hostel, he wanted to go out with us as well, his buddies were taking a power nap and then later decided to just sleep on for the night, these boys are 18 and drinking age here is 20, so they are worried they dont get served alcohol. Sam at least is tall and could pass for a 21 year old, coincidence, he is british but grew up in Nairobi and lives around Karen camp, the place we stayed when we were in Nairobi. Me and Sasha took a power nap but was not enough so we struggled mightily to wake up.
Took a cab to this area called Avenida Espana where most of the clubs are located in
Asuncion near the Plaza del Sol Mall, we were trying to get to BamBuddha which was supposed to be cool but by invite only but the manager at the restaurant we ate in, Bar San Roque made some phone calls and he told us we just tell them we are tourists and they would let us in. So we found this place but refused us entry as we have no reservations, gave us directions to another bar behind the mall, we found it but there was a private party going on so we were not allowed again, ticked off but still wanted a good night we were pointed to head to Plaza Carmelita area in Espana Ave. but had a difficult time finding it everyone we asked as we walked the road has different ideas where it is, we trusted our instincts and finally got there a nd we found this club LIquid. Good vibes, gorgeous girls parading themselves, very lively place,we tried to get a seat on the cushion lounges but were told we have to pay to sit there and no alcohol allowed, what!! She pointed us to a small table in the corner, we sheepishly sat there
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EX ESTACION FERROCARIL CENTRAL and ordered beer and get pissed, while enjoying people watching, lots of beauties in this town. When we finished we moved to the dance floor and started dancing, electronica music then changed to some latin beat, we met a lot of locals, one is a rich dude Luis who bought us drinks and invited us to stay with him, which we might oblige later. We mingled and met some nice girls, chatted and flirted even if they dont speak english, there was one guy who is celebrating his 31st i drank with them for a bit then moved to flirt with some pretty girls, my mistake is at the end of the night i forgot the name of the girl i was hanging out with, but remembered her friends' names, silly! i kind of set up Sasha with one of the girls, really hot and he loved it. Our night finished at 5:30 am when the girls left and we started to get ready to leave, even then locals come up to us and invite us to hang out with them promising to introduce us to girls, gave them my contact number and maybe we hang out in couple days.
We took a taxi back and then realized the bar across the street is still going so we went in but no one is there so back to hostel and off to bed.
We all passed out quickly. At 11:00am we all woke up and we heard the English boys were watching the finals of the French open in the common room so we joined them, then said goodbye to the, they head off to Iguassu in Argentina. We get ready and took our computers to Bar san Roque for breakfast and free wifi internet. We are all waiting for emails from the girls we went out the night before and maybe we go out again tonight. Took a walk around town and then decided to go to the mall again, meanwhile the senora owner of the hostel who is very sweet but talks to us in rapid Spanish the boys cant understand her and I am the best Spanish speaker among us, they always leave me to deal with her. She asks us to pay for accomodation as of current as she leaves for Buenos Aires in couple days, Once settled with her we went to the
mall and chilled. Then back to hostel to rest and checked email no response from the girls so we decided to watch a movie tonight. New people in the hostel we chatted with for a bit. Went for dinner at this Peruvian palce behind our hostel good seafood. Then we walked towards the excelsior mall , the streets were empty, as if the city was evacuated! this is around 10pm. We got to the mall and the cinema's last show was 9;50PM, We missed it, the other cinema at the Plaza del sol gave us the wrong info. So we decided to just go back and off to bed.
Next morning we did the usual, drop off laundry, have breakfast at Bar San Roque then we went for a walk and then decided to go to the bus terminal to check bus schedules for our different destinations, took ages to get a bus, these smoke belching buses some wont stop for us I dont know why, we finally flagged one that did and we eventually made it to the terminal, we asked around for prices then once we got the info we took another bus to the Shopping del
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PLAZA CONSTITUCION Sol, the intention is to see a movie, we checked our emails and realized Sandra one of the girls we met at the Liquid bar is inviting us to go out with her and her friends, score!! So we ditched our plan to watch a movie and went back to the hostel to chill before meeting up with the girls. we bought beers to drink at the hostel, got ready and left for the Mariscal Lopez mall near where we live, soon as we got off Sasha needed the toilet very bad and went just behind a big tree at the square in front of the mall,embarassing! did not even wait to get inside where there is a proper toilet. Anyway Sandra met us at the entrance and we all went up the 3rd floor to meet Jasmin and Valeria,we headed for the mexican restaurant and had a great meal and a few drinks, Sandra does not speak English but Jasmin and Valerie can, it was a fun night like a game of charade trying to explain things in Spanish . the girls left as they have to go to work the next day and we decided to walk and
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SQUATTERS AT PARQUE URUGUAYO find a bar but did not succeed, we waited for the bus to go back but took ages, midnite already and buses are infrequent, we took a taxi, that costs us 40,000 guarani, the dick head of a taxi driver added 30% for night fare, he dropped us off at Brittania bar but it was shut, so went back to the hostel and slept.
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