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Published: September 6th 2009
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"Let's meet early".
Words of dread. Everyone has a different idea of what time they consider to be early. Inevitably it is always earlier than I´d like it to be. I cautiously replied, "How early is early?".
James and I were having a cup of cocido (Paraguayan herbal tea) and a mbeju (floury pancake-like thing made from manioc which is cassava) in an Asuncion cafe with Nilsa, the sister of Marcela, a friend of Ellen, James' sister. A Paraguayan connection from back home. Nilsa herself lived in Dublin a few years ago. Apparently there are a few Paraguayan families living in and around Dublin. Nilsa had invited us to visit her family home, a couple of hours outside of the city.
"Early" turned out to be a 7.30am rendezvous at Nilsa's apartment for breakfast, which included the delicious sopa paraguaya (corn bread cake with cheese) homemade and fresh out of the oven. We met Nilsa's lovely daughter Patricia who was studying hospitality and tourism. It seems that although there are many beautiful and interesting locations to see in Paraguay, there is pretty much no infrastructure to allow us to access them without our own transport. And even if
there is a bus, there would be nowhere to stay. We heard a similar story at the tourist office. They were very friendly but national park information was sketchy at best. For example, we were told that there was a bus to get to one park north of Asuncion, but there wasn't a bus back (which is a bit weird). All this is very frustrating to us backpackers. While James and I love to get off the beaten path, Paraguay was not going to be as easy as countries such as Guatemala or Colombia where the local bus network was extensive and there was always at least one modest guesthouse for us to bunk down in.
At least for today, we had our very own personal guide in our new friend Nilsa. A quick stop at the supermarket for some supplies (yerba - herbs to make tea, a big bottle of fizzy guarana and choccies for her mother - for which the supermarket offered a free giftwrap service, Tesco and Dunnes take note!). Then we jumped onto a noisy dusty street juggernaut that took us to Itaugua, the lace captial of Paraguay. It wasn't long til the next bus
came to take us the rest of the way to Atyra, where Nilsa and her family are from and, as Nilsa proudly told us, the eighth cleanest town in the world.
The family straight away made us feel at home. By pure coincidence Marcela in Ireland called just after we arrived. She was delighted we had made contact. We confessed to the family that we hadn't actually met Marcela yet, but they didn't seem to mind.
First thing first, the family introduced us to terere etiquette. We had seen Paraguayans everywhere in Asuncion carrying around flasks of water and holding a mug in the other, sipping the drink out of what looked like a silver straw. This was terere. It is a herbal tea made from the yerbas we had bought earlier in the supermaket and cold water (with hot water it is called cocido). The mug was passed around from person to person in the family, topped up with more water everytime. I actually quite liked it, the taste of the herbs were very strong but it was refreshing. I'm not sure I´d go so far as to carry a cup and a flask around with me
all day long though.
So we chatted and sipped terere as they showed us around the garden. We saw a coconut tree with what I though were baby coconuts on it. Turns out it was a different type of coconut that doesn´t grow any bigger than a golfball. Cows go wild for them, the nuts are good for their digestion. Nilsa's adorable neice, Rebecca, cracked some open for us to chew. No mistaking the distinctly coconut flavour, but they were chewier and sweeter.
Nilsa's mother was an amazing lady who was full of energy and smiles. No mean feat as she was the mother of 14 and had 30 odd grandchildren. James asked her what her secret was, she gave it away with a wink - only eating natural foods from the earth.
After a tasty lunch prepared by Liz (one of Nilsa's many sisters), we headed off in the car for a spin. Accompanying us were Nilsa, Rebecca and Lilo who is Rebecca's father and the husband of Lula, another of Nilsa's sisters (confused by all the family connections? So were we! I just hope I´ve got all the names right.) Driving through Atyra, I could
believe that is was indeed one of the cleanest towns in the world. There was not a dot of litter on the ground and the houses were laid out in the typical orderly grid pattern with trees and shrubs planted neatly in rows. It is probably one of the safest towns too. When we stopped to look inside the main football stadium, Lilo left the keys in the car with the engine running and it was still there when we came back!
One stop we made was to a modern church on the outskirts of town that is used as a religious retreat. It was a huge complex. Nilsa told us how there was no architect used, the whole design lay in the mind of a priest. Funded mostly by donors in Italy, the priest imported tiles, marble and wood but used local craftsmen from the surrounding area to realise his dream church. The result was an impressive bright and serene building with wonderful finishing touches. God is in the details after all.
By now the afternoon was beginning to fade, however the star highlight of the day was yet to come. The Battle of the Planets. No,
we didn't witness intergalactic warfare, we went to a football game. The local lads get together every Saturday as eight different teams, each named after a planet. What a cool idea! Lilo was the goalkeeper for Uranus. The matches were twenty minutes each way. We watched him pull off some admirable saves against Earth. In the second half, a sparky forward from Earth let rip and there was no stopping the strike. It was to be the only goal of the match. Even though Uranus lost, it was a good performance by Lilo.
The time with Nilsa and her family went far too quickly as before we knew it the bus was coming and it was time to leave. We are very grateful to have been introduced to the delights of mbeju, cocido, terere, sopa paraguaya and of course, those miniature coconuts. Look forward to meeting the rest of the clan in Ireland!
From Jess
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joy
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Paraguayan connection
What a wonderful day you both experienced. You must have been exhausted by the early start -just as well you had lots of rest when we were over ! Why were there riots ? James,as a farmer's son ,could you answer whether it is only Paraguayan chickens that sit on the branches of tree or is this a universal phenomena ?Very funny photo . Looking forward to the next blog