Paraguay: Into the Great Unknown


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South America » Paraguay » Asunciòn
May 27th 2011
Published: May 27th 2011
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Last night we got hammered at the hostel. We made dinner, a large helping of rib eye steak which Brett grilled up on the parilla and Andrea made a lovely salad full of veggies and a fruit salad for dinner. It was one of the most well balanced meals I have had in a while, however all the healthiness of it got cancelled out by what happened afterwards…We drank probably 8 bottles of wine between four of us, me Brett, an Aussie guy named Peter that we met and our Swiss friend Andrea. We also smoked a ton of cigarettes! God it was so bad, but it was a fun time. We woke up hungover as all hell and of course today would be the day we really need to have our heads on a swivel because we were heading to Paraguay, not the safest place in the world. We boarded our bus at 950a to head to Ciudad Del Este, which is the world’s largest black market, also where many Argentinians and Brazilians come to buy things because they are so cheap. The bus ride to the Argentinian customs office was short and I wanted to sleep more, and when we got back on our bus it was totally filled so Brett and I had to stand the whole way to Ciudad del Este, which granted was only about a half hour ride but still we were hung over and it kind of sucked. We passed through Brasil, the only way to get here to Paraguay, so even though we didn’t have a visa, or a stamp in our passport we passed through and we can count it as a country we’ve been to! We arrived in Ciudad del Este and there is really only one word I have to describe it: LOOSE. There were just masses of people everywhere selling everything you could possibly imagine, there was no order to any traffic and people just darting about everywhere. It was very reminiscent of Peru but honestly I think this place may be a little more third world and quite a bit looser than Peru. The bus stopped just on this random street and it didn’t even stop at customs, we had to grab our backpacks and walk all the way back to customs to get our stamp. The guy in the office was grilling me about who I was and where I was heading to and all this yang, I just wanted to say hey buddy be thankful that I am visiting your extremely poor and undeveloped country as I will be bringing my mighty American dollar to your soil. But of course my tact kicked in and I didn’t say that, I just got the stamp and left. Oh also, we’re millionaires here, I took a million Guarani, the local currency out of the ATM this morning here in Paraguay. That’s the equivalent of 243 American dollars. We got a taxi to the bus station and after a lot of running around, and getting our money back from one guy who sold us a ticket for two hours later than we wanted to leave; we finally got a bus that left at noon. Which would have been fine, had we known that the time was different here than in Argentina! It’s an hour earlier! So we’re sitting in a VIP lounge now which is basically like what any lounge would be in the USA but here it’s VIP. Oh ya we were in the main terminal earlier and there were just people smoking weed in there, there were cops there too and they didn’t care, I think I saw one of the cops actually take a hit! Haha. We’re about to get on our bus for Asuncion so I’ll update later. The bus ride was pretty uneventful; we slept a lot and watched Ong Bak, a pretty bad movie about some Thai street fighter. We arrived into Asuncion around 1830 and it was dark, as usual the bus station was in a pretty dodgy location in the city and it was really far from the city center where our hostel, the black cat, was located. We met some Brits on the bus and an Irish guy who turned out to be really cool and they are all staying here as well. The Irish guy, Kevin Long, is actually a Detroit Lions fan! Go figure, in Paraguay of all places we meet an Irish Lions fan. We got a cab to the hostel and got settled in, I had a shower which was much needed and then Brett and I set off to get some food which was also much needed. We walked a few blocks and found a place called Bolsi which has been around sicne 1960 and despite being in the heart of Asuncion it claims to have “the best food south of the Mason-Dixon Line”. We highly doubted that anyone here even knows what the Mason-Dixon Line is! Anyway I had some chicken stroganoff with white rice which was just delicious and we had a couple beers. It was good food and filled us up. We came back to the hostel and went to sleep around 2130; I passed out right away and slept a solid 12 hours! My body clearly needed it. This morning we woke up and I checked my email, I had one from Pat Nolan, my big boss in Chicago and he told me that my job here looks like it will be a go! That’s great news and something I have been really looking forward to. After I got that news I responded to a few emails and we set off, with Kevin, to see the city of Asuncion. Based on what we saw coming into Ciudad Del Este we thought this country was like the Wild West, but actually here in Asuncion things are really civilized. Sure there is a lot that isn’t like Argentina or back home but for example there are garbage cans everywhere, its cleaner than BA, the drinking age is 20, there are traffic lights (well not everywhere but some places) and the people are really friendly. We are really pleased with this city thus far. We walked around a market for a while today and bought a few things here and there, took a long walk around the city this afternoon and went towards the river, where at night we are not allowed to venture due to a huge shanty town that exists between the river and the city center, it’s very dangerous. There are some really nice government buildings there though and the pictures were great. After we took some photos we made our way back towards the city center and found a little Paraguayan restaurant to have lunch. It was super cheap, less than $4 US and we got beef and beans and eggs, it was delicious food and filled us up. After we ate we took another walk to a mall, as I need to get some clothes for work in BA but the prices weren’t all that cheap and I think I can do better somewhere else, though I may go back tomorrow and get a few shirts that I had my eye on since they were only like $30 US. We walked farther through a residential area and then back down towards the main center into the Placa de Uruguay and took some more photos. We were all keen for a beer so we tried to search out a pub but only found this really posh hotel which did us right. We went in and were the only people in the bar, had a few pints and watched some rugby, Kevin plays so he was telling us all about it, and then we paid and made our way back here to the hostel. I’m about to lay down for a nap for a little while and then we’ll go get dinner. Tomorrow we’ll do some more exploring and then head to a pub for the Barcelona vs. Manchester United Soccer match, the Champions League Final. Sleep well everyone and party hardy since its Friday.


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