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Feeling the heat of Cerro Cora National Park
We'd set off completely unprepared for the blazing sun and little shade, so we resorted to wearing our tops on our heads. We think it may catch on! The latest stage of our travels took us off the gringo trail into the less explored country of Paraguay. For some inexplicable reason backpackers don't seem to have a very high opinion of Paraguay as demonstrated the night before we left Brazil. We'd just returned from the Pantenal and were relaxing in Campo Grande with 2 others from our trip. Another traveller started chatting to us. We did the usual 'where are you from, where have you been, where are you heading' conversation that typifies all conversations between backpackers. When we said we were heading to Paraguay a look of puzzlement passed over his face as he said - 'why are you going to Paraguay, there's nothing to do there?'. When we asked him whether he'd visited he hadn't, so we asked him how he could possibly know what the country was like if he'd never seen it!
So off we set with not a huge amount of info, even our often mistaken Lonely Planet had minimal information on the country. Crossing the border from Brazil into Paraguay seemed to take forever, not aided by our bus to the border being late in arriving so we had to stay
National Monument - Cerro Cora National Park
Apparently picking a simultaneous fight with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay (outnumbering yourself 10 to 1) and resulting in the death of half the population and the loss of 26% of your land - oops!) makes you the perfect candidate to be a national hero. for a night in the border town of Pedro Juan de Caballero. The border is simply a street down the middle of what is nominally two towns and apparently many travellers forget to get stamped in and out, running into obvious troubles when they try to leave the next country.
Bright and early the following day we made the joyous discovery that the two border checkpoints were 3km apart (only after we'd decided to walk between them fully loaded down with packs and all our food for the national park). Good fortune shone down on us when after finally getting our Paraguaian stamp (and having the excitement of our fingerprints being scanned for the first time) we asked a security guard where we could get a taxi as the thought of walking the 3km+ to the bus station didn't particulary appeal. Following some rapid spanish between him and another guard the second guard got out his car keys and gave us a lift to the bus station!!! Brilliant!
We were a little peturbed by the armed guards outside every single bank, money changer, supermarket, and all other random shops in the border town of Pedro Juan de Caballero,
Hitchhiking from Cerro Cora National Park
As you can see it was a busy road and a long wait. With the late morning temperature rising, we were just about to resort to t-shirts on our heads again when a friendly driver picked us up. but we were to discover that this was fairly typical of all of Paraguay. They must have all been so bored! We assumed that enough robberies happen to make them necessary, but we experienced a fairly slow pace throughout the country without much action so can't say we saw any particular need for so much ammunition. In a refreshing change we saw only 3 other backpackers during our two week journey.
We stopped first for two nights in the Cerro Cora National Park and saw a puma at dusk on the second day which was amazing! Not for long though, it simply crossed our path then headed off into the bush, so we can't claim any tracking abilities. Cath continued her injury run by tackling a wooden seat with her shin. After a large amount of concern at the HUGE fluid bump that appeared (and subsequent bruising) all was fine as she retained the ability to walk the next day. Quite a dry national park, the deep red of the soil contrasted starkly with the green of the trees. There was a distinct lack of the petroglyphs and waterfalls which the two guidebooks consulted most emphatically stated were there.
We didn't find them, and the ranger laughed when we asked him, although he stopped laughing when we told him we'd seen a puma...
Next stop was a sleepy town called Concepcion where we decided to treat ourselves with a 'down' day. Yes, travelling can be that tough. They still have horse and carts roaming the streets, and we did our bit to support the local community by getting a lift in one to our hotel. The locals were lovely, everyone was just so smiley and patient with our pidgeon spanish. For some weird reason literally everyone we spoke to in country thought we were German... Got chatting to one woman whose husband used to be the ambassador to the US. After she invited us to visit her ranch she told us that our hotel was actually a knocking shop, being ideally situated next to the port. Now this may well have been true, but we neither saw nor heard any evidence to support it. Still, no ships pulled in while we were staying there...
Our arrival in Ascencion occured after 9.5 hours on the bus, a journey which should have taken 6. We cunningly got on the
bus that stopped at every single town / village / roadside shack on the way. We know it sounds weird but travelling by bus is knackering. Although such mistakes mean that you get to see a lot more of the country, they also mean that you get to see a LOT more of the country and spend far too much quality time inside the bus going a little stir crazy, annoying each other & eating too many chipa's (bread with cheese baked inside).
Ascencion was a city of contrasts for us. We arrived too late on a Saturday night to feel like doing anything except eating quickly then falling into bed. We found a cute little place to stay, run by a little old lady who spoke very quickly and very softly in Spanish. We smiled at her and said 'Si' a lot... What we hadn't anticipated was that the city closes down on Sundays, so it was like a ghost town as we wandered about the next day. After noting the startling contrast between the huge palaces / government buildings and the slums running alongside and filling the views down to the river, we had coffee in the
Ascuncion - Presidential palace
This is a close as we could get without being shot only place that appeared to be open in town. It was a brilliant little cafe called Cafe Lito and has apparently been open for 60 odd years. An American style place the waitresses were all plump and middle aged and very cute.
Our day took a lively turn when we returned to the hotel to watch movies on the cable channels (due to a sheer lack of anything else to do) and our host buzzed in speaking a torrent of fluent Spanish that we had buckleys of understanding. Some persistence on her part, and a willingness to be herded anywhere she liked on our side, saw us standing round the corner 5 minutes later with masses of Paraguaians at the local Church fete. What a way to spend a Sunday night... Still, as there were no restaurants or supermarkets open we were more than happy to spend some money here, although we're not sure if sweet pastries constitute dinner.
Things were back to the expected vibrant buzz on the Monday. We debated long and hard about purchasing a hammock before deciding that the extra weight and bulk wouldn't be practical. Walked the streets and watched a fairly tame
Jesuit Mission Ruins at Trinidad
Well... what's left of them. The Spaniards kicked the Jesuit Missionaries out in the 17th century because their novel idea of teaching the indigenous peoples in their native language was considered too radical. street protest for a while before re-visiting Cafe Lito for a brilliant lunch with Paraguaian fish soup for Cath. Unfortunately dinner didn't live up to the same standards. We went to a restaurant that the LP raved about. Great wine (Argentinian) but canned mushrooms just don't do it for either of us, especially when they form part of the most expensive dishes on the menu...
Grey skies upon us from Ascencion but we had a fairly easy journey south to the Ybycui NP, part of the way on the worlds smallest and most rickety bus. Windows are optional surely...? Much prettier than the northern NP (despite the drizzle) we actually found all the walks, most of which led to some lovely waterfalls. That night, while preparing dinner in the dark, we'd just been commenting on how we hadn't seen any wildlife (not surprising considering the density of the trees) when Cath jumped up startled at a strange noise in the camp. Head torches at full strength picked out a large fox just disappearing into the bushes! It freaked us out for the next 2 hours as it sat and watched us, we assumed we may have been camped in
it's normal path down to the river. The next night saw us sitting there in the darkness when we heard it approach so that it came into camp and we got a photo. Our mad rush to leave the following morning, and mis-information about where the bus left from, saw us hitch a lift in the rangers truck to chase the disappearing bus down the road.
Accomodation seemed a little sparse in Encarnacion, but perseverence meant that we ended up with our best accomodation in Sth America so far, at the best rate in town! Our main reason for being here was to visit the Jesuit mission ruins (Trinidad and Jesus). They were pretty cool, Trinadad was the best as it was still in its ruined state, whereas they've re-built Jesus so you get a feel for how they would have looked 300 years ago. Spent a good amount of time scrambling over them (barriers would probably help preserve this World Heritage site for a little longer...) and taking the obligatory 50+ photo's.
We finished our time in Paraguay by wandering the huge bazaar that sprawls through the old town near the river. Against all logic, and contrary
Jesuit Mission Ruins at Trinidad
We had time to kill while waiting for the bus to what we wrote earlier, we ended up purchasing a hammock in a moment of madness, which will be a great joy to us when back in Oz, but not so much at the moment as it takes up about 1/3 of Rob's backpack... I guess we aren't doing any other exercise at the moment...
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C.P.
non-member comment
How does it go?
Hey guys, Just wanted to check in on your adventures. Things look great and hot. A little different from the last time I saw you guys. Hope things are well, safe travels and if you guys are going to be in south africa anytime in the next month, look me up.