Half Way Point

---

Key points of the last 2 months...


Football hooligans.

In Asunción there are a few different football teams, the main two being Olimpia and Cerro Portania (this may be spelt worng!). The fans of the clubs here have huge rivalries, and the first time I felt unsafe in Asunción was because of this.
One night after work at the Anglo we were all pretty hungry so off we went to Cafe Lito's (they do reaaalllly good pizza and empanadas). There had been a football match but we were not aware of this until a large group of young men walked past yelling things at each other and then began throwing bricks. The owner of the cafe got his staff to baracade us all in so no one got hit by the bricks...
Exciting - yes.
Something I want to experience again - NO!


Wedding.

I got to wear the one fancy dress that I packed to bring here!! Yay!
I packed one nice dress, thinking, maybe, just maybe, I'll go to an event where I'll need something nice to wear. Good thinking.
I missed the church part (not really my scene) but went to the evening do (well, most Paraguayan weddings are in the evening, even the church part...) and it was lovely. Amazing food and unlimited free wine :D And a table full of cakes and chocolate for everyone to pick at. Ace.
Very similar to a wedding back home... throwing of the bouquet, first dance, all that, no speeches though.


Courses ending.

All my courses have now finished for Christmas.
I can't believe how relaxed I now feel in my job. Only five months ago I felt really nervous before each class and had to plan like a crazy person for it all to go smoothly. Now I am an expert improviser 😊


Ypacarai music festival.

Ypacarai is a small town near Asunción. Jose and I went to a music festival there. Free music festival, open air, in the town square. Loads of different types of music. Smell of a certain drug heavy in the air... Good fun.


Caacupe.

Every year on the 8 December there is a national holiday in Paraguay. A religious holiday. When many Paraguayans, probably about a third of the population, make a pilgrimage to Caacupe, where a miracle of some sort happen many years ago. People walk to Caacupe, normally starting in Ypacarai (about 6 hours walking I think... depending on your speed of course)... to make a promise to the Virgin of Caacupe. They make promises such as... 'If I pass my exams this year I will do the pilgrimage to Caacupe' and so on.

There appear to be three types of people who go. Those who are actually religious. Crazy sports people who want to test themselves. And 'los perros' (the lads) who seem to have the idea 'Lets walk to Caacupe, drink terrere, beer and have a laugh'.

The people start walking before the 8 December, I suppose it would be too busy if everyone did it on the same day. And when they arrive at Caacupe, it is like a market. People selling religious statues, Holy water, all sorts of religious goods. Others selling anything and everything, I saw one woman selling sexy underwear which I though was rather strange at a festival about a virgin...

All along the route of the pligirmage there are adverts for coca cola, tigo (one of the big phone companies here), different beers too... Very comercialized, like Christmas back home I suppose.
Very interesting experience.


Fail trip to Ciudad del Este.

Jose and I decided to go on a trip to Ciudad del Este...
We get the freezing cold night bus... Jose gets ill. We stay in a lovely hotel... but they are refurbishing it so we can't use the pool. We try to go the the Itaipu dam... it is closed.

We cross over to Brazil... passport trouble. When I left Paraguay to go to the falls last time, I did not get an exit stamp, I thought nothing of it, knowing other countries like the US don't give exit stamps. Got stamped back in afterwards... or at least I thought I was stamped back in. Turns out they gave me an exit stamp when I returned. The ink was running out the the word 'entrada' or 'salida' was not visible. Which is a problem.

So I go to the immigration desk and the man starts demanding I pay a fine as I have no entrance stamp. That is until Jose comes over and says 'No, what we'll do is go over to Brazil and get a new entry stamp when we return.' The immigration man seemed happy enough with that... so that's what we did. Simple.

So glad that happened before I got to the airport.

Get bus back... bus breaks down in the middle of a storm and the men take about 2 hours to fix the problem... Ace.

Arrive home more tired than when I left. Oh well. Got to see the falls again 😊


Homesickness...

This occured a lot in month 4. Something I had never really felt before. Mainly due to not being able to skype my parents. Its ok. Got through it. It goes as quickly as it comes.


Christmas.

Yes, I know, it's not been Christmas yet. But the build up to Christmas here just doesn't seem like Christmas. First of all, and most obviously, it is hot. And continues to get hotter. 38 degrees this week. Nice. Secondly, yes there are nativities and Christmas trees and things like that... but it just looks strange having a Christmas tree in a hot country! It's just not right! The there are all the coca cola signs with Santa in the snow in this red suit. What a joke. Santa would melt here in his suit. We decided they should show him in shorts with sunglasses and drinking terrere, not coca cola.

So yeah, it hasn't felt like Christmas. But that is good, as it makes me miss home less... it's like it isn't Christmas time so I'm not missing anything.

I did of course get a lovely Christmas parcel from home 😊



Oh yeah, I met two guys from the UK in Paraguay in the last two months, both with interesting stories. One had put a bet on a horse of about £2 and won about £1500, so decided to go to Paraguay and never went home. The other came to Paraguay a few times before realising he was only coming back to see his friend's sister, who he is now engaged to. Awwwww.
Life is funny.



So that is the summary. And now I am off travelling.
I have completed half of my time in Paraguay.
Scary.

It feels weird leaving now.
It feels like I have a family back in the UK, and a family here too.
But I won't be spending Christmas with either of them.

But I am returning to Peru... and I can't wait to arrive.
Four hours until I fly.

Big trip starts now. 😊

---