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Published: July 11th 2006
The Mission
Santisima Trinidad. This is the best preserved Jesuit reduccion (mission) in Paraguay. It may be one of the least visited UNESCO world heritage sites!Paraguay is muy tranquilo. I arrived in Asuncion at the weekend to find the streets of the city centre stunningly empty. There was a little activity on the Saturday morning, but after the siesta started the streets stayed empty all weekend. Paraguay is a laid back sort of place. Everyone takes a long siesta in the afternoons, not a bad idea in such tropical heat.
The people are friendly and keen to talk to strangers. They don´t see many gringos. Paraguay is firmly off the backpacker circuit. Most people in Paraguay speak Spanish and Guarani. 95%!o(MISSING)f the population is considered mestizo, that is of mixed Guarani and Spanish lineage. Paraguay is unusual in Latin America. It doesn't have a traditional aristocracy of Spanish extraction.
The city of
Asuncion is ugly. Down town Asuncion is dominated by grimy run down brutalist tower blocks. Although scattered amongst the ugly modern buildings are some colonial buildings. But, many of the colonial buildings are also run down, except those that are government buildings.
Despite that I enjoyed my time in Asuncion. The food was really good, with beef steaks that rival anything available in Argentina. I was eating a particularly good
Parque Nacional Ybycui
This dense piece of rainforrest is full of butterflies, which get everywhere. steak whilst watching the World Cup in an empty cafe in the city centre, when a horse and cart drove past. It was the only traffic on the road in a city of over a million people.
After my weekend in Asuncion I caught a bus to the lakeside resort of
San Bernardino on Monday the 3rd of July. San Barnardino is popular with the local elite at weekends. In fact General Stroessner, the notorious former dictator had a lakeside villa in the town.
General Stroessner had a soft spot for Nazis - he welcomed many Nazi war criminals to Paraguay, including
Joseph Mengele, "The Angel of Death". Stroessner was a monster. Like his friends the Nazis he kept records of his crimes. The so called "
Archives of Terror" were found in Asuncion after Stroessner fled into exile. The archives relate to
Operation Condor. In Operation Condor Stroessner cooperated with a number of dictators including Pinochet in Chile and Galteriera in Argentina, in an international campaign of terror. The archives list 50,000 murdered, 30,000 disappeared and 400,000 incarcerated. The records also implicate the American CIA. Operation Condor, is one of many crimes that the former USA politician
Henry Kissinger is implicated in.
Neighbouring countries
have used the archives to prosecute former military officers.
Whilst I was in San Bernardino the place was empty. It was a Monday in the low season. It felt like I was the only tourist in town. I took a trip out in a large tourist boat onto Lake Ypacarai. I had a big boat all to myself.
On the Tuesday I returned to Asuncion taking a long lunch in a city cafe. Again it was a chance to treat myself to good food, beer and a long afternoon watching the World Cup.
Weds I took a bus to the village of Ybycui putting up in a very basic hotel for the night. The village of Ybycui is near a national park. So, on the Thursday morning I caught a bus to the park gate.
The
Parque Nacional Ybycui is a tropical rainforest. I walked around the trails but I didn't see any animals. The vegetation is much too thick but the place was full of butterflies of many colours. When I stood still for a moment the butterflies landed on me.
Near the gate of the park is an historical museum and the remains of an iron
factory. The iron works of Ybycui were the first iron foundry in Paraguay. It was built in 1850 and destroyed in 1869 during the War of the Triple Alliance. The War of the Triple Alliance was maybe the nastiest war in American history. Paraguay declared war on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Paraguay lost a lot of its population and much of its land in the war. By the end of the war, the country was sending 12 year old boys to the front line.
When it came to returning to the village there was no bus. The park ranger told me that I had no choice. I had to walk 8kms from the park gate to a junction. It was a hot afternoon. Finally I got to the junction. Once there I spoke to some kids sitting next to the road. They let me know that I had a long wait...
Even so I managed to get back to the village and onto another bus to Asuncion, arriving in the city late at night.
The next day (Thurs), I spent all day on a bus to the city of Encarnation, which is a border town. On Friday
Libertad!
There were protesters like these on most street corners in the centre of Asuncion when I was there. the 8th I took a trip out to the reduccion de Santisima Trinidad de Parana. The ruins of
Trinidad are the best preserved of the missions established by Jesuit priests. For 150 years the
Jesuits protected the Guarani people from slave traders. They built small protective cities. According to the entry in
wikipedia (the on-line encyclopaedia) they built a society based on primitive Christianity, providing free public services for the poor, schools and hospitals. But the Jesuits became too powerful. The king of Spain was frightened of the influence of the Jesuits. He was also told that the Jesuits were plotting with the Guarani to overthrow the crown in Paraguay. So the king expelled the Jesuits in 1763 and the reduccions were plundered.
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Marcello
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Some tips
I like the descriptions of this site because I found them very close to the reality, but there are somethings that the visitor must know before going to Paraguay. 1st.: It's better to arrive Asuncion on WEEKDAYS and NEVER in summer, 'cause there's nothing to do at the weekend, and in summer EVERYONE goes on vacation to the countryside or to other countries. 2nd.: if you want to visit San Bernardino, you must go at the weekend, or in summer, when there are a lot of places to go to dance and the city is full of life, the rest of the year remais a calm country town. 3rd.: If you're in Asuncion, it will be nice if you go on a boat trip to the Chaco. And it costs less than 1 dollar! The Chaco is on the other side of the River Paraguay and is totally different of Asuncion. It's full of palms, little rivers and birds (it's beautiful!) and you can have another view of Asuncion. 4th.: it's a sin not to visit the Monday falls and Nacunday falls (on the east, near the River Parana). Ok, I hope this tips could help you, and enjoy your trip!