Blogs from Paraguay, South America - page 35

Nous revoila a Foz do iguacu apres 3 semaines de vadrouilles au paraguai et dans le Pantanal Bresilien. Nous avons decides de laisser la tendinite de Rebecca encore au repos et nous sommes partis d’Iguacu en Bus vers la capitale du Paraguai : Asuncion. Nous passons la frontiere et sommes reellement dans un autre pays, tout y est different et en plus c’est le marche duty free de l’amerique latine , Ciudad del Este. Nous ne trainons pas et changeons un peu d’argent ; nous voila donc millionnaire ; en effet un euro vaut 6 700 guaranis (la monnaie Paraguayenne) ! Nous sommes dorenavant dans un bus des annees 50, pour atteindre la capitale. Nous avons une adresse a asuncion et arrivons le soir ou nous sommes accueilli par Maria Angelica en banlieue de la ville. ... read more

Hola amigos! Well, it was a fleeting trip (11 days) through Paraguay but a really great experience. The people here are so warm and friendly...historically holding out their welcoming arms to Mennonites, Nazi’s, Japanese and MOONIES! The car of choice here is a Merc, there’s plenty cruising the streets, without number plates and no one seems to care. I guess these are the ones stolen from Brazil to ´boost the economy´! Who can blame them when (LP quote) "politicians lead by example rollin’ in their stolen BMW’s" Encarnacion Hot and sticky border town but with a real South American flavour, more hap-hazard and smiley than Argentina. Nearby here there are some Jesuit ruins. The Jesuits were quietly going about converting the natives and protecting them from the slave regimes of the Portuguese before the Spanish kicked ... read more

$1USD = 5400 Paraguay Guarani I´ve just had one of the most memorable and touching experiences of my travels ever. I left Buenos Aires this morning for the 2 hr flight to Asuncion, Paraguay. The flight left only 10 minutes late which was pretty good as it only had arrived about 20 minutes earlier. Flying on TAM airlines on an Fokker 100 jet, the outside/inside of the plane was spotless clean. There were several German tourists on the plane; there is still a large population of German descendents living in Paraguay. Immigration was a breeze and as I´d only packed a daypack I didn´t have to wait on luggage. As soon as I exited customs though one of the local touts attached themselves to me, and was hard to shake them off. The ATM didn´t work ... read more

The gleam of travel, or maybe just Paraguay has faded in the three days passed. And this week started with such promise. It was monday, we spent the morning hauling 20 pound bags of shit to spread evenly among the 4 new beds we had just dug. We stood proudly over the earth we had shaped with days of shoveling, chopping and hacking. We rinsed off and headed towards the neighbors to work bees. We cut comb and stuck our hands deep into the hives. We sweated straight through our suits, but were none worse for the ware. Then, the farmer firmly stated, "It's supposed to rain tommorow." I hope it does, tim replied. Smiling at his use of new Guarani phriase. This phrase that hung over our heads, like the storm clouds above, mocking our ... read more

Paraguay, the land of disparities, where you either drive a bulletproof benz or you´re hoping the river doesn´t flood too early this year and expedite the washing away of your house...surprisingly expensive place for travelers, as you tend to get lumped in with the first group of people, who, despite the exchange rate, would probably not have much trouble living a lot better than most in the US. Definately the most number of large firearms seen on the streets so far, which would give the impression that there is a lot of crime to be defended against, but i personally felt much safer in Paraguay than many other places. I guess in a country run by the mafia, robbing tourists is small fries and just brings unwanted attention on the real money makers..smuggling, money laundering, trafficking ... read more