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Published: January 8th 2009
Hello blog readers, lol.
In the summer of 2007 I travelled to Paraguay on a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) project dealing with sustainable tourism and private sector development. I wrote an entry for the trip a long time ago, but had not started this blog yet. I have decided to post it, to keep all of my travel blogs in one place. I don't have many pictures of Asuncion (the capital city) on this computer, but I will post some of my favorites from other parts of the country.
Wow, Paraguay is great. The people in this country are so nice. I have managed to travel to the southern and eastern tips of the country and in every community I have visited, I have come across warm and generous people.
To give a little background…my time in Paraguay was spend learning about the country and working with a team of students and professors on sustainable tourism in the department of Ñeembucú. We spent the first week working with students at the University of Americana, teaching them modules on the basics of tourism, home-stays, entrepreneurship, leadership, safety and sanitation, and food safety. My role in the project was logistics
- it was great, I got to be in control all the time ! I enjoyed working in Asunción at the university with the students there, however, the experience does not even compare to that of the experience in the communities. The people in the communities were just so much more enthusiastic and it was really nice to see the work that we were doing was being directed to the people who needed and wanted it the most. I was sad that we only had four days in the communities. I hope that on the next mission of the project in February, the schedule with be made to spend more time in the communities as opposed to the universities.
Asunción - spent in total, 11 days, all at the hotel. The first 7 in the older section and four more after we returned from the interior in the new section
Hotel Excelsior in Asunción - The older section
When we arrived in Asunción, we spend the first week at the Hotel Excelsior. The hotel has an older building and the newer, nicer building. For expense purposed, we stayed in the older part. I didn’t really mind that
side because it had more character and was a nice enough place. The building itself is located less that a block away from where prisoners were taken and tortured during the Stroessner dictatorship. The place has now been turned into a museum and we visited it one day. It was really heart breaking to go to that place and be told about the terrible history that lays there.
The bad history helps explain some of the eerie feelings, particularly in the older part of our hotel. We had come to the conclusion that there is at least one ghost that lives in the hotel. Cristina and Robyn were both very scared and we moved two beds together and stayed together. The theory all started when Robyn woke up in the middle of the night on our first night there. She said that she sensed that I walked across the room and knelt behind her on the bed. She didn’t think much of it. She was sleeping on her side and she felt a hand move from the top of her hip slowly down to her knee. She then opened her eyes to ask me what the hell I was
doing and saw that no one was there. She turned to where I was sleeping and saw that I was fast asleep. Additionally, people constantly kept hearing doors open and close. Dave said that he was taking a shower and the hot water tap had moved while he was in there.
One night, Dave and Mike decided to scare us girls and came to our room dressed in sheets and moaning. We laughed at them and told them to go away. Later, when we were talking, I mentioned to the girls that tomorrow we have to get them back. (By the way, I believe there may have been a spirit there, but it was my friend, so I wasn’t really scared.) So…that night, Mike and Dave were sleeping and at the exact same moment both guys woke up screaming and can’t explain why. I told them that the ghost heard me and was enacting revenge for me for acting like a bunch of buggers.
The new part of the Hotel
The new part of the hotel was nothing like that. We had senses once in a while, but the strongest came in the older part. We spent
a lot of time in the lobby of the new section of the hotel. Most nights we would go out for dinner and sometimes other places after that, but I was usually to tired because the day we worked hard and long on the project.
One night though, we decided that we were going to stay in the hotel and not go out. We started drinking a few beers in the lobby and then Chih had the great idea to order a round of tequilas. Well…one round turned into many. Needless to say, our night in ended up ending around 5 in the morning! Sleep ended up being a lost luxury on this trip, but the experiences were worth it.
The Mall across the street from the Hotel
There was a mall across the street from the hotel that we were staying in. I spent a lot of my time at the local copy shop making copies for everyone who was teaching various modules. The mall also had a number of clothing stores and what not. The biggest attraction for me was the food court. There were a number of different place for food, from traditional Paraguayan
food buffets to pizza to Chinese food. While the food was alright, and it was fun to buy alcohol with your meal at a food court, the funniest thing for me was the random entertainment. One night we went there and watched a live band and another night we went and watched a futbol game. I think they only put the games on when they were important or Paraguayan. Nevertheless, it was interesting.
The Food in Paraguay
Speaking of the food court, now would be a good time to discuss the food in Paraguay. Meat, meat and more meat. We ate so much! I actually got to the point where I did not want to eat another piece of red meat, if only for a few days, lol. The first night that we arrived in Asunción we went to the country club where there was an abundance of grilled meat - anything you could imagine. The most interesting food experience had to have been the Brazilian steak house though. It was a very posh type restaurant. We arrived and headed to the buffet. One side had a variety of salads, sushi and vegetable dishes; the other side was
filled with pastries and starches. I saw a bunch of gentlemen by the grill and stopped by there on my way back to the table. Little did I know that the waiters come to the table with the meat - and come to the table they did! I felt like a swarm of bees had come straight to me. Every minute someone would come to me with a barbeque skewer of meat - be it chorizo sausage, pork, beef, chicken, lamb, pineapple (yes, I know it is not a meat, but the put it on a stick and grilled it and served it to us - and yes, it was quite good!). Apparently there was something on the table that you can change to say keep the food coming or please stop. I did not see this handy little devise and instead said no to an endless reign of food until I was finished my plate. While the meat was one side, the dessert was AMAZING! They say there is a time when if the food is good enough, it is worth the calories. Well, these desserts were worth every calorie and to die for! Lemon meringue pie, chocolate mousse
pie, and these puff pastry things, that weren’t that good so I ate the mousse, which hmmmmmmmm.
My favorite lunch place was Lido Bar. It had a 1950s café style with a twist. There was a big circular bar around ladies that were dressed in polyester orange outfits with checkered aprons. The atmosphere was fun and the food was great. They had the best empanadas I had tasted and a Suburbi soup that was amazing. Suburbi is the local river fish that was the most popular fish to dine on. And the price was very cheap. A big bowl of the soup was about $3 and empanadas were about $1.
Futbol, futbol, futbol
When we arrived in Paraguay the Copa Americana was in full swing. The Copa Americana is a bi annual event which includes North and South American futbol teams competing to win the Copa. I believe Canada and a couple other teams were not involved, but other than that there were quite a few. The event took place in Venezuela and there were two matches every night for just over two weeks. It was kind of like the Stanley Cup playoffs only with more intensity.
I discovered a great appreciation for futbol players - the game is similar to hockey, however the players seem to have to work harder. Only three players are allowed to change per game and if one player changes, he is not allowed back on the field. And the field is much bigger than an ice rink and the players do not have the aid of skates.
Watching the games are quite fun. Everyone gets really excited, especially when the country’s team you are in is playing. While in Paraguay, along side the street you could buy jerseys for quite cheap - 5 to 10 dollars. One night when we were headed to a bar to watch a game we stopped and each got one to show our support. We watched the last Paraguay game in the food court at the mall. I was sad to watch the team we had been cheering on for so long be knocked out of the running. The team did really well and made it to the quarter finals.
I was in Argentina when the finals were on. The final match was between Brazil and Argentina. Apparently this is a common final. And
Brazil winning also tends to be a common theme. This was the case this year as well. The game was actually a little slow - but from what I understand it was really hot in Venezuela that day, which helped explain part of it. The next day I was talking with my Argentinean friend and he mentioned that Argentina is going to have a hard time getting over this one. I found that to be a little silly and exaggerated, but that goes to show you how much people put into their sports.
Humaita
Humaita is a small community located in Ñeembucú, the southern most province in Paraguay. The capital of the province is called Pilar and it is located about 2 hours north of Humaita. Pilar was about the last time we saw paved roads once we started heading further south. Humaita was a really nice pretty community that is located along the coast of the Río Parana. Furthermore, it is located about 45 minutes past the community of Islambu and 45 minutes before the community of Paso de Patria. I did not have the opportunity to visit Islambu, but I did get a chance
to visit Paso de Patria and I was very impressed there too (I mention it later). Based on the requests from the members of every community, a tourism belt would like to be established between all of the communities, including General Diaz, which is just past Paso de Patria. The biggest obstacle facing this accomplishment is the infrastructure, particularly with respect to the roads. There are roads connecting all of the communities, but they are all dirt and some of them are quite rough.
The Hotel in Humaita
The Humaita Hotel that we stayed in was pretty interesting. Stroessner used to live there and the room that the girls stayed in was his master bedroom. It was a pretty old place and wasn’t the huge on the eyes, but it was still a neat place. Plus it was right across the street from the pub. The pub was essentially some plastic chairs and picnic tables with a guy who sells bottles of beer. On the weekend nights giant speakers would be set up and the local guys would get pretty sauced and DJ music for people to dance on the ‘dance floor.’ Earlier in the evenings, we would
sit around and watch the futbol game on the TV that was situated in the corner wall by the bar.
The infamous swamp night in Humaita
During the day of the infamous swamp night Roy, Felipe and I performed a sanitation inspection of Humaita. We went to the local school and a few other places to see the garbage systems that were in place and then we went to the Mayor’s property where he showed us where he was currently dumping the refuse for lack of a better solution. He owns a cattle farm of about 30 hectares. In addition to being a cattle farm, small air-strip and refuse disposal, the property contains beautiful swamps. The Mayor showed us a nice little pond and mentioned that night is the best time to go to the swamps because that is when the wildlife, including alligators, comes out. Our enthusiasm to see such creatures was a little obvious and the Mayor offered to have one of his handymen to take us out in a little boat that evening to see if we would be lucky enough to see some wildlife.
We met the Mayor at the local bar in
the town at 8:30 that evening to be taken to the property for our wildlife tour. Unfortunately the boat was too small to take the entire group so it was just me, Felipe and Roy. After driving through the fields on non-existent roads we reached the location where we could no longer drive. Our guide then led us to a swamp where our luxurious boat awaited us. Did I say luxurious? Perhaps there was a time in its life when it was completely hole free, but even that might be going out on a limb. Our guide had mentioned that he was going to use this boat, but take us to his better boat. As soon at we got in the boat and I was contently settled on my stump for a seat, a hole started to flood water by my feet. Our guide, whom by the way only spoke the native language of Guarani and minimal Spanish, came over and shoved a dirty cloth into the hole and it was fixed…for the time being. Once all settled we were off.
The night sky could not have been better for our adventure. The moon was luminescent and the stars
were bright. We heard different birds and when we first got there we saw dark glimpses of a Carpincho, the largest rodent on earth, which can weight from 27 to 79 kg. In addition to that, there were fireflies everywhere! They were so beautiful they lit up the water just as bright as the night sky.
Our smooth sailing only lasted a few minutes. Once we hit the weeds, our boat did not move so fast. In fact, our guide had to get out and push and pull us through the weeds. The water was only one to two feet deep, but still I felt really bad for him, he was working so hard. We discovered that is we shifted our weight more to the back it would make things easier for him and we continued on our way.
We came to another clearing and spotted a Zorro in the bushes. A zorro is also known as a crab-eating fox. There was a small family in the bushes near the edge of the swamp. Once we got a good look at them and they moved on, so did we. We cam to another bunch of weeds and proceeded
with the push and pull through the weeds method. We then entered another, much bigger clearing. We could hear the distinct call of a bird that I have since forgotten the name. Just as I was recording the sound of the bird, Felipe had a big hole on his side of the boat. We had had little hole pop up here and there, but they had been easily fixed. This one was not so small, or easy to fix. In fact, we started taking on water very quick. Roy and I started bailing water as fast as we could, but we were sinking. The boat’s body was constructed of two panels and we had taken on so much water that the water was starting to leak in through the gap between the two panels. Our guide quickly poled us to the weeds so that we could effectively fix the hole and hopefully not get too wet. I did not have a fear of drowning, the water did not seem that deep; it was more the fear of potential hungry alligators having a friendly evening feast. However, if that were the case, at least I would have gotten to see one
up close, lol! You would think this was the most uncomfortable position I had managed to get myself in that evening, but alas, that was not the case.
Upon almost sinking ourselves, we decided that we were going to abandon the option of getting to the other boat and head back. We had been out in the water for quite some time and enjoyed ourselves quite well. Not to mention the mosquitoes had enjoyed their feast on my flesh. I did spray myself down with strong deet bug spray, but apparently I was delicious enough to battle through - and I forgot to spray my butt. The next day I had over 100 mosquito bites on my butt, hands and ankles! What a pain in the ----!
When we returned to the van that had taken us, the Mayor and one of his farm hands were waiting for us with a campfire. We spent about 45 minutes discussing the adventure tourism possibilities of the farm and then headed back to the town to meet up with the others. When we got back it was about midnight and the others were wandering around, some going for a walk and
other unsure of what they were going to do - the pub had just closed. We had mentioned that we were planning on going for a beer and the Mayor commented that he could open up the pub for us. So everyone ventured back and we sat around and talked about the community. We were told stories about when Stroessner lived in Humaita before he was the dictator and how he would come back during his dictatorship. We also talked about other politics and culture in Paraguay. After sharing my second bottle of wine I was thinking that it was about time I headed off to bed. Most everyone else had gone off and it was just myself, Jorge, Garciela, and the Mayor left. Jorge suggested that we have the Mayor take us to the most beautiful view in Humaita, as known by a local. I had mentioned that I was going to go to bed, and Jorge in his lovely way said, “Guerita, don’t you want to see the most spectacular view by a local, how often do you get an opportunity like this.” Well, he did have a point, we were leaving the next day, so along I
went.
Interestingly enough, we were taken to the first swamp that we had been to earlier, during the day, just past the dumping area. I spent my time trying to hold a conversation with the Mayor in my broken Spanish, and managed to keep afloat. I was, however, thrown back when, while we were walking around the property he moved in and started holding my hand. Sometimes I think I really am blonde because I did not see that one coming. He then went on to mention that he would like to accompany me to Argentina. I replied saying that I would be fine and that he needed to stay here with the people of his community. Of course, he mentioned that he needed a vacation and his people would understand. Somehow I managed to talk my way out of that situation. We decided to head back to the town area and our group made a stop at the Mayor’s house. I helped myself to a glass of water while the Mayor suggested to Jorge and Garciela they go and check out his house. He then shut the door to his living room, where we were. I immediately understood
what he was trying and grabbed Jorge and quietly mentioned that he not leave me alone with him. We decided to leave very shortly after that. It is not that the Mayor is not a nice and caring person, he is just not my type. Perhaps under different circumstances, but sorry, I am just not interested. Hah, I don’t think I am interested in anyone lately…too much trouble! LMAO! Needless to say, the next morning I had been given a new nickname by the way of first lady. The Mayor phoned Asunción when we arrived to thank me for that evening and asked someone to buy a book on Paraguayan wildlife that I had shown an interest. It was a very sweet gesture and while there were moments of being uncomfortable, I had a great night.
Paso de Patria
Paso de Patria is one of the cleanest communities I have ever been to in my entire life. It was like the entire place sparkled. Not only that, but the people had such a light and enthusiasm in them, I really enjoyed my time there. When we first arrived we thought we were going to be giving seminars on
leadership and food sanitation. We did do our seminar on food sanitation, but after walking around the community we wondered if they were just being polite about their lack of knowledge. One lady commented that she learned how to properly clean her hands, but after the looks of their town I am sure they could teach us a thing or two about cleaning.
The one thing that the community was really asking for was how to create a tourist information centre. So we took 20 minutes and created a training module to accomplish just that. We walked around the town and asked the ladies to point out areas that could be added to an information bureau. One person was in charge restaurants, another accommodations, another services, etc. For their homework, we asked that the ladies to create a list of all of the ‘touristy’ places in their community and if possible, correspond them to a map. Also, we asked to include contact information and what not. When we returned the next day, they had created exactly what we asked for and it was colored coded and really great. At the end of the two days we spent there I
didn’t understand why they needed us. They had all of the information and they have the capacity. A little guidance that was all that was needed. It seemed in every community that we taught people, the members of the community just needed some self esteem and guidance, but the capacity and the willingness was always there.
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Kent
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Humaita
Interesting comments about Humaita. We lived there for 2+ years (back in the 80's) as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was interesting to see some familiar faces in the photos. The bust in front of the Ruinas de Humaita is of Mariscal Lopez (not Alfredro Stroessner) who led the Paraguayan forces in La Guerra de la Triple Alianza. Humaita was the the scene of a prolonged struggle during the war. The magnificent church was bombed. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!