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Published: June 16th 2006
Mandioca
They're Paraguayan spuds, accompany everything!Justo and I were in Foz do Iguacu for nearly a week, waiting for the puente de Amistad to open so we could cross the bridge and get into Paraguay. During that time we visited the world's largest (unless Japan has completed its bigger and better resevoir) dam, Itaipu, which means something like "rock which sings", I think it's Guarani. It's pretty impressive. Unluckily I didn't have my camera with me, as we went rather spontaneously. It's enorme, and is about 25 years old. Before it was built there were other waterfalls there in Guairi, which were destroyed when they created the lake. Pity, as they were apparently more impressive than Iguazu. My guidebook says that the lake is full of the anopheles mosquito, the dengue one. I didn't see any from our comfortable coach, ha ha.
Anyway finally on Friday 24th March we got a bus into Ciudad Del Este. The previous day the bridge had been open in the morning and we'd crossed to get our passports stamped (be warned travellers- there's no checkpoint there and you have to go yourself with your passport to get it stamped- else you'll have to pay a fine like Bob and
Rain in Ciudad Del Este
When we were stuck there... Daniela did when they wanted to leave Paraguay!), and also so that Justo could buy a fancy palm-sized camcorder. Unfortunately we got stuck there in C Del E for about 5 hours as the taxi union closed the bridge again, in response to the customs officers searching about 3 taxis full of contraband. It lashed rain and we had to hide in a dodgy shopping centre which was just full of dodgy-looking geezers.
From C del E we got a bus to Asuncion. People were selling all sorts of things on the bus, biblical books, icecream, coke, empanadas, etc. Asuncion is a big enough city with a lot of crime. Fortunately we didn't see any! Everytime I read a newspaper or heard the news, there were murders and tales of bribery and corruption. Anyway we met with Justo's uncle, Tio Manolo, who is a brother with the Claretianos, some branch of Catholiscm. We couldn't stay at the seminary as we're not married but after the first few nights we were allowed to stay in a house for the youth group people, and we were based there for our time in Paraguay. In Asuncion we met Marco and his family,
who are extremely nice. Marco and his brother Andre (or maybe a different name) are both now in USA, working. We went out a few times in Asuncion with them, and the main pub there is called Britannia, I think! All the foreigners go there. There are a lot of foreigners in Paraguay, working for Peace Corps or doing community service (Germans who still have to do military service, can get out of it by going to Paraguay!) and other schoolkids aged between 16-18 who can do a school year there. Anyway we spent a few days hanging out with Justo's uncle and seeing a bit of Asuncion. The following weekend was my birthday and so we went south a bit to a national park called Ybycui where we were lucky to meet a group of 26 biologists, all specialising in different topics and so we drank beer with them and ate their hotdogs (Justo ate 6!) and they took us on a walk and explained lots of the shwubbery (ha ha I mean vegetation). The tarantula photos are from that day. Lots of brightly coloured butterflies there and un monton de enormous spiders with very resistent webs- I got
Wee Dead Bat
Outside a v nice church in Yaguaron. a facefull. I had to wear the mosquito head-net which Mairead gave me- cheers dear! On the way back from Ybycui we went to a village which is famous for producing some sort of cottony material. We saw lots of gauchos there and ox-drawn carts. Also we spent a night in a place called Aregua which is about an hour from Asuncion and in its day was v touristy. It's on a lake, which is very badly contaminated, and the village is known for producing ceramics. We spent a few hours with a father and son who run a ceramic school. Nearly all the Paraguayans we met had a family member or friend who is working abroad. The economy there is un quilombo. Very sad.
Another trip we took from Asuncion was up the river Paraguay to Concepcion. That took 32 hours and was generally fun, apart from the first evening when we went near the shore to pick some people up and the mosquitos came a visitin. We made friends with the only two other tourists on the boat- Daniela and Bob, and spent about 2 weeks travelling on and off with them. Lovely couple- hope you're doing
Justo being attacked
By an enormous spider- Parque Nacional Ybycui well!! With Daniela and Bob we went to a ranch for a weekend of Eco Tourism. Eco Tourism my arse. We went with a family to their part of a ranch. On the gate there was a big signpost saying Eco Tourism and "no shooting of wild and endangered animals"- hanging on the wall in the house was the biggest feline skin I've ever seen in my life! We prudently thought that it was maybe shot 20 years ago or something, but NO- a mere 2 years ago! And they explained that there are no longer any big cats such as this one in that area. What a surprise! We had an ok time on the ranch, but it really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. We were supposed to be getting lots of horseriding and swimming in, but in the end we sat on one horse for about 10 mins each. I got a good video of Justo galloping the poor critter. After I'd forced the horse to jump a log I was told that it had bag legs and we were to go easy on him- so not the champion horses we'd been promised. We got
Happier times
On my birthday-note my melon-seed necklace! to see some horrific spectacles too- ranchmen stabbing a cow through the nose with a knife sharpener and then making the hole bigger by cutting it with a knife. Barbaric and then they tied the cow to another cow through its nose and chased it round a field. I asked why they did it and they said to make it walk. And it was on its way to be slaughtered, so they didn't care about it suffering beforehand. Oh my god the memory. YUCK! And we got to see another cow being slaughtered and cut up in front of us. Justo has a video of the woeful noise it made as it died. Oh I want to forget about that. Buttercups and chips...
In Concepcion we randomly met Hermana Angeles, an ex Claretiana Nun person- she was superb to us and we stayed in her house with her and she told us many things about religion and Paraguay. Am wearing a religious t-shirt she gave me for Easter, which says something learning to work and how it dignifies a person- hopefully my San Pedro experience this weekend will help me with that life direction thing (2nd June '06).
From Hermana Angeles'house we went to another ranch and spent a night or two covered in ants, mosquitos and a (fat) toad. We went on rubber tyres down a river for 3 hours, which was actually about 4 hours and we ended up coming back in the dark. Justo lost his swimming trunks which I found highly amusing. We also went horseriding from there but again, the horses weren't very fit and the terrain was rather stony so we couldn't gallop or anything. Shite really!
From Concepcion we went north west to Filadelfia, en the Chaco region where we wanted to find out more about the Mennonites and their relationship with the local Indigenous people. We met some people there who work in NGOs and they explained a bit about the history of the local people and how the Mennonites'arrival affected (or is it effected!) them. A lot of the stories are quite sad. The Mennonites came mostly from Russia and Germany in about 1931 or something and were persecuted for their religious beliefs. They don't partake in wars and wanted to find a place where they could live in peace with their customs. The Amish stemmed off from
Dribble Spider
The guy is some biologist who specialises in poisonous spiders. the Mennonites after the Mennonites loosened their principles. Mennonites started in about 1525 about the time of Lutherism. Anyway the ones we met were alright, but their stories differed widely to those told by the Indigenous people. The Paraguayan government granted the Mennos land back in the day, telling them it was unpopulated, but of course there were the Indigenous tribes living there and anyway many of them were severely exploited by the Mennos as they built up their economy, forcing the locals to work the land and at the beginning for no pay, just barely enough food. Then when the Menno co- operatives were in place, they started to give the Indigenous workers vouchers to use within the co-ops only, so that they could only buy from them. Now they have a minimum wage in some communities. In Loma Plata, the indigenous people were a lot happier with the Mennonites than the indigies in Filadelfia. In Filadelfia we visited communities where the locals had no running water or electricity or anything and live in tents. That was very hard to see- esp as the Mennos make them put up their communities in areas far away to prevent the eyesoreness
of it all.. Hope I've got it right now... Hmm anyway we did have a good time there and got invited to an indigenous party for International Indigenous People's Day, in its 40th year this year, where we were witnesses to tribal dances and a strange bicycle race. Lots of very sweet children there too.
So, we had a good time in Paraguay all in all. Justo's uncle was good to us and cooked a lot for us too. I must send him a postcard...
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Maria del carmin en ciso
non-member comment
WOW
I'm adopted from asucion and I'm not allowed to know anything! Why do you think that so?