http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci-F2n/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Paraguay , Asuncịn en-us Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:42:30 +0000 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:42:30 +0000 Let's meet early.Words of dread. Everyone has a different idea of what time they consider to be early. Inevitably it is always earlier than Id like it to be. I cautiously replied How early is early.James and I were having a cup of cocido Paraguayan herbal tea and a mbeju floury pancakelike thing made from manioc which is cassava in an Asuncion cafe with Nilsa the sister of Marcela a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-433860.html An excellent breakfast with Helmuth and Nicoleta yogurt and softboiled eggs juice tea and hugs and pictures as we said goodbye with promises to put them up should they come our way. We couldnrsquot really say wersquod love to come back much as wersquove enjoyed our visit with them. Not enough to draw us back to the Chaco But we had a great morning getting a lot of our questions an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-422869.html Apres notre aventure dans le Salar nous avions decide de rejoindre le Bresil et l'ocean atlantique...encore un paquet de kilometre en perspective et son lot d'aventures.Nous avons quitte Sucre une fin d'apresmidi dans un bus qui ne payait vraiment pas de mine en direction de Santa Cruz. On pensait prendre un bus direct pour Asuncion au Paraguay mais en arrivant a Sucre on a appris que seul La P http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-422711.html I hate writing about this almost as much as I disliked living it but today Sunday was a crashing disappointment. I almost wished I'd been one of the Machu Picchu people after seeing a morning service hijacked the way this one was. We arrived early anticipating a great morning with a whole lot of Paraguayan church folk joining the paid attendees for our final service. The chapel a good http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-422439.html Breakfast is finally warming up at the Casa Actually had a conversation this morning at the table with folks from Chaco. And the morning started out great with a surprisingly good performance of the Faith Life Men's Choir from Canada with a soloist from Paraguay who used to sing with them when he lived in Canada. Sithabile Ndlovu of Zimbabwe was a most interesting speaker a young black wo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-422436.html A sterling choir from Switzerland started off Serving Like Christ day well. One of the cool things this morning was a report from Melani Susanti a young Indonesian woman who served as an intern with MWC at the MCC UN office wearing her pale blue UN tshirt. She reminded me of all those incredibly capable confident Indonesian girls I've met over the past few years. I don't know what their http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-421867.html Some cool stuff this morning a prayer of thanks led by Ojibway and Cheyenne people including a big delegation from Kansas facing the four directions then to the sky and to the ground. Strange to watch 6000 people turn around in their seats facing south but even the skeptical Dutchmen took part. Claire Brenneman had just launched into telling the story of the Pax Boys who helped build the T http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-421604.html A taciturn bunch these DeutscherParaguayans. Jeff is convinced they're just so insular they're not interested in making conversation with an Englischer like him. But I'm convinced they're just not that into talking over breakfast everyone looks glumly at his plate of good homemade bread served with cheese cold meat toppings juice fruit yogurt drinks and of course instant coffee set at http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-420177.html Time to get ourselves to Asuncion. Overcoming our confusion about Guaranis about 5000 to the U.S. dollar WHY did we not practise those big numbers in Spanish we managed to buy a ticket to Asuncion on NSA Nuestro Senora de Asuncion what appeared to be a big bus company. Apparently directo does not mean in Paraguay what it does to gringos. Direct yes with about a hundred stops at te http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-420156.html Buenas DiasWe have just spent 5 very full days in Asuncion. From the brevity of the Paraguay section in our travel book one would think there isnt much to this place but thats definitely not true... We have been livin it up in the city for sure. We are staying at the resonably priced Pension Da Silva run by a very cute and friendly old lady. The place is centrally located right off Plaza Urug http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-412336.html Asuncion 9th to the 12th of June 2009 The bus journey from Villamontes ended up taking 18 long hours ensuring we had spent 38 out of the previous 48 hours travelling. The bus drove down through the Chaco in Paraguay the petroleum area which Bolivia and Paraguay had a war over. In between bouts of reading and sleeping we watched barefooted children run alongside the bus while red dust came in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-409621.html After checking in at Pension de Silva I walked towards Plaza Uruguayo to find the El Pais supermarket where I can find some quick eats I had trouble finding it and asked around i noticed lots of brown uniformed men the police and so I feel safe walking around at night here the plaza is full of squatters who decided to live there lots of black trash bag and cardboards made into a home. the p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-405628.html Ah the pun my most faithful of friends. Helping me out when I cant think of any decent titles.I digress. Id heard many things about Paraguayanpolice trying to bribe tourists when they enter the country so when 2 such fellows approached me in Ciudad del Este just as I had my passport stamped I was a little wary. I shouldnt have been. All they wanted to do is make sure noone tried to rob m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-404436.html Torewa mail 2Hi David and SarahThanks for your response. I completely understand your message and request for more volunteer feedback.I must admit to me its a bit of a shock to read you havent received any other volunteer feedback up till now. When I was at Torewa for the last time we had several big volunteer meetings discussing the problems in the community and our possibilities for helping. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-384828.html Bridging The GAPI Tracey am stuck in a Paraguayan timewarp. It has been 12 years since my last confession. On Friday 30 January I found myself back in Paraguay 626 weeks or 4384 days since the first time I landed there aged 18 on my Gap Year between school and University. I might have changed but thankfully Paraguay has not.Back in 1997 I spent 4 months working in a childrens home run by http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-371716.html N ligger jeg ca ni dager foran planen min. De frste dagene i Cochabamba forskte jeg fremdatere flybilletten til Asuncion s mange dager som mulig. Etter mye om og men fant jeg TAM Mercosurs kontor i Cochabamba men de ansatte hadde tydeligvis en drlig uke p jobb. Damene stakk hodene sammen og fant ut at tariffen for bytte flightdag det var ledige seter er USD147 som er mer enn det bill http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/Villarrica/blog-368787.html Queridos Amigos did you have a kick start into 2009 or are u still heavily afflicted with severe hangover syndroms since new years eve Certainly not I guess business as usual is dominating our lifes all over already again. Same for us well not really let039s put in the famous 039same same but different039 phrase. We corssed the border to Paraguay on the last day of 2008 and strande http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-361548.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-361237.html Hi I am a BolivianAmerican Anthropologist that has lived researched and traveled extensively in South America and I would like to offer you some of my impressions and tips hoping that these will be of some use for your coming trips to the region.If you are looking for expanding your travel experiences and horizons in South America I strongly recommend a trip on any of the segments of the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-350476.html So after three years of living in Canada I'm doing a trip back home. Why am I willing to spend Christmas with a heat of around 40 degrees C smelling gunpowder and fearing for my life in one freakingly scary city I have no bloody idea. Nostalgia come to bit me in the ass I guess. And yes I do miss the rest of my family and the city itself too so my parents my bro and me are packing and go http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-348887.html