http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Paraguay en-us Mon, 09 Nov 09 17:59:27 +0000 Mon, 09 Nov 09 17:59:27 +0000 Steve's wordsAnother great border crossing into Paraguay the locals just catch the boat non locals catch a series of local buses to a bridge with big rusty holes in it then wade through some mud dodge our way past hundreds of people exchanging money passport stamped then onto a tiny bus with far too many people on and we're in. Asuncion the capital of Paraguay the words of the lonely plan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-445306.html Itaipu Dam Second largest in the world http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-444524.html 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 Nous avons fait une visite rapide aux frontieres de trois pays Paraguay Argentine et Bresil en allant admirer les deuxiemes plus grandes chutes d'eau du monde apres celle de Victoria en Afrique Les Foz d'Iguazu.Les photos parlent d'elles meme...Lorsqu'on arrive sur le site on est un peu decu...enfin je fut un peu decu car je m'attendais a quelque chose de plus grandiose mais en fait c'est s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-422725.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 Up early to be back in NeuHalbstadt in time for the dayrsquos tour supposedly starting at 7 a.m. Our hosts fed us a full breakfast of buns with guava jam wild honey cold meat and cheese and tea. We were sent off on the bus to Menno Colony where Walter Ratzlaff a former mayor of the town gave us an illuminating view of life in the oldest colony the highly conservative one that left Ma http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Chaco/blog-422448.html Up at 5 a.m. to catch our taxi to the Hotel Excelsior already waiting for us in the Casa Mennonita parking lot chatting with the guard. ldquoTranquilordquo he said about our general anxiety offering me a sip of his mate. The Excelsior turns out to be a very fancy hotel no wonder the price over 100 wersquod been quoted which seemed outlandish for Asuncion. A long wait in the hotel http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Chaco/blog-422447.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 The good the bad and the downright ugly of Latin American buses Bus 1 Sunday nightrsquos departure from Buenos Aires was easily the most luxurious bus trip ever ldquoCama suiterdquo is Argentinarsquos roadbound equivalent of longhaul first class on the airlines a private screen meal service a glorious view comfy huge seat legroom galore and oh joy of joys a LazyBoy style http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Encarnacion/blog-419884.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 Bueno Well we are in Immaculate Concepcion Paraguay right now. Ill get back to talking about that in a second but first I want to discuss a couple other things1. Bus from Santa Cruz to Filadelfia After our experience with the wayward bus to Samaipata we wanted to make sure we would get to Filadelfia. So I asked all of the bus guys multiple times made sure our ticket said Filadelfia on it http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Concepcion/blog-410587.html Cuidad del Este 12th to the 15th of June 2009 Cuidad del Este is a strange place coming to terms with a strange past it was previously named after a Paraguayan dictator and has a history of black market activities. It's full of electronic shops and Asian food casinos and market stalls. It also borders Brazil and Argentina. It was dark when the bus arrived in Cuidad del Este so we got ourselv http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-409630.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 The supposed Express bus to Ciudad from Asuncion was anything but it stopped almost every 5 minutes to pick some passengers that is when we were able to get out of the city proper which took about an hour. The 5 hour trip took 7 hours and we were relieved to arrive finally in Ciudad del Este. We got dropped off at the front of the bus terminal not inside this we could not understand either all http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-407344.html