Blogs from Asunciòn, Paraguay, South America - page 4

Due to the delayed departure of our flight from Bolivia to Asuncion, capital city of Paraguay, we arrived in the city after dark. Thankfully I had pre booked a hotel and after a quick tour of the central city area our taxi took us to the Palace Hotel, an historic hotel in the old city. It proved to be a good choice, comfortable modernised rooms and wide corridors full of interesting old furniture and art pieces. After settling in we headed out to look for something to eat. The streets were surprisingly deserted - only a few footpath stall holders packing up for the night - but we were eventually able to find a chain style café and a bowl of soup. Later we slowly walked back to the hotel admiring the rather decrepit architecture we ... read more

Week 3: July 6 - July 13 Three weeks in. I cannot BELIEVE how fast time is going, but at the same time, I feel more comfortable here and as if I have been here for over a month! The professor leaves this Saturday, so as a final night out we walked around Las Carmelitas and went to dinner at Un Toro y Siete Vacas (One Bull and Seven Cows). This was by far the most DELICIOUS meal and BEST service I have had so far in Paraguay. It is a fancy restaurant with an atmosphere between western (like being on a ranch) and classy (strange, I know!). It is in a chuchy (upscale) area; the neighborhood is called Villa Morra. The waiters treated us like king and queen, and we had wine, bread, yucca, soup, ... read more

Week 1: June 22-June 29 Hola! I received an Ambassador Corps scholarship from the University of the Pacific's Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship to travel to Asuncion, Paraguay, where I am working with AVINA. As a requirement for receiving the scholarship, I must keep a blog entry at least once a week. That blog is located at another site, but I wanted to keep a more personal, less formal blog, too! Some entries might sound a bit "clean and formal", but that may very well be that I just used my same entry from my "formal" blog. Haha! Enjoy! AVINA is a Latin American organization, whose mission is to contribute to sustainable development, encouraging the building of ties of trust and fruitful partnerships between business and social leaders, and articulating agendas for action. (Refer to their ... read more

Last night we went out for a while to get some dinner with Richie, Lauren, Kevin, Brett, and myself. We went to a place called Lido Bar which was pretty solid food, I had a hamburger and fries which was probably the best hamburger I have had in South America since I have been here. It was chilly at dinner! We were all bundled up and this was definitely not what Asuncion was supposed to be like! I thought it was hot here. We went back to the hostel so we could get some more warm clothes on and so Kevin could grab some more money and then we set off for a bar a few blocks away called 904 which was supposed to have 2 for 1 beer however they did not, the promotion had ... read more

Didn't manage to get one up last week, busy times. But here is what I've learnt this week! Miley Cyrus is big news...the news cut live to her concert in Paraguay yesterday! I was right to be worried about cats in the hospital...another hospital with cats and dogs has had a flea outbreak, even in the operation theatre! An endangered toucan costs $250...I saw one in a cage under a stall in the infamous Mercado 4 and asked how much it was. Spider Man jumping out of the TV works as a threat...kept my 3-year-old nephew well-behaved for at least 10 minutes The novelty of referring to 'my wife' hasn't worn off yet...although I'm yet to say to Carmen "You're my wife now Dave" (if you don't understand you need to watch more British comedy) Kettle's ... read more