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Published: January 13th 2013
Having absorbed a lot of history of Paraguay it was time for some nature. There are a few National Parks/Reserves to choose from and for us it was really a matter of possibility to DIY. We generally only take tours if we really have to so we scanned internet and our guidebook for some nice and easy to reach places. That is how we stumbled across
Laguna Blanca. Chalo confirmed to us that it is in fact one of the Paraguayan’s favorite places to chill out so we did not think twice.
We expected the journey to be long so we set off early in the morning and by 8 am we were already on the bus heading towards
Parque Nacional Cerro and
Santa Rosa del Aguaray. It is very important to stress out which Santa Rosa you want to visit as there are many and you may end up somewhere south instead of north-east. 6h later we were dropped in Santa Rosa. I would say Santa Rosa TOWN but it was no more than a big intersection with a bank, restaurants, a few hotels and a bus terminal around it. We liked it instantly though. There was supposed to
creature
it was someone's petbe a bus at 2:30 pm (according to the info on rancho’s website), but when we got there just in time we found out it had left at 2 pm. What is the point of a timetable then? We had no other choice but to overnight and catch a morning bus toward Santa Barbara that passes Rancho’s gate.
We found a very cute little hotel just 100m of the main road (80,000G/16$ incl. breakfast) and headed to a local empanadas café. Wow, what a treat that was we cannot even explain. Brazilian empanadas were brilliant but not even close to the quality they served here. We had like 5 each and we were happy as clams (pizza, neapolitana, 3 cheeses, carne and chicken tastes). Santa Rosa was also the first place we visited in South America where people would stop to stare at us J It is a weird feeling when an elderly cowboy stops in front of you to check you out hahah At this point we must have been pretty far from the gringo trail …. kind of ‘off the track off the beaten track place’ hahah (as Paraguay is already off the trail).
In the
worth getting up for
the most beautiful sunrise ever morning we took a morning bus to Santa Barbara and got dropped off at the
Rancho Laguna Blanca’s gate. Little did we know then that there are actually two gates to the estate and depending on which bus you take you end up at either one of them. There was no sight of any estate, just an empty land and forest in front of us. We walked and walked and we hoped that the lake was just behind the next gate. Why would anybody put so many gates on one slim forest road? When we heard weird noises of animals around us we thought this must have been the reason. After what seemed like an eternity of walking in this incredible heat and being surrounded by way too many mosquitoes we finally reached the Rancho.
The owner was not really impressed by us just showing up like that (even though Chalo called on our behalf) and in the end we understood that there are no rooms available but we could camp. Fine by us we though, this place looked like a perfect camping spot. They set up a tent for us on the white sand just maybe 200m of
the lake. We got, what you could call a perfect view from our room hahah. Surprise, surprise but we were not alone there. Just few hours before us two other gringos arrived at Laguna Blanca, looking for some beach time and rest. This is how we met our travel companions for the next week: Brant (New Zealand) and Wilko (Germany). They were equally surprised to see us but nevertheless happy to have some company.
We spent an amazing 3 days at the rancho, relaxing, sunbathing, swimming with piranhas and admiring nature. It was the end of a working week and loads of people from Asuncion arrived just to visit and to have some beach time, but at night we were pretty much alone. The really amazing thing about this place was seeing horses just roaming free around us, galloping across the beach or just relaxing by the lake. I love these creatures even though I am so allergic I should not even be close to them at all. However seeing them in their semi-wild environment was astonishing. Only a few of them are used for visitors to ride on and the rest is just enjoying their free time. For
us being at the beach again and getting some sun was priceless. We had not realized by then how much we actually missed it.
We also went to explore a bit of forest, observe some birds and loads of unusual plants i.e. cactuses. It is very wild and footpaths are not very easy to spot but you can get around with no problems.There are many rare species of birds and reptiles that live around the Reserve. One day we had an unexpected visit from a rattlesnake which just happened to swim between people in a lake and then appeared on the beach. Scientists who work on some reptile research at the Rancho managed to take it out of the beach and release it into the forests. Nobody seemed to be scared but rather fascinated even though this thing could have easily killed a person. The rancho also offers food and we really enjoyed some Paraguayan home cooked meals at bargain price (considering there are no shops and restaurants around 4$ each seems cheap). Brent and Wilko turned out to be great buddies and we had loads of fun together. Initially they planned to go back to Asuncion (as they
magical
with butterflies met some pretty local ladies) but after considering our plan they decided to join us on the way up north of the Chaco region.
As Wilko and Brant had been trying to hitch most of the time we agreed on the same on the way back to Santa Rosa. We walked towards the other gate of the estate (which is actually much closer, maybe 2km not 5km) and in no time we got a ride on a pickup truck. It was fun, it really was and we thought we maybe should try to do it more often. Our next destination was
Mennonites Colonies in the north. As there is no direct connection with Filadelfia we had to catch a bus to Concepcion (50,000G/10$) and then hope to get on another bus. We arrived in
Concepcion and learnt that we had only two options: night bus or a morning one. We walked around the terminal area to check on some hotels but really, they were less than appealing (prostitutes and drug addicts around). We all decided that maybe getting on the night bus was not a bad idea.
As we had many hours to kill we left our luggage
in the bus company office and went for a stroll around centre. Wilko wanted to find out about the river cruise down to Asuncion so we walked over to the port. It seems like a nice option and we found out it costs only like 10$ for a few days on the
barca. He decided to do it after we visit Chaco region. Once again Concepcion is not a really fabulous place but it does have some nice colonial architecture and pretty riverfront that is just perfect for sunset. The overnight journey was quite frankly horrible as once again we found ourselves riding in one of those crappy, crumbling buses that broke down few times on the way. People were somehow not sleepy and they were playing loud music, smoking, drinking beer and whatnot through all the night. Finally at around 5 am we arrived in
Filadelfia and marched straight to the Hotel Florida (one of 3 hotels only). We got our room around 6:30 and got invited for buffet breakfast that was simply fantastic (room 50,000G/10$ each and breakfast 23,000G/5$ each). It improved our moods for sure;-)
Hotel Filadelfia is a fabulous place to stay as it offers
so pretty
at the same moment horses were running along side the beach...priceless rooms at different rates depending on your budget. They have a restaurant and a swimming pool as well as beautiful gardens around. Also one of the museums is within their estate so you cannot be closer than that haha. Later on we found out that it belongs to the Co-op, like majority of places in Filadelfia. We must be honest; it was not what we had expected. When you read about Mennonites you imagine something like Amish colony and all we discovered was a modern German town in the middle of nowhere. That was only at first look as after we looked closer, spoke to people and visited some museums we got to comprehend what they are about.
We visited two of the towns all together:
Filadelfia and Loma Plata (first establishment in the region) and our feelings were very similar about both of them. Mennonites did a wonderful job by inhabiting this rough terrain and by managing to create such functional towns around. There are supermarkets, dairy factories, car dealerships and other institution that are needed for the town to be efficient. All the writings are in German and everybody speaks German plus Spanish plus very good English.
Mennonites are very well educated and majority of them study either in Canada or Germany (depending where their ancestors arrived from) and then come back home to be part of the Co-op. Because they don’t believe in violence everybody is extremely nice and polite - maybe too much as it seems very weird at the beginning. To us it looked a little bit ‘robotic’…. too perfect society … ‘Stepford wives’ kind of thing…. Nevertheless we experienced only kindness and help from everybody. Cannot complain about that, right?
The
Jakob Unger and Loma Plata Museums are fascinating, taking you through the history of their settlement. The impressive collection of articles, pictures and objects brought with the first settlers is vast. You can see their struggle to survive when they first arrived in Chaco and their hard work to create what we see today. We got guided through some of the facts by a local factory worker. Good that Wilko is German so he could translate although I could surprisingly understand majority of the story (7 years of German at school left me with something). If you wonder what they really are we can only say what we were told -er
that they are kind of Lutherans who at the beginning of 20
th century escaped regimes to be able to live their way and have freedom of their religion (they study German to be able read Luther’s Bible). However their religion evolved a little bit more and now it excludes any kind of violence as well as hate for Jews. They believe Jewish people are the chosen ones and they deserve respect.
One more thing was really evident to us. There is this unspoken division between local indigenous people and the Mennonites. Even though they say they like native Peruvians to participate in their lives they would not allow them to be part of the Co-op or their community. It is enough to look around to see the disparity between rich, blond and blue-eyed Mennonites and dark-skinned Paraguayans. The rich are leaving just next door to the poor but not together and not as equals. It looked kind of racist but who are we to judge? One guy told us that they do provide them work, schools and medical health so it is not so bad in the end.
This is where our roads parted. We were headed towards
Bolivia, Wilko towards eastern Chaco and Brent back to Asuncion and then Argentina. We were all excited about our new destinations nevertheless. It is said that getting from Filadelfia to Bolivia is almost impossible. Well, it was not to us J We caught a night bus to the border town of Mariscal Estigarribia and then bus towards Santa Cruz. The only problem we had was that we did not want to go to Santa Cruz but to Sucre. In this case we asked the driver to drop us off in Camiri where we could catch onward transport to Sucre. Easily done!!! Bolivia here we come!!!
Useful information: •
Laguna Blanca’s website: http://www.lagunablanca.com.py. Reserve your place if you arrive at weekend. They have tents for rent and each meal is around 20,000G/$ (big portion and nice taste). •
To get to Concepcion, there are 3 buses a day: 11:30 (good company Nosa, but more pricey), 13:00 Ouetence and 14:00 Santonina •
If you plan on hitching in Paraguay you have to wave your hand up and down instead of sticking your thumb up – we learnt that from a lovely old lady who probably got annoyed by the way we did it. She approached us and showed us how it is done – worked within 10 seconds J
•
There is a 7am bus to Loma Plata, which goes just from outside of Hotel Florida. It is easy to get a lift though. •
To get to Bolivia catch a 9pm bus to the border town, wait at the immigration point (not at a bus terminal as it could be dangerous and buses don’t always go there) and there are 2 buses between 2-3 am which go to Bolivia (fare around 30$pp). No need to book anything although you can do that in Filadelfia. • If you are not headed to Santa Cruz, get off either in Villamontes (for Tarija region) or Camiri (for Sucre). We were able to get on the 2pm bus to Sucre the same day (80B/12$, 13h)
Additional Note - Summary of Paraguay: • 15 days, visited 5 places
•
our favorite landscape: Chaco and Laguna Blanca
•
our favorite activity: swimming in Laguna Blanca
•
our favorite hotel/guest-house: Hotel Florida in Filadelfia
•
our favorite food: empanadas in Santa Rosa
•
our favorite thing about Paraguay: authenticity and no tourists around
•
our total cost per day: 29.5£/47$ per day for both of us. It is within a poor backpacker's budget
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TinNiE
" Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness "
really pretty photos in here...and this one is really magical ^_^ love butterflies!