Oct 24, 2012 - Week 4 - Laguna Blanca, El Roble, Encarnacion (Paraguay)

We left Laguna Blanca on the back of a motorbike trailer and waited by the side of the road for the bus back to Santa Rosa for over an hour in the 38 degree heat, love South American time. Another bus ride and 3 hours later we were in Concepcion. After being told that the bus to Belen, our destination, can take a different route through town each day and is difficult to track down we opted for a cab. Northern Paraguay feels a lot poorer than the south, only the main roads are paved (where we’d have a motorway at home) and everywhere else is...

Oct 17, 2012 - Week 3 - Ciudad Del Este, Asuncion, Laguna Blanc (Paraguay)

Our night in Ciudad Del Este was interrupted at 3am when Rhys discovered a Shar-Pei in the courtyard and decided it would be a great idea to entice him in the room, after shoving him back out again (the dog, not Rhys) he spent the next hour trying to break down the door, we left quickly the next day before they saw the damage and boarded a bus for Asuncion, the capital. Two facts about Ciudad del Este for you, one it's one of the biggest mafia run towns in the world and two, Paraguay used to have three main cities, Conception, Asuncion and...

Oct 12, 2012 - Two weeks in Paraguay

After two weeks of being in Asuncion I have had a chance to relive all of the things that I experienced through the eyes of Andrea. The one thing she seems to point out the most is the fact that there is a beautiful house right next to a empty lot or a very poor shack and I remember feeling the same way when I was going through training in Peace Corps. I remember going from my training community to a workshop in the city and seeing the disparity from one house to the next in the same neighborhood. The first picture I posted is of an amazing...

Oct 7, 2012 - My second home

Hey all so sorry to leave everybody hanging but like I was telling Andrea yesterday that making a travel journal about Paraguay for me is a bit like making a travel journal about Denver, it really is my home away from home. So on that note I am going to try and be better as this journal is for all of you back home who have never been to Paraguay to hear about us and the adventures that we are having being part of another culture. We both seem to have shaken our flu that we got shortly after getting here and have been doing well and Asuncion...

Sep 28, 2012 - Back in Paraguay

Seems that after so many busses and hours without sleep we both got sick but we made it to Asuncion without any problems. The border crossing into Paraguay was interesting as it was in the middle of nowhere and we had to take an old broken down bus into the city which took us about an hour. After we got in we made it to my friends hotel in downtown where we have been nursing colds but managed to make it over to the Peace Corps office to see my old boss before he retired after 32 years of service. Today is his last day at the office but we...

Aug 30, 2012 - Concepción

Nous voilà à nouveau vraiment au Paraguay à Concepción. La ville est très agréable et relax avec les habitants qui boivent le terere (mate froid, c'est excellent et très rafraichissant) à tous les coins de rue. A notre arrivée, nous avons cherché un office du tourisme pour avoir des adresses d'hôtels, mais apparemment il n'y en a pas ici. Mais un chauffeur de taxi à cheval nous a recommandé un hôtel pas cher dans le centre et nous y a emmené. Nous n'avons pas trouvé d'hostels ou d'auberges dans tout le Paraguay. Nous logeons donc dans des...

Aug 27, 2012 - Chaco Paraguayo

Quelle idée nous avons bien eu d'aller à Filadelfia ! Filadelfia est en fait une colonie de mennonites allemands (c'est un groupe religieux venu dans le Chaco paraguayen dans les années 1920 mais on ne peut pas vraiment vous en dire plus). Nous y sommes arrivés le samedi dans la nuit et avons un peu galéré pour trouver un hôtel. Puis, le dimanche, tout était fermé, même les restaurants alors que jusqu'ici les supers-marchés étaient toujours ouverts. Cela ressemblait à une ville fantôme dans le milieu de l'Allemagne: tous les noms de rues...

Aug 24, 2012 - Paraguay - Asuncion

Malgre que la plupart des argentins nous aient deconseille d'y aller, on a quand meme decide de passer quelques temps au Paraguay. Tout le monde nous disait n'allez pas au Paraguay, il n'y a rien a voir. Nous avons commence par Asuncion, la capitale du pays. On a tente le couchsurfing et on a ecrit a plusieurs paraguayens sans succes. Puis, un musicien allemand, Alex qui habite depuis 4 ans a Asuncion nous a invite chez lui. On a pas eu un super feeling avec lui, mais cela s'est quand meme bien passe. Le Paraguay a de grands problemes de...

Nov 23, 2011 - Ciudad del Este - La Frontera

Hi - One gets used to traveler’s tales; and to take them with a grain of salt. I suspect that would apply to the current tale as well, eh? Recall the Cretan Paradox But since no one else is likely to report on the current state of Paraguay, here goes. The rumors and innuendo are true. Also false. There is clearly a lot of corruption in the country. The rich, if their grand houses with guard post, steel fences, and barbed wire I glimpsed on the way of Asuncion are any indication, are doing quite well, thank you. I don’t know about you, but...

Nov 19, 2011 - Asuncion – The Mother of Cities; Paraguay – The Republic of Regret

Welcome - The flight to Asuncion crossed the Andes shortly after takeoff. Spectacular! Ice snow and volcanic rock stretched to the horizon in both directions. One day I plan to visit its terminus in Patagonia. And I think something involving a cruise around Cape Horn and through the Chilean fjords is in order. Next, a brief airport transfer in Montevideo, another destination for another time. On arrival Paraguay is clearly not as cosmopolitan as Chile or Argentina. The streets are quiet. Lots of uniformed men with a variety of dated and...

Oct 26, 2010 - Trinidad

Countryside totally agricultural, mostly huge farms, lots of wealthy landowners it appears to me. Seems to be some German influence (saw an election banner promoting 'Valter Mensch'!). The bus is a semi local long distance one - we left an hour after it was scheduled to leave (10:10) and it took over an hour of very sloooow to creeping driving to get out of C. del Este, picking up passengers along the way. Once we got to wide open farm land tho, the driver's foot became leaden and the bus was suddenly jet propelled, ha! Beautiful, sunny...

Oct 23, 2010 - Ciudade del Este - Pics Need Captions

Sunny today, well partly! Bus lvs at noon:15 for 9 hr ride. Again flat...lots of cattle/cow ranches, brahma variety like India. Brahman Cattle Info Some of these appear to be really huge! Brazil buses had no vendors come aboard, one of few countries where we had to leave bus to buy anything. Paraguay is more typical again, vendors get on along the way not just bus stations, selling food/drink and sometimes stuff like toothbrushes, books, even preaching & selling God. So far Paraguay has had central long distance bus terminals where all the...