Asunción, Paraguay

Although it feels like we went last weekend, it's actually been more than a week since going to Paraguay! It still makes me laugh this trip because it was just completely random, strange, unsafe at times, and very funny. There is really no other way to describe it without starting to laugh :-)

Let's see, we started off with a LONG bus ride. Nothing like 22 hours straight on a bus. Good thing we paid ten dollars more, or something ridiculously cheap like that, for first class. Oh yea, high rollers. Anyway, first class included a free shot of whiskey BEFORE dinner- note the picture on the left (haha it was so gross! I ended up dumping mine in the trash after a few sips! Still can't believe I managed to take a few sips..), a huge meal and surprisingly it was very good, and oh yea a nightcap with two glasses of champagne. Not to mention our seats were much wider and reclined a lot more. Like why did I go all the way to Chile and back without sitting in first class??? Hello???? I have probably accumulated close to 100 hours on buses thus far (quizas more?), and clearly I dropped the ball on the first 50 hours. Maybe it's because I'm a cheapski sometimes... You would think in such pristine conditions I would sleep the entire way. Well, no. I was up most of the night for some odd reason (this will do me really well when I don't sleep the rest of the weekend haha). It could have been that at 3 in the morning the little kid in front of me decided to turn on the light and start reading a book about farms. After initially being bugged by this, I proceeded to read the book along with him haha. Practice makes perfect! Oh, and then at 7 am people in our section (there weren't many) decided to get into an argument. It was actually kind of funny to hear people argue in spanish. One guy was talking on his phone quite loudly when another one turned around and told him to pipe down. It was then that one of them asked if this was bothering anyone else. Kiri and Sam (2 of the people I was traveling with) were fast asleep in the back row. But Diana (another travel buddy), being the gutsy person that she is, raises her hand to say that they were bothering her.  FUNNY. Nothing like sitting with crazy, angry paraguayans on a long bus ride.

We soon got off the bus to go through customs. Unlike every other country that is super strict, Paraguay just stamps your passport and you are on your way. No checking of the bags. Nada. Props to Kiri for snagging this picture of the entry sign to Paraguay (however pathetic and small the sign may be)!

As soon as we got off the bus, WOAH culture shock kicks in. I don't mean like oh wow I'm in a new place. I mean that Paraguay is like nothing I've ever seen before. Not sure if it is officially named this, but it appeared as though it were a third world country. I've never seen anything like it before, and it was nice to be able to sit back and count my blessings for living in such great conditions all the time. The only word that I can think of now is wow. But at the same time, it was actually kind of cool seeing a place that is so stricken with poverty because I know I will probably never ever go back there again.

We arrived at the bus station (finally!) and got off and exchanged some money. Paraguay uses money called the guaraní (similar looking to the chilean peso). The exchange rate was close to 5,000 to one us dollar. CHA CHINGGG. Not only was the exchange rate awesome, but everything was dirt cheap (you'll see just how cheap it is later when I tell you about a night out). Love it, considering money is dwindling fast haha. We then hopped in a ghetto taxi (not joking- refer to the picture on the left) that I thought was going to break down during our drive to our hostel. No seriously, it was about to fall apart! So we arrived at our hostel after paying like $2 each for a cab (the ride was about 15 minutes as well!). Our hostel was called the Black Cat Hostel. Normally this name would mean nothing, but it was funny because we arrived on Friday, the 13th. Good thing I'm not the slightest bit superstitious. We were super hungry so the five of us (myself, Kiri, Diana, Sam, and Jose) started walking around the city to find some food. Well, we found really good food (and there was a lot of it as well) all for about 6 or 7 dollars each. So far I am loving on this exchange rate!! After stuffing our faces we decided to brave the streets of Asunción. There are a ton of mercados and tiendas to go shopping in, so we did just that. I added to my flag collection and also bought some other cool stuff that I KNOW I can't get anywhere else. It was pretty neat, and a lot of the things that they sell, they make themselves! Being that the theme of this trip was cheap, we went to a supermarket to buy dinner to cook at the hostel. Well, EIGHT DOLLARS LATER we had dinner for five. Awesome, right?

Next comes our wonderful adventures the night of Friday, the 13th. I really don't even know where to begin to describe this night. I guess I'll start by saying that this night was the funniest/oddest/cheapest/most ridiculous night I've had during my stay in South America. I'm not going to go into the entire thing, but I'll say that this night included a straaange celebration for día del niño (ie musical clowns, balloons, cotton candy, a moonbounce, a bride, mimes), 16-year-olds that used their fake id's to get into this bar (which was called La Pirata haha), an open bar for $2, and a guitar performance by Diana at a random cafe for plenty of paraguayos. Oh gotta love Paraguay...

The next day we woke up mad early under the assumption that we were going on some cool excursion. False. We weren't able to book it, so we woke up at like 8 am for no reason. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal, except the amount of sleep that we got was probably just shy of 4 hours haha. So we ate breakfast and braved the streets of Asuncion. We first walked to the government palace. It was super nice and almost looked out of place considering its surroundings! To the left is a group shot (minus one) in front of the palace with two of the guards.

 It's interesting because if you walk towards the back of the palace towards the river (we weren't allowed directly behind the palace because helicopters land there or something official like that), there is a drop in the landscape next to the river and below is where everyone lives in poverty (see to the left). It wasn't very safe in this area, and actually the director of our program here in BsAs told us specifically not to walk by this area. Well, we did, but we did so carefully. Good thing we had 2 big, strong men to protect us :-) We took a little stroll down to the river, hoping to do a boat tour or something, but now that I think about it I don't know why we thought this would be possible. Number 1, we were clearly in tourist central, NOT. Number 2, there was no way I was ever going to step foot on one of those shafty boats. No, no.

We quickly moved on and did some more walking throughout the city. We ended up coming across some more mercados (markets) and had to take advantage of all of the cheap goods! Claro! To the left is a picture of me having a grand old time shopping! We walked around some more, more towards the center of town this time. More markets, and people literally sitting on the sidewalk selling things. It was pretty sweet. We got to the town square (at least that's what it appeared to be) and there was a guarani band singing, that I have sweet videos of! We then walked back towards the river to see some more cool buildings (all of these pictures are on the fb) at which point I actually had a police officer come up to me and ask me where I was from. I told him (in spanish of course) that we were coming from Buenos Aires and he then proceeded to tell me that we shouldn't be in this area and that we should walk inland more. PS- all of the policemen carry WEAPONS on them. I don't remember what kind or what they are called, all I know is that they look like they should be in a video game because that is how intense they are. We then were strolling along the streets some more when this guy walked out of his cafe and started yelling at us to get our attention from across the street. Coincidentally it was the same guy from the night before! Thank you Diana for putting on a show at 4 in the morning in a random cafe!! This guy ended up hooking us up with lunch, taxis, and plans for that night. We went to some really cool restaurant that looked like it was pulled right from Spain with its Don Quijote themed ambiente (atmosphere). My apologies for using spanglish all the time, I can't help myself! Anyway, we ordered paella (sticking with the spanish theme). We had a funny little mix up with the food, but hey like I say, you win some, you lose some. I just happened to be on the winning end of this one :-) Sam ordered his own paella, so he was in the clear (haha lucky him). Jose and I ordered one kind of paella, and Kiri and Diana ordered another kind (theirs was supposed to take 40 minutes to cook). Anyway two HUGE plates of paella came within like 15 minutes so Jose and I dug in thinking that they were both ours. After stuffing our faces for about a half hour, we thought man, we could have shared one of these together. Ahh well, were supposed to be sharing because the one that I was eating was actually for Kiri and Diana. After doing work on the paella, and nearly finishing it, we finally asked our waiter where Kiri and Diana's paella was. Welp, by then it was in my stomach. Haha it was really funny at the time (well, for most of us), but you know you can't win 'em all.

We were not so champ status after this meal so we went back to the black cat to take a nap. Four and a half hours later, we were up and ready to go. Our amigo at the same cafe mentioned earlier reserved us a spot for a sweet salsa show they were having that night. There was a live band with bongos and the whole nine yards, it was a lot of fun.

The next morning we had a fun excursion planned. To the left is a group shot with our tour guide, Alejandro, on the right. Woke up mad early to take a taxi to get to this place. It was about an hour and a hlaf away, and it was cool driving there because we got to see some of the country along the way. There were tons of cows on the side of the road (only in Paraguay right?), but other than that there really wasn't anything except for land, occasional hills, and poverty. Very interesting seeing how others live in such drastically different conditions. We finally arrived at this little ranch or whatever you want to call it. It was cute, very nature-esque. We paid something like $120,000 to do this excursion, but really that was like 30 us dollars or something outrageously cheap. I didn't really know what to expect because I had never done anything like this before so how hard could it be right? I've played sports my entire life what's a little walk in the park?? HAHA well I definitely had my fair share of horrifying experiences here, but it was similar to how I felt when I was running down mountains on a horse in Chile. I was scared for my life but LOVED every second of it!

We first did a ropes course where we literally were walking across ropes that were connected to trees across from each other about 30 feet up in the air (look to the left, that's me strutting my stuff). I thought this was probably the hardest part of the trip, and we also had no idea that this was included in the package haha. Gracias a Dios that I did not fall during this part, but it definitely made me super nervous at the time. However, I have never done anything remotely close to this before and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Just call me Tarzan. Or Jane? We did some more hiking and eventually came to arrive at the zipline. I usually don't bode well with heights, but that's not what made me nervous. The fact that a tiny little clip was the only thing keeping me from falling who knows how many feet to the ground made me a little shaky. Those that were with me know that I went from being total champ status with the ropes course to being demoted to city champ after the zipline. Haha gotta pick and choose your battles right? After zipling I thought ok, the scary part is over. WRONG. We then proceeded to go down a cliff. Wait, what? Yes, over the top, leaning backwards, jumping off of a CLIFF. Nothing but hard land below me. When and why did I think this was a good idea? Haha don't worry, I am still alive, but jeeze I never need to do that again because I was terrified. Don't get me wrong, it was the coolest thing ever, but that was definitely one and done for me. Champ status se fue out the window. Clearly, I am living on the edge....literally.

After repelling (look to the left, it's what I just described), we did some hiking UP the mountain that we had just come down. This is where I found out how bad of shape Kathy is in. Apparently my workouts at the gym 4 times a week have NOTHING on hiking. But hey, this was a once in a lifetime experience. 1- who goes to Paraguay? and 2- who does a paraguayan forest excursion in Paraguay? WE DO. And it was great. Believe you me, I slept like a baby on the way home! We then returned to Asuncion where we went to some delicious buffet style restaurant (they call them parrillas) and we stuffed our faces like greedy americans. Haha it was justified because we had worked up quite the appetite with our jungle adventures. Obviously got helado afterwards. Then back to the bus, for many, many hours. Talk about a buzzkill. Don't worry, we had another nightcap on the bus in case you were wondering!

That's about it for Paraguay. All in all it was a fun trip, and interesting to see a place so different from BA and from home. PS- props to all of my travel buddies for the wonderful pictures! It's been just about 2 weeks since this trip and we all know what that means. It means I am obviously going somewhere this weekend! I am off to Uruguay tomorrow morning with two TCNJ girls and a few others! Should be tons of fun :-)