Paraguay
We arrived at our couchsurfers house in Encarnacion and rang the bell. An old man walked out... we asked for Cesar . He looked a little confused. Then we said, “couchsurfing?” He recognized that, and smiled and let us in. But Cesar was at carnaval that night. We were so tired though, so we went to bed. The house was huge, and had a long driveway and another little house-thing at the back. It was two bedrooms with a bathroom in the middle and a kitchen on the side. There wasn't any air conditioning and it was HOT. The hottest it's been on the whole trip. I didn't sleep much at all. The next morning we met Cesar and also the other two couchsurfers who had been at carnaval until 5am. There was one from the UK and one from Denmark. Jesse and I went to exchange our money and then we walked around looking for somewhere to eat, which was not as easy as we thought. We found a little place selling some traditional Paraguayan food – a hotdog wrapped in pastry – kind of like a corn dog but not as good. Then we wandered down to the beach, which was really close. A new beach had just been constructed in Encarnacion two months ago. It was on the river, facing Posadas in Argentina. The water was shallow and warm. There were ropes marking how far we were allowed to swim out, because the river current is very strong and two people have already drowned because they swam out too far. The other couchsurfers had come with us, and we had borrowed some chairs and parasols from Cesar. We were sitting chatting when all of a sudden dark clouds rolled in and rain and hail started pelting us. We were soaked to our skin. Luckily we had Cesars cooler and could put our electronics in it. The wind was insane, and bent one of the umbrellas, and the rain was so hard it hurt! Probably should have got in the water, but we had to take down the umbrellas and save the electronics. We left when it stopped raining, and got home just in time before the next rain.
We arrived at our couchsurfers house in Encarnacion and rang the bell. An old man walked out... we asked for Cesar . He looked a little confused. Then we said, “couchsurfing?” He recognized that, and smiled and let us in. But Cesar was at carnaval that night. We were so tired though, so we went to bed. The house was huge, and had a long driveway and another little house-thing at the back. It was two bedrooms with a bathroom in the middle and a kitchen on the side. There wasn't any air conditioning and it was HOT. The hottest it's been on the whole trip. I didn't sleep much at all. The next morning we met Cesar and also the other two couchsurfers who had been at carnaval until 5am. There was one from the UK and one from Denmark. Jesse and I went to exchange our money and then we walked around looking for somewhere to eat, which was not as easy as we thought. We found a little place selling some traditional Paraguayan food – a hotdog wrapped in pastry – kind of like a corn dog but not as good. Then we wandered down to the beach, which was really close. A new beach had just been constructed in Encarnacion two months ago. It was on the river, facing Posadas in Argentina. The water was shallow and warm. There were ropes marking how far we were allowed to swim out, because the river current is very strong and two people have already drowned because they swam out too far. The other couchsurfers had come with us, and we had borrowed some chairs and parasols from Cesar. We were sitting chatting when all of a sudden dark clouds rolled in and rain and hail started pelting us. We were soaked to our skin. Luckily we had Cesars cooler and could put our electronics in it. The wind was insane, and bent one of the umbrellas, and the rain was so hard it hurt! Probably should have got in the water, but we had to take down the umbrellas and save the electronics. We left when it stopped raining, and got home just in time before the next rain.
That night, Saturday night, we wanted to go to carnaval. When we got there there were no tickets left, so we had to buy some of a scalper and we payed $25US each, which was a lot, since they were originally about $10. But it was worth it. The stands were set up on either side of a 1000 meter long stretch of covered pavement. The stands were full of young people singing and spraying foam on each other. The floats and costumes were really really cool and we really enjoyed it.
The next day we went to see the Jesuit ruins near town. There are two, Trinidad and Jesus. The Jesuits were an order of Catholic priests from Europe who made large settlements all over Paraguay and parts of Argentina and Bolivia and Brazil. They employed the local indigenous in their settlements, while teaching them and converting them to Catholicism. This actually helped to save a lot of their lives. Eventually, Spain started to feel threatened by their large presence and banished them from all of South America. It was really cool to see the ruins. We wanted to see Jesus, but the bus that we were told would come never came.
On the way back we had to wait for a bus to come along for about an hour. There was nowhere to sit and ants all over the ground! When we got a bus, the guy charged us over because we are gringos. Jesse was so annoyed. But, it's only about 50 cents so we got over it.
That night we ate at an all-you-can-eat parrilla buffet. We ate pork, chicken, sausage, beef, and all the sides. We had a ¾ liter of beer as well. All for $22. It was great!
The next day we headed up to Ascuncion. We were going to take another bus 45 minutes to a small town nearby to stay with a couchsurfer, but when we saw the tiny, crowded bus, we decided not to try to ride it with all our gear. So we went into town and got a room... with air conditioning! It was so, so, so hot. It wasn't the cleanest place, and there were little ants crawling about. We went around the corner and got a schwarma wrap for dinner. Next day we walked around town. We were expecting to go to our couchsurfing host that evening, so we had stored our bags in the linen room at the hotel. We saw the landmarks: the Casa de Independencia, where the first revolutionaries against the Spanish gathered to declare independence from Spain. Paraguay became the first country to win independence.
There was the cathedral, cultural center, first railway station in South America, and an odd memorial with the ashes and caskets of the heros of Paraguay. It was just so unbelievably hot. We had to stop every hour to sit in the AC and drink water. The traffic was just crazy, there weren't many traffic lights and the roads were narrow and there was no paint or lines on them. We actually saw a small accident the first night.
We called our couchsurfer and he told us he had to go to another town for work that night, so we couldn't come over. So we went back to the hotel and got another night in the same room. When we got in, I noticed they hadn't changed the mattress sheet, and had just put a new towl and bar of soap on top of it. EW! I slept in the sleeping bag that night!
The next morning, Charlie, our host, came and picked us up and took us to his house in the suburbs that he lived with his family. We walked to the main street and got lunch and then took a bus to the little town we were going to go to the first day. It was cute, leafy, and hot. There was a castle-house there, which was cool. Then we sat at the lake for a while, then went back. That night Charlie was still exhausted from working the night before, so we had an asado with his parents and sister! It was great! Such a sweet, cute family. They made us a traditional Paraguayan tea drink, which involved putting a coal from the grill in the pot and draining it all!
The next day we took off for Ciudad del Este, on the east border with Brazil. It was a 5 hour bus ride. The bus picked up people along the way, and the aisle was totally crowded for hours. We were at the very back, and it was hot and stuffy. When we pulled into bus stations people would try to sell us things through the window, included beer. It got dark, and at one point there was a tiny roach crawling along the wall next to me. So gross.
We got into Ciudad del Este late, and took a taxi into town to a hotel, which was stupid expensive. The next day we went on a free tour of the Itaipu dam, the 2nd largest in the world. It wasn't that cool for some reason... just a lot of concrete.
We then went back to town and went to eat Chinese food which was actually good, because that area of Paraguay has an Asian immigrant population. The next morning we walked through this massive market of everything for sale, and over the bridge to Brazil to see the Iguazu Falls.
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