BootsnAll Travel Network



Passing through Paraguay.

If God loves a trier, the Paraguay has to be one of his favourites. This country may not make world headlines very often, but in 1865 its leader decided it was powerful enough to take on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, at the same time. Unfortunately, it was indeed not powerful enough. They were outnumbered 10 to 1 (go figure) and lost 26% of their territory. Even worse, they lost half their population.

That little story is how I bored Jenny on our way into Paraguay, while we were relaxing on our executive bus. Finally, I got a good bus! Tried to calculate how many hours I’ve now spent on long haul buses. Somewhere around 150 I think.

We didn’t have a whole lot of time in Paraguay, so we headed straight for AsunciĆ³n. We spent most of our time trying to find the middle, the part of the city that would resemble a city. We soon realised we were in the middle, and that it is just a very small city.

We set up camp in what the ‘Lonely Planet’ called a “….friendly family run hostel”. Ironic then that we should walk in just as mother and daughter were re-creating a scene from 1865. I should probably have mentioned sooner that I could speak Spanish, it seemed to come as quite a shock to the pair of them when they realised I could understand their mini war. Oops!

There wasn’t a whole lot to see or do in the place. Jenny took off around town while I caught up on some sleep I missed out on during our few days of sleeping on buses. She discovered what I did in Nicaragua; sometimes the constant wolf-whistles and dirty comments can get extremely irritating. And it must have been worse for her being blonde. Definitely the thing I’ll be most glad to say goodbye to when I reach Australian shores.

I took some time out from my sleeping to lend a hand in the presidential campaign. I can’t say I did all the work. Technically all I did was wear the free t-shirt whilst sitting in a coffee shop. But I cheered on the troops as they marched by banging their drums. Must remember to check back in 8 weeks to see if our lady won.

I’m just going to throw up some photos because the sleeping was the highlight of my time in Paraguay. I’ll definitely go back to explore the north of the country, but right now we have to keep moving to make it to the Bolivian jungle.

Jenny off exploring the big wild city

Jenny

Stall in the main square

stall

Wonder if this guy had anything to do with the war….

war

The election craziness we took part in.

election

Some street vending

vendor

City hall

hall

Some back street we wandered around

street

Some local transport

horse

I love the way you can’t tell the Paraguay sign from the Pepsi one. Never know which one they mean…

Pepsi



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