A Paraguayan RoadTrip

To tell the truth I never really had this small South American country on my travel list. It's small, landlocked and dry and hot throughout the year. Most people will tell you that Paraguay doesn't stack up with other South American tourism powerhouses like Brazil, Columbia and Argentina. And, when thinking about the fact that the country's biggest attraction is a gigantic hydraulic dam I'm inclined to agree. But in this article I want to shed light on what you can find in Paraguay and why I genuinely enjoyed the 10 days I spent there.

Ascuncion is the largest city in Paraguay and needless to say it's the working capital of the country. Ascuncion sits on a slowly declining hill toward the Paraguay River. We arrived in the middle of the summer and 35 degrees was the average during our stay, but that didn't stop us from exploring the small city and learning about it's culture. Something that caught my eye was the colored architecture, reminding me of what you would find in Santa Fe. Almost every upkept building had a darker peach tint to it, even the national government building. This color almost made the buildings seem shiny. It was clear the Paraguayan's were proud of there architecture and their history.

After stopping in one whiskey distillery toward the center of the city we found ourselves talking to a highly patriotic Paraguayan lady. She explained a lot about the history of Paraguay and the difficulties the country faced during the dictatorship of Alfredo Straussner. She also explained how Paraguay wasn't always land-locked, it once stretched over to the atlantic ocean and had trade ports and more power among the South American empires. Over enthusiasic leaders crippled the nation over time with failed war after failed war.

As a whole, there wasn't too much to do in Asuncion. In the middle of the summer many locals travel to the outskirts of the city or to lakes in the east. The cities main offerings are some good restaurants where you can find cultural cuisine including Pira Caldo and Bori Bori, both of which are forms of soup. You can also find some small museums about the history of the country and the inhabitants that have lived there. The nightlife was also nearly non-existent (mainly because of the time of year). That didn't stop us from checking out the bar scene and meeting some cool Paraguayan people. Oddly enough we found that they took no exception in bashing their own country, explaining that it was poorly run and showing no sign of improvement.

We stayed in Asuncion for about 4 days before renting a car and heading east. The Paraguayan country side wasn't really worth writing home about either, aside from a few small towns and lakes. It was mostly farms and jungle. We did stop in a small town called Caacupe, famous for it's large catholic church named the Caacupe Cathedral. It was very large and honestly pretty stunning, with a quiet combination of dark blue and a white base. We also stopped at Lake Berryessa, but we didn't stay long as the locals were ready to collect a large payment just for us to park in a public area. (this was common practice in Paraguay and I haven't seen it in any other countries since then)

Eventually we arrived in Ciudad del Este. A small city of the east boarder alongside Argentina and Brazil. A place where many Brazilians cross to shop for the day and get anything they needed for a cheaper price. I wouldn't truly call it a city if I was being honest, it was more of a larger town. It did have a steady inflow of people making their way in or out of the country. We stayed a night or two there before heading across the boarder to Brazil.