Paraguay Trip Report - You went where for your first trip to South America?

This is a report for a trip my wife and I took to Paraguay August 2nd through August 10th 2014. Little can be found on the internet about Paraguay. Post a question on Trip Advisor and it will just sit there (only about 200 total posts for the entire country have been made). Lonely Planet and Virtual Tourist will maybe get you a single response if you are lucky. In fact, they had Katrina level flooding a few weeks before our trip - more than 200,000 people had to be evacuated - and we could only find scraps of information about it. We didn't know what parts were underwater and what parts were still accessible, what was open and what was closed. Basically, it was old school traveling like we did 20 years ago before this internet thingy came along.

With that in mind, I wanted to write down my impressions about Paraguay to help future travelers. Please feel free to contact me with any specific questions. I will do my best to answer.

I broke the report into sections. The first section is an overview of the trip and some brief impressions of the places we visited. The next section has (what I think is) some important information about travel to Paraguay. Finally, I'll list the highlights of our trip. If you just want basic info, skip to the second section. Otherwise, read on...


Overview

For reference I am 48, my wife is 50, and we live in NE Ohio. We have three kids ages 16, 18, and almost 20. We travel relatively lightly (backpacks and a piece of checked luggage - although my wife is starting to pack more and more...). In general, we prefer meeting people and understanding cultures more so than sightseeing. Paraguay is very inexpensive. A nice sit down meal with a drink might be $10. If you want empanadas for lunch that will set you back $1 for two of them. We're both black and experienced no hints of prejudice at all.

Let me get the big question out of the way first - why Paraguay? We don't speak Spanish (and they speak no English), we've never been to South America before (no Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, etc.), there are no beaches or coastline (Paraguay is landlocked), there are no cool things to see (they do have a dam by Brazil, but otherwise there is really nothing at all for sightseeing). So why go?

I must admit that I would not recommend Paraguay to the inexperienced traveler. It isn't someplace to go when you've only been out of your country a couple of times. But for those who have seen a bit of the world, Paraguay has charms that are not to be missed. Its biggest draw is its people. They are nice in a way I have not seen before. It isn't just that they are friendly (lots of people are), it is that they make you feel at home. It is very hard to explain, but I felt very comfortable - like I somehow belonged there instead of being a visitor. Picture staying with family instead of visiting a new country. And everyone is very relaxed. Not in a lazy, slow type of way, but in a "hey, let's sit back and enjoy life" type of way. Everyone is smiling and happy and people socialize as friends in large groups. I don't mean to imply the entire country is some kind of utopia - there is poverty, litter, and police with automatic machine guns - but overall the experience of visiting Paraguay is very refreshing. Again, you feel like you visited family.

In fact, when we were researching places to go in South America, I found a snippet from a blog stating that Paraguayans are the nicest people in South America. This coupled with my very limited Spanish skills (communication would be an adventure), finding nothing else about the country on the net (everything would be a surprise and unexpected), and it being about as off the beaten track as you can go and not be in the third world (we met zero tourists there from any country - a first for us), made Paraguay a natural choice.

When we landed in Asuncion and picked up our car (Hertz), we got our first taste of how laid back everyone was. I got a simple one page contract to sign, the rates and some other numbers just scribbled in on the top. The rental guy walked me outside to see the car. It was an automatic VW that had a few dents and scratches - nothing serious for normal people, but the type of thing that car rental companies try to charge you hundreds of dollars for. He told me not to worry about it and proceeded to show me where everything was, including the jack and the spare tire (I've never had this done before, but now I know why...more later). Then he gave me a copy of the single page contract and sent me on my way. We had the car with GPS for 5 days and the total cost was $300. Also, you get a key card to get out of and into the airport - don't lose this.

I must admit that we abused this car. The roads in Paraguay are really more like mounds of dirt and clay with a bunch of holes and some rivers and small streams thrown in. Perhaps something a three year old would make out of Play Doh. But this little car took it all and for that I have to be grateful because there were several times I thought I ripped the bottom out or was going to get stuck crossing a stream. I do believe the suspension is permanently shot, though.

However, the best part of the car was when Hertz offered to pick it up at our hotel free of charge. This saved us a round trip to the airport (since we were spending the last few days of our trip car-less in Asuncion). Bonus points all around to Hertz.

During those five days we explored the southern part of the country to the east of Asuncion. Some places were very boring and some were like you stepped into a Normal Rockwell painting. Just about all of them had cows and chickens walking around - even the larger cities. You would be on a main street and turn a corner and bam - chickens running around all over the place. The cows and bulls wandered freely too.

Yataity and Altos were our favorite cities. Villarrica (surprisingly, since it is a college town) was our least favorite. In a nutshell we saw:

• Asuncion (great)


• Ita (interesting for the cows and chickens wandering around major roads)


• Yaguarón (tried to see the church but it was closed)


• Paraguari (really just drive through, didn't seem interesting)


• Yataity (favorite)


• Villarrica (least favorite)


• Colonia Independencia (a bridge too far...see below)


• San Bernadino (ostrich farm)


• Atyra (eh...)


• Altos (second favorite - Piki Volleyball, good ice cream and food)


• Itaugua (seemed really cool but we only explored a little in the nighttime)

The food was, as advertised, amazing. However, some of the traditional food - Chipa and Sopa Paraguaya - while good, wasn't as good as we expected it to be. But the rest of the food more than made up for it.

As mentioned above we saw no tourists of any nationality. Until our last day in the country, the only English spoken was one of the workers at the Asuncion Palace hotel, the owner of another hotel (it was his 3rd language behind Spanish and German so he didn't speak it very well, but still much better than my Spanish), and one Paraguayan doctor who had spent some time in New York. However, on the last day all of the English speakers came out. We met Jehovah's witnesses (or rather, they stopped us on the street), an American who now lives in Brazil who was there for a marathon, some missionaries, and a couple of Peace Corps volunteers. Since we had spent virtually the entire time before speaking no English, it was kind of weird the last day where it seemed like everyone spoke it.

Asuncion was very nice - we had a better time there than we thought we would. However, we wanted to go to Chaco'i and couldn't because of the flooding and felt that Loma Sam Jeronimo was a letdown (this might have been because of the flooding also as parts were under water).

Lastly, I will mention the war. About the time of the US Civil War, Paraguay had a war with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. They lost and it was brutal. It was one of the few things about Paraguay I could find on the internet and there are a lot of references to it in Asuncion - from the palace to the names of some streets. Anyway, talk to a local about it - it is very interesting. I don't want to get into a political discussion here, so let me just say that many feel the war was justified and not simply crazy (one smaller country against three larger ones) and there is a lot of national pride about it.


Important Information

This is a collection of things I think will be helpful/interesting for anyone traveling to Paraguay.

• The food in Paraguay is really good. It is hard to explain, but it is as if everything is super-fresh. The flavors are more "pure" than anything we have tasted before. I ate things I never eat at home and wolfed them down. Listing food first as an "important" thing may seem odd, but next to friendly people, this is the #1 thing Paraguay has to offer. Some of the highlights for us:
  
  
  • Eating fruit from a street vendor in Asuncion. Not something we would normally do, and I don't even eat fruit at home (strictly meat and potatoes), but the line for this lady stayed about 10 deep for a long time and we couldn't resist. We got a mix of bananas, pineapple (which I normally hate), pears (ditto), and apples mixed with cream and some type of caramel thing. Simply amazing.
  
  
  • Eating at the food court in the Shopping del Sol mall. I know what you are thinking, but this food court was more like 20 stores selling your grandmother's cooking. We ate an actual meal (beef topped with onions and eggs, mashed potatoes, and pasta for me, a different type of beef and rice for my wife) with actual silverware with actual plates. Best meal we had in the country.
  
  
  • Breakfast in Colonia Independencia. I ate eggs by themselves (no meat), something I have never done in my life. And I had seconds.
  
  
  • Ice Cream from just about anywhere and any flavor. I even liked the chocolate (something I can't stand normally). Outside of gelato from Italy, we have never been any place with such consistently good ice cream. And EVERYONE sells it. The only food sold more than ice cream is empanadas. The tiniest shop on the corner will sell the best ice cream you have tasted. We stopped at dozens of places and it was amazing everywhere.
• I want to give a special mention again to ice cream. If you like the stuff, order it as soon as you arrive.


• I have never been to Japan, but I have been to Finland and until Paraguay that was the place I've seen people get the craziest about Karaoke. I think maybe Finland still has more people singing it (a Karaoke bar there will have a 30min+ wait time to sing and be packed), but Paraguay has more Karaoke bars per capita than any place in the world. In fact, they don't even have "bars"...everyplace is a Karaoke bar. If people show up at a bar wanting to sing, they will put Karaoke on.


• Sharing beer. First, there are no 12oz bottles of beer. There are large (maybe 24oz or so?) and extra large (40oz or so?). You get the bottle in a bucket of ice. If you are by yourself, enjoy. But most Paraguayans go out in groups and the beer is shared. However, often there is only a single glass and the glass is passed around (puff, puff, pass style). Our last night a group of doctors introduced us to the custom and we felt honored.


• The best way we found to get info about the country was from Peace Corps blogs and expat forums.


• Odd, not important, but Colgate toothpaste is ubiquitous. You find it sold on the street, on busses, in little shops. I mean, there are more tubes of Colgate for sale than there are people in Paraguay (almost, hehe).


• More dogs than I have seen in any country before - you can't walk a block without seeing 4 or 5 dogs. But also the most mellow dogs we have ever seen. We only heard a dog barking once.


• Guarana soda. It is a flavor, not a brand. It tastes like a combination of Vernor's and Ginger Ale. The Fanta brand has a hint of strawberry. It might originally be Brazilian, but whatever it is, it is good.


• Piki Volleyball. I believe this is South American and not Paraguayan, but this is where we saw it. Volleyball without using your hands (head, feet, chest). These guys were better than people who use their hands. It was great to watch (especially since we were eating ice cream at the time).


• Busses. Busses are interesting for several reasons..
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  • They don't fully stop to let people off and will start moving before people are fully on.
  
  
  • Vendors hop on (for free), sell their stuff, and hop off. This might be toothpaste (Colgate!), Nescafe, food, clothing,, whatever.
  
  
  • Some busses are privately owned and decorated as such.
  
  
  • There are bus stops, but these are just suggestions. Busses are like taxis...they will drop you off anywhere and pick you up anywhere.
  
  
  • The busses cost 2400 PYG (about $0.50) but ask a local which bus you need to take to get to your destination - and note the return trip might be a different bus number.
• We saw an accident and the traffic (on its own...no police involved) just started driving on the other side of a divided 4 lane road. So, 2 lanes where the accident was were closed and the 2 lanes on the other side (separated by trees and grass) became 2 one-way lanes. No honking or anything like that. People took it all and stride and it seemed very normal.


• For the above we were driving then, which is a good segue into driving. The main roads are fine, but what would be a side street in the US is a dirt and clay road in Paraguay. The problem is that these roads are often flooded and always filled with large craters and huge mounds. You see Mercedes driving on these roads, but I don't know how. As for the other drivers, they are fine. A little aggressive in Asuncion and it isn't obvious who has the right of way at an intersection (I think it is the road with the most lanes), but if you can drive in a large city in America you will be fine here.


• Veda is now immortalized in Asuncion. She had a drink named after her - Vodka, Curacao and Sprite. The funny thing is that it made her sick.


• Museo del Barro - skip unless you are really, really bored. The highlight was a balloon dress.


• Museo de Bellas Artes - skip no matter what. However, if you ignore me, please note that it has moved 9 blocks further down the same street.


• Lastly I want to mention Yataity. It is one of the quaintest cities we have been too. Of course there were bulls and chickens roaming the streets, but it was like a Norman Rockwell painting. When I parked my car in front of a man's house he came out to greet me and shake my hand and let me know if was fine to park there. Another man sold ice cream (and a few knick-knacks) from his house. He invited us in (of course the ice cream was delicious). The houses were all small, but very beautiful and well maintained. Nice cobblestone streets. This description isn't doing it justice, but if you go to Paraguay, please try to visit (it is just northeast of Villarrica).

Highlights

Without a doubt the most fun we had was on our last night. We ended up in a place called the Chocolate Bar because we heard a lot of loud singing coming from within (remember, bar = Karaoke). It turned out to be a group of doctors (med students technically) and we spent the night singing together. Wherever we have traveled we have found music to be a common denominator and, along with alcohol, a great way to meet new friends. One of the doctors spoke English as he had lived in New York for a while, so communication was not a problem. They introduced us to the custom of sharing beer from a single glass and explained a little about being a doctor in Paraguay. This was pretty interesting as it was very different from America. The primary differences were that doctors did much more earlier (e.g., helping with procedures, etc.) and that they were paid very little. These guys were from the National University, which I guess is a big deal. Very hard to get into and very prestigious. We had so much fun together that four of them stayed out all night with us, missing the bus home. No worries, though, as bars stay open pretty late. Around 4am in the morning, the busses started running again and we said goodbye to our friends. They really made the trip special for us and we had a blast with them.

Another highlight was a bar right next to the Chocolate Bar - Bar Habana. We ended up here our first night in Asuncion, and returned one other night. As the name implies, it is owned by a Cuban and several Cubans work there. And if you have been paying attention, you will know there is Karaoke there. We had great food (a chicken, potato, and onion dish), great drinks and enjoyed great people. There was a big table of friends out celebrating, and although we couldn't really speak with them, we still sang some songs together and Veda got up and danced with them. The son of the owner spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish so we were able to communicate a little. He really made us feel at home and it was a great introduction to the city. As a bonus, this is where the Veda drink was named.

Within an hour of checking in to our hotel, we had headed down to Loma San Jeronimo. I was really looking forward to seeing this area of Asuncion, but it didn't look anything like the few pictures we saw. Instead it was run down (and parts were flooded) and mostly deserted. So why a highlight? Because we stumbled into this "shop" that looked more like someone erected a small barn over a dirt field. They sold trinkets (clothing, makeup, jewelry) from a few tables and in the back sold wine, beer and had a little hot plate to cook food. This was our first introduction to Paraguayan beer (Pilsen) and food (Chipa). Both were delicious. I drank the same beer the rest of the trip and while I tried Chipa in several other places, nowhere was as good as what we had here. But what really set this place apart were the people (an extended family + friends). They spoke about as much English as I spoke Spanish, but that didn't stop us from communicating with hand gestures and really broken Spanglish. The mom continued to speak to us in Spanish even after telling her repeatedly that we could not understand her. She even went as far as to offer to be our guide in Mercado Quatro (see below). We all looked at each other's family photos, laughed at stupid things, made a few toasts, and finally said our goodbyes. It was a perfect introduction to Paraguay.

Yataity - mentioned before, but just want to stress how cool of a little town this is.

Altos - Great little city. We saw the school marching band putting on a parade and there was a carnival setting up (we couldn't stay for it, though). We had great ice cream, the best Milanese sandwich of the trip (from the tiniest corner shop), and saw Piki Volleyball.

Colonia Independencia - a bridge too far. We did absolutely nothing here although we tried very hard. There are a few springs here and we tried to see two of them. The first took us down the worst dirt roads I've ever driven on. We didn't get lost, but some roads became completely washed out with streams. What was weird is that we saw cars coming from and heading to where it looked like the road dropped off into the water. It was like they were ghost cars materializing and dematerializing. I even watched one and I swear it just disappeared. Some of the smaller streams we drove across. We also crossed small wooden bridges that wobbled under Veda's weight. So many roads were unpassable that we finally had to ask a family how to get back to the main roads. After laughing at my Spanish they pointed and gestured and we found our way out. We did try a second road but gave up after about 20 minutes as it was getting dark. All in all it felt like the ending to the movie A Bridge Too Far. The day wasn't a complete loss - we stayed in a great hotel where we were the only guests and ended up getting drunk with the owner's son and his girlfriend.

Shopping Del Sol - Amazing shopping mall in the middle of Asuncion. This is where we had the food court meal mentioned above. Great shops, free wifi, and all around good time.

Mercado Quatro - Wow. Words cannot describe this market. We've been in the Grand Bazaar and Istanbul and in the markets of Marrakesh. Neither come close to the spectacle of Mercado 4. At one time I suspect there were just shops along streets, but over time more and more shops piled on. Like a shark has parallel rows of teeth, there are stall after stall ending in the "original" stores at the edges. The sun is completely blocked out. Every possible item that is for sale - food and non-food - can be found here in staggering quantities. The smells and sounds assault you from all sides. While we enjoyed the experience after about 30 minutes we had to leave due to sensory overload.

In Summary

We are really glad that we visited Paraguay. It was one of those vacations that sneaks up on you and afterwards you spend time reminiscing about the fun you had there. Again, not recommended for the novice traveler, but when you been to a few places, Paraguay is an excellent destination.

If you are still reading at this point, please stop. The report is over!