Forgotten Paraguay
South America is a huge continent and not everyone has the possibility to visit it in the same way like we do, in an open-end travel. With not so much money but plenty of time.
Generally, travellers and visitors come for short-term vacations and, eventually, need to make some choices and skip parts of the continent.
There is a country, therefore, that ends to be the sacrificed victim of this choice. A country considered less interesting than all the others, a second-class destination: we are talking about Paraguay.
Our alternative way of travelling, instead, trying to avoid flights and always in search of volunteering projects where to stop a couple of weeks, brought us straight into the Guaraní State.
From the Pampa of Southern Brazil, we hitch-hiked straight to Ciudad del Este, the first city after the eastern border of Paraguay. A distance of more than 850km, covered entirely in 2 days with 10 different lifts. Sleeping behind an abandoned bar in Puerto Valle was just the highlight of the whole trip!
Generally, travellers and visitors come for short-term vacations and, eventually, need to make some choices and skip parts of the continent.
There is a country, therefore, that ends to be the sacrificed victim of this choice. A country considered less interesting than all the others, a second-class destination: we are talking about Paraguay.
Our alternative way of travelling, instead, trying to avoid flights and always in search of volunteering projects where to stop a couple of weeks, brought us straight into the Guaraní State.
From the Pampa of Southern Brazil, we hitch-hiked straight to Ciudad del Este, the first city after the eastern border of Paraguay. A distance of more than 850km, covered entirely in 2 days with 10 different lifts. Sleeping behind an abandoned bar in Puerto Valle was just the highlight of the whole trip!
But we are going to talk about our adventures and techniques of hitchhiking in a future article, now let's focus on forgotten Paraguay.
Our plan was to visit the waterfalls of Iguazú, which are actually the border between Argentina and Brazil. These two countries, obviously, make a big business out of it. A better solution is offered by Ciudad del Este, still really close to the Cataratas but on a cheaper level regarding accommodations.
We even had the chance to stay one week in a hostel as volunteers, preparing breakfast in the morning, cleaning rooms and common areas and visit the waterfalls in our day off.
We won't write much about this impressive natural show, included in the list of the world's wonders. You can surely find thousands of articles about them.
But the power and strength of these water masses falling just a few meters in front of you have to be mentioned: it will be tough for us to see such a phenomenon on a bigger scale once more. And the park itself really deserves a visit.
After one week in Ciudad del Este, however, a messy city where a lot of people, especially foreigners, come to buy electronic devices and clothes which are ridiculous low in prices, we moved to Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. Thanks to a lift from a young independent deputy of the national parliament, who opened our eyes on many problems and good things about this country. We won't easily forget the nice conversations we could share with him.
Once in Asuncion, hosted by a Couchsurfer in the outskirts and after some walks in the centre, we felt a special connection with this country.
The capital is chaotic but colourful. The urban buses are an adventure by themselves, despite being totally affordable and running frequently... so no worries if you are staying out of the city centre.
The neighbourhood might seem shady on the first gaze but it's just a matter of having a walk around the block, to find a park with children playing and families drinking tereré. The famous empanadas place is literally right around the corner, every corner.
At first sight, the Paraguayans could look distracted and superficial, sucked by the frenetic rhythm of life. But after a deeper encounter, they showed us many times their open hearts and their will to help us. They offered us food and juices, a hat for the sun as a present, tips and suggestions on how to move in the city, we even got interviewed by a local television to talk about why we visited Paraguay.
And this was just the beginning, only the first two weeks in the country. That’s why we kept on searching for new volunteering projects and we received a positive answer by an eco-hotel in Filadelfia, in the middle of the Boquerón region of the Chaco: one of the hottest place on Earth.
The capital is chaotic but colourful. The urban buses are an adventure by themselves, despite being totally affordable and running frequently... so no worries if you are staying out of the city centre.
The neighbourhood might seem shady on the first gaze but it's just a matter of having a walk around the block, to find a park with children playing and families drinking tereré. The famous empanadas place is literally right around the corner, every corner.
At first sight, the Paraguayans could look distracted and superficial, sucked by the frenetic rhythm of life. But after a deeper encounter, they showed us many times their open hearts and their will to help us. They offered us food and juices, a hat for the sun as a present, tips and suggestions on how to move in the city, we even got interviewed by a local television to talk about why we visited Paraguay.
And this was just the beginning, only the first two weeks in the country. That’s why we kept on searching for new volunteering projects and we received a positive answer by an eco-hotel in Filadelfia, in the middle of the Boquerón region of the Chaco: one of the hottest place on Earth.
The Chaco itself will be the protagonist of our next article, don't miss it.
Stay tuned and Risk Curiosity!
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