Stargazing amidst history

After Christmas I had the opportunity to stop in the town of San Cosme y Damián to learn more about two fields I like: astronomy and history. My friends Kevin, Joanna, Taylor and I met up with fellow volunteer and fantastic guide, Zach, who lives in San Cosme, to get the tour of this charming town, along the Río Parana.

San Cosme y San Damián was the site of one of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, and it’s the only site in Paraguay that has been reconstructed significantly (new roofs, doors, pillars and other items were added to save the deteriorating buildings and convert them back into usable spaces). This particular mission moved a few times after its original founding in the 1630s. They established the current site in 1760. The mission was one of 30 Jesuit missions scattered through Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina (one of which is my town, Santa Rosa). The missions were in a sense, mutually beneficial to the Jesuits and the Guaraní indians who lived there. The Jesuits got to spread their religion, and the indians got some level of protection against slave traders.

Today, the church is still used as the community’s church, and some of the rooms are used for meetings and classes.

Zach showed us around the site, starting with the ruins. The church is large and features lots of beautiful (but often termite damaged) wooden statues, carved by the residents of the mission.

We then proceeded to check out all of the other rooms in the building, with Zach pointing out details like lovely painted ceilings, interesting metalwork, and beautiful stonework.

One special part of the site is the sundial, built by the priest Buenaventura Suárez. He would become recognized as the first astronomer in Paraguay. The sundial is extremely accurate during winter, and cool to see, as it’s the oldest sundial in Paraguay (and the only one used in any of the missions).

Another cool part of the ruins is the remainder of the main entrance. The white and red stones feature intricate carvings, including the 3 cherubs (a motif popular with the Jesuits) and a bat (an image important to the indigenous people).

After touring the ruins, we got the opportunity to visit the Buenaventura Suárez Astronomical Interpretation Center. The town, working with the national tourism agency, decided to build this center as a way to connect with the roots of the town and bring tourism to the site. Buenaventura Suárez was well know around the world for his astronomical work, including predicting solar and lunar eclipses. He also built his own telescope using local materials. Thus, it’s fitting that this center is named after him.

The Center features an audiovisual room (where you watch some cool videos about Jupiter and learn about Guaraní constellations), the only public planetarium in Paraguay, and a telescope.

The site also features an armillary sphere, a cool way to visualize how the stars move in relation to time of day, location and season.

It was a really fun experience to get to learn about astronomy in Paraguay and use the telescope to see, among other things, Jupiter and some of its moons.

I was really impressed by the whole site. It tapped into my geeky interests perfectly. I would definitely recommend a stop for anyone who finds themselves in southern Paraguay. Check out all the pictures from my visit on flickr.

Christmas in Carmen

November and December seemed to fly by here in Paraguay. While I busied myself teaching English and exercise classes, and starting a reading club, the temperature slowly started to rise. Summer has officially arrived, complete with 100+ degree temperatures and some killer humidity. All this weird weather meant that Christmas kind of surprised me with its arrival. I kept wondering if it could really be Christmas without snow or cold temperatures.

I decided to find out with some fellow volunteers who also grew up in the Chicago suburbs. The Friday before Christmas I hopped the early bus (lesson learned previously: do not willingly travel on a bus midday when it is 100 degrees out) and headed south about an hour and a half to the town of Carmen del Parana. My friends Kevin and Joanna live there in a cute little house, about two blocks from the Parana River (Paraguay’s southern border with Argentina).

A few other volunteers met up with us there for a very laid back Christmas celebration. I got the chance to explore the town and their lovely Costanera (think beach boardwalk) and do some birdwatching. We all also did a lot of lounging around, talking and drinking (terere, wine, beer, etc).

On Christmas Eve we went over to the home of some Paraguayans for dinner. We didn’t even arrive until around 9:30 and didn’t start eating dinner until probably 11. I will never get used to Paraguayan eating habits. The family was super nice and cooked up asado and some other Paraguayan staples. A bunch of neighbors set off fireworks at midnight. All-in-all a nice peek at what Paraguayans do for Christmas. When we walked home around 12:30 or 1 a.m. a bunch of young people were just going out for the night (another thing I will never get used to: Paraguayan sleeping habits).

The next day (Christmas!) we leisurely cooked up a Mexican feast (masterminded by chef Kevin and assisted by the rest of us). It was a seriously delicious meal, shared in great company. In that sense it even felt mildly Christmas-y. We had a really tranquilo rest of the evening and we continued this spirit of tranquility through the end of my visit Tuesday morning.

I’m happy I got to spend the holidays with some people that are really rad and see some more of Paraguay. Despite the heat, I had a few moments that actually felt like Christmas.

I definitely think I’ll be returning to Carmen to visit in the future. They have a lot going for them: cute cat to visit, two super cool Peace Corps volunteers, loads of birds to watch, plus beaches to combat heat. Check out all my flickr photos of Carmen.

From campo to chuchi

This week was definitely one of contrasts. I started the week in San Jose Ita Moroti, one of the little pueblos that is 12 km from my town, visiting some other volunteers. My friends Tegan and Matt live out in an adorable house in the countryside. They hosted a Halloween bash, which meant I got to spend two days out in the campo (countryside). It was wonderful. It was also quite different from my life as a volunteer.

Tegan and Matt are education and health volunteers, respectively. Props to these two sectors. I’m in Community Economic Development and we, generally speaking, have it a lot easier than these guys. Matt and Tegan are uber-DIY and super creative so they really made their house welcoming and pleasant. But heck, they put in a lot of work to do that. They even built a shower and composting toilet (in addition to a truly epic shelving structure in their kitchen and a fairy-looking bed). There aren’t really a lot of things to do out in the campo, except relax and enjoy your surroundings. There are no stores, the bus only comes 2 times a day (and doesn’t run on Sunday or if it’s raining), the water and power frequently go out (especially if it rains), and the neighbors are spread far and wide.

I spent the weekend relaxing, reading my kindle, looking for birds and listening to frogs. I discovered that the stars are just amazing out in the countryside with no lights to interfere with viewing and that Paraguay has lightning bugs (how magical are they?). I was a very happy girl.

Random side note: Frog calls here are really cool. Listen to the pitch black video here to hear a few of them (is that a crying baby or a cat?).

I also enjoyed some great company, including entertainment by some volunteers gifted with awesome singing voices, and Cristian, a Chilean musician who plays a mean guitar, clarinet and flute (and does a spot-on rendition of Tom Wait’s Chocolate Jesus).

A group of us climbed a nearby hill Sunday for a relaxing picnic on the “ita morotis” (white rocks). The view from our picnic spot was really stunning (though at the same time depressing when you realize this all used to be covered in trees…).

It was a really fun excursion and I got a ton of practice climbing through barbed wire fences (I’m sure this skill will prove useful in the future).

After this awesome weekend away from civilization, I returned to Santa Rosa to prep for my move into my own apartment. I spent most of October looking for places to live and there weren’t a lot of options in town. The few I had were really dreary, not-so-safe, or didn’t work out. Just when I was getting discouraged I heard that an apartment might be open above this fruit shop I frequent. I went to look at the place and loved it, but felt so un-Peace Corps. The apartment is what we’d call chuchi (fancy) here. It’s super nice, relatively new, and has privacy and security (high on my requirement list). It was also a tad more than I’d like to pay. I weighed my options, called a bunch of people for advice and eventually just went with my gut and signed a lease.

I moved in completely on November 1st. I luckily had some help from my friend Gerardo moving my furniture in the previous week, so moving the rest was a relatively simple affair. I spent the day breaking in my new kitchen supplies and using some of the goodies my dad sent me to cook up some of my favorite dishes (pancakes with real maple syrup and vegetarian chili). It was a great first day, and has been a great first week. I took some time to decorate the place with some photos, art by my sister and a set of art postcards my friend Debra sent me.

Sure, I feel pretty darn fancy for a Peace Corps volunteer, but I also feel like this is home. I think this is going to be a great space for me for the next 22 months! Now I just need to do some fun recycled craft projects to further Amy-fy the place.

Time for tereré

It’s officially spring here in Paraguay, and that so far has meant either rain or heat. Heat here assures one thing: it’s time for tereré.

One of the first things you’ll notice upon arriving in Paraguay is that everyone seems to be carrying thermoses around. Understanding what those thermoses are for is key to understanding Paraguayans.

The thermoses are for drinking yerba mate. Yerba mate is a beverage served in two main forms in Paraguay: hot (mate) and cold (tereré). It is sort of like a loose leaf herbal tea, that is sipped through a special straw called a bombilla. These two beverages are refreshing, but more importantly they are a shared experience. With mate and tereré Paraguayans relax, share stories, gossip, and build relationships.

Mate is consumed mostly in the winter and in the early mornings the rest of the year. Tereré is consumed, almost non-stop, in all seasons not winter. Both drinks are prepared with water (hot for mate and cold for tereré) yuyos (remedies) and yerba (loose leaf herbs). Every person here has their favorite brand of yerba and their favorite yuyos. The yuyos (like lemon grass and mint) are smashed up with a mortar and pestle and added to the water (for mate, they are boiled with the water, while for tereré, they simply go in the thermos with the cold water and ice). Once the yujos are added, the water is put into a thermos (termo). The yerba goes into a special cup called a guampa from which it will be served. You fill the guampa up about 2/3rds of the way with yerba. You’ll use the same yerba for the whole thermos of water. To serve mate or tereré, you simply fill the guampa (that contains the yerba) with water from the thermos. Then people use the bombilla (special straw) to drink all the liquid in the guampa. Then the guampa is passed back to the server who fills it up with water again and passes it to the next person to drink.

The thing that makes yerba mate and tereré so special is that they are meant to be shared. People often sit in small groups to relax and talk while drinking tereré. There are special rules for who serves, in which direction the drink in passed and any number of things related to tereré and mate. I’m still learning all of these little rules. People will frequently be seen walking around carring their “kit” (equipo, see mine below), which normally consists of a thermos, guampa and bombilla. While they will occassional drink mate or tereré alone, the magic comes in the sharing.

Here are some other random notes about mate and tereré:

• Some Paraguayans have an insane tolerance for hot liquid from all their mate drinking. I nearly burned my lip and tongue the first time I shared a Paraguayan’s mate.
• Many Paraguayan’s also are very loyal to their brand of yerba. The stores here have a giant selection of yerba from different companies and with different flavors. They grow most of the yerba here in Paraguay.
• Mate (the hot variety) is also popular in Uruguay and to a lesser extent in Argentina and Brazil. But, aside from Paraguayan’s living abroad, Terere is not really found elsewhere.
• Many people here own a lot of thermoses. One type is better for cold drinks (tereré) and another for hot ones (mate). Still it’s common for a family to own 2 or 3 of each type. Many people get thermoses that support their favorite soccer team or reflect their personality.
• It’s considered rude to not share if you have your own mate or tereré, and also rude to refuse to share with someone who offers you some. The only real exception is if you are sick, or have just done something like eat watermelon (they have very weird superstitions about eating certain foods and then drinking mate or tereré). Watermelon+tereré=your stomach will explode (I am suspicious of this belief and intend to test it out when watermelon is in season this summer-your winter).

Odds and ends

As I sit and veg out today with some fantasy/sci-fi books, I feel like I’ve had an eventful, yet uneventful couple of weeks. After our Fiesta Patronal wrapped up, things finally fell into place for me to move. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I was previously living in a hotel (picture a “seen better days” 50′s U.S. motel in your head). This was convenient in a few ways: cable tv, my own bathroom, lots of privacy.

However it was completely inconvenient in others: way on one side of town, occasional inconsiderate guests, weird smell from the drain, washing machine that was constantly in use, lots of privacy (which meant, not a lot of opportunity to practice my Spanish after it got dark out), the reaction of some men when you tell them you live in a hotel.

Since the day I got to town I was asking around about possibility moving in with a family, but had little success. After almost a month of searching I finally found Petrona, a very nice lady who works at the hospital and happened to have 1) an extra room 2) no problems with cooking for vegetarians and 3) experience housing volunteers in the past. Score! I moved about a week ago and things are going swimmingly. The house has a great porch, where I spend a ton of time reading, and the yard is full of plants (including a fabulous garden and a ton of fruit trees).

Plus, I still get my own bathroom and get to chill out in my own little corner of the house. It also turns out Petrona is a very talented cook, so I find myself well fed and with good conversation from her and family at every meal. It’s been a good week.

I also made my first excursion to Encarnación, one of the largest cities in Paraguay, which is about 2 hours from my town. Encarnación is situated on the river that forms the southern border between Paraguay and Argentina. It’s a pleasant place, with lots of shopping and some nice buildings and parks.

I visited to stock up on peanut butter, visit the book fair, meet with a local tourism agency and quench my wanderlust a bit. There was success on all fronts. Some of my fellow volunteers also were in town for the book fair, so that made the day extra fantastic. They also all knew about this ice cream buffet place called Mako’s, which also contributed greatly to making the day excellent.

When I returned I spent the rest of the week continuing to work on getting to know the community, developing some proposals for some local organizations, and prepping for my upcoming site presentation. The site presentation is when my boss at Peace Corps comes out and gives a talk about what Peace Corps is all about, who I am, and the type of stuff I’m here to do. My contact and I are both supposed to say a few words at this event too. Prepping for this has been a bit odd for me because Paraguayans appear more casual about planning events than Americans. You can invite someone a day or two before an event here. In fact, if you want people to actually come, that tends to work better (less time to forget?). I plan to spend my Monday delivering invitations on my new bicycle (I have a new bicycle!) and trying to think up something to say to everyone who comes. Just to keep me on my feet for this presentation Paraguay has also thrown some bizarro soap-opera-style developments my way with my contact, who resigned as director of the Cultural Center on Friday, only to have his resignation (politely) refused on Saturday. As to who will be speaking as my community contact, I have no idea. I’m amused by the fact that I’m not worried about any of this. I think I’m starting to get a little tranquilopa in my veins. Let’s hope it coasts me through the week.

Celebrating Santa Rosa

I arrived in Santa Rosa a few weeks before their Fiesta Patronal (patron saint festival). As you may have guessed, their patron saint is Santa Rosa. She is the first Catholic saint from the Americas.

She was born in Lima, Peru in 1586 and was evidently very pious (to a seemingly ridiculous degree). I sort of dig her though, as it appears she was a vegetarian (I’m going to have to use that next time someone here asks me why I’m a vegetarian). I’m kinda vague on her miracles and what not, but she was beatified in 1668. The actual Fiesta Patronal is August 30^th of every year, but they celebrate for 9 days leading up to that day.

It was a pretty crazy week, and I only attended half of the events they had going on. The city is certainly setting me up to be bored by comparison in the coming weeks.

The festivities kicked off a week ago with the rosary and mass in the evening, followed by a “cultural moment” after mass. They then host this evening rosary/mass/moment event every night until the Fiesta Patronal. The cultural moments range from dance performances to little historical notes. The church was packed with people each night.

There were a bunch of random events all week. The Cultural Center hosted a book talk with local author Camilo Cantero, who wrote a book about influential people from Misiones, our department, including a number of Rosenos (people from Santa Rosa). There were also sports tournaments and a question and answer competition between students (kind of like a spelling or geography bee, but with science and health questions).

A little mini-carnival came to town for the week.

I didn’t have a death wish, so I avoided trying out any of the shady-looking carnival rides.

They also hosted two rodeo events, a horse race and an asado (grilled meat meal), which I avoided due to crowds/general lack of interest (the former two) and meat-centeredness (the latter).

One night they hosted a artistic festival with dance groups and musical performers from Santa Rosa and surrounding cities. This was particularly cool, as it meant I got to see all the different traditional dances of Paraguay. Though scheduled start time was 8 pm, it didn’t start until well after 9 and didn’t end until midnight. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to “Hora Paraguaya.”

 

Another day they had a big San Fermín festival, which included a big parade of horses down our main street.

I’m evidently enough of a novelty that one of the guys on horse back stopped to let me get a photo with his horse (taken by his friend, on another horse).

Another night the local youth orchestra played in the church after mass, which despite an awful sound system, was rather nice.

On the weekend local organizations put booths together for a little mini-fair in the plaza. It was really fun to wander around and talk to people at this event. I met a lot of curious students, including one who is from New York and inexplicably living in Paraguay.

Everything culminated on the 30^th with a procession of Santa Rosa (the statue) around Santa Rosa (the city).

Basically the whole town gets together in the plaza and follows the statue around the main part of town in a big procession, while a band plays and someone says the rosary over a loudspeaker. Curious.

The procession ends back in the plaza, where they host a big mass outdoors (the church isn’t big enough to hold everyone). Then they host an asado and at night they have a big dinner show with musical performances (again opted out due to meat-centeredness).

All in all a really great week to experience Paraguayan culture and traditions and to meet random new people.

Bienvenidos a Santa Rosa

So I’ve officially been in Santa Rosa for over a week, so I though I’d give you all a mini-history lesson and a brief tour of the town I’ll be living in for the next two years.

Santa Rosa de Lima was founded in 1698 by a Jesuit priest by the name of Jacobo Ranzonier. He lived in the nearby Santa María de Fe, in one of the Jesuit Reductions. The Reductions were essentially big villages of indigenous people centered around a square that housed a church. They provided the indigenous people protection from Portuguese and Spanish slavers. Father Ranzonier started a new Reduction in Santa Rosa de Lima, which prospered for many years, until the Jesuits were kicked out of the country in the late 1700s.

Today a few ruins of the reductions survive including:

The stone belltower (which you can evidently climb to the top of). They are currently doing work on the church, so this whole area is construction-y at the moment.

The Capilla de Loreto, currently a museum that some cool painted murals from the 1700s and lovely statues carved in wood by the indians.

The Acerca, or house of the indians, one of the only existing examples of the houses that the indians lived in.

The town has about 8000 inhabitants, and is surrounded by farms and cattle ranches. They produce sugar cane, soy, rice, cotton and a ton of other items in the surrounding areas. We’re located about 240 km from Asuncion, and 130 km from Encarnación (where I’d head if I was making for Argentina).

It’s a cute town set up on a big grid, which I’ve slowly been walking to get a sense of the whole thing. The town center is a nice plaza called Mariscal Estigarribia. The church and Jesuit ruins ring the plaza, and there are two fountains and a statue in square itself.

The town also has some other pretty plazas, currently filled with blooming pink lapacho trees (national tree of Paraguay).

I am supposed to be working with the Center for Cultural and Tourism, which is essentially a really chuchi (fancy) library/computer lab.

It’s located right next to the Municipality, which used to be painted bright red (when the Colorado party was in power) but is now a nice white shade.

On the outskirts of town there is an Agricultural University that is totally rad. Looks like a great site for birding, plus the staff and students are really nice and want to work with me.

In the countryside around the town there are some big hills that you can climb to get pretty views of the surrounding countryside. I have yet to do this, but once I figure out how to get out to them, it’s on. They also have some streams and a river nearby, but the current state of the roads makes getting to these places challenging.

Like most places I’ve visited in Paraguay, there are animals all around…

Along with half-built or long-abandoned houses.

You can see all my photos of Santa Rosa on Flickr. I’ll be adding many more over the next two years.

I’m a volunteer?

So as of last Friday, I’m officially a Peace Corps volunteer. I am going to be living in Santa Rosa, Misiones for the next 2 years, potentially working for the Center for Culture and Tourism and the local agricultural college. I found out my site a few weeks ago at a ceremony at our training center. I was the last person to get my site assignment, which I guess is perfect as I was probably the least anxious about the whole thing. I’m slowly realizing not to worry about things I don’t have control over. It was pretty cool seeing where everyone else in my group would be living and hearing what they might be doing. Plus, some really rad people are just down the highway a few hours.

 

After site assignments we visited our sites for a few days then finished up with training before swear-in. This was the first year they had the swear-in ceremony in Guarambare, our training town, instead of Asuncion. That meant our host families got to come to watch, which was fun. We swore-in in Spanish, which was pretty comical, and English, which went much smoother. I didn’t really feel any different after I became an “official” volunteer. The highlight of the ceremony for me was the cake: chocolate, with coffee flavored yummy-ness and dulce de leche as filling.

After the ceremony we all headed off to Asuncion to get our phones, modems and get situated for a weekend-of-fun. Our only mandate was be in our sites by Tuesday. I ended up staying at the Black Cat Hostel, which is a super rad place right in the heart of downtown. I will definitely be staying there any time I’m back in Asuncion. I was the only volunteer from my group there, but the place was filled with volunteers from other sectors, which was super cool. A bunch of them ran in the Asuncion marathon on Sunday. Talking to them got me motivated to start running in the hopes of doing a half marathon next summer (US) winter (here).

Our group got together for fancy dinners Friday and Saturday nights and I kind of did my own thing the rest of the weekend. I hit up the botanical garden and zoo on Saturday along with Parque Nu Guasu. I actually really liked the botanic garden/zoo. I’d really call it more of a big city park than a botanic garden but it was a nice place to sit down with a book or explore. Plus, there were loads of birds there. I’m definitely bringing my binoculars the next time I go. The zoo is actually pretty good too. It focuses mostly on native species, which I appreciated. The highlights were staring at the carpincho (capybara), seeing a tapir swimming, and finding the escapee monkey that lives on the grounds.

I read a book in the plaza on Sunday, then headed off to the bus terminal for the 4 ½ hour bus ride to my site. Now I’m here in Santa Rosa, trying to figure out what being a volunteer is actually about.

Caaguazu for the win

After my “meh” experience in Asuncion, I wasn’t really sure what to expect on my “long field” visit to the city of Caaguazu. Long field is basically a chance for all of the trainees to get more experience at an actual site with an actual volunteer. Three of my friends and I headed for Caaguazu, about midway between Asuncion and Ciudad del Este, to visit Casey, a volunteer who has been here for a year.

Turns out Caaguazu is known for its trees. The whole area used to be a giant forest, but most of the trees were cut down for lumber and carbon. Still, the town is surprisingly pretty, and very large.

Casey found us all families to stay with for the week, and I am madly in love with the one I ended up with. The dad is a reporter for Ultima Hora, a big paper out of Asuncion, and the mom is essentially in charge of the child services department at city hall. They are both super guapo (hard-working) and really cool people.

The dad actually was a high school exchange student in the states and he speaks fluent english. Plus, being a reporter and all around cool guy, he knows all sorts of random cool stuff. They have 3 super cute kids and a menagerie of animals, which they treat in a very american manner (yay). I looked forward to going back there each day.

However, I didn’t spend a ton of time at their house, as Casey kept us busy with meetings, presentations and other interesting activities.

Highlights:

-Gave my first real presentation in Spanish to a real group of people (6^th graders at a local school) and it went a-okay.

-Went to dance practice for a dance group made up entirely of cute old(er) ladies.

-Attended an extremely long meeting at city hall about local concerns about drugs and understood 95% of what was being said.

-Met some incredibly hard-working people from all walks of life who are doing some really cool stuff.

-Heard about all the projects that Casey had going on and saw all the people in the community that he clearly had an effect on.

-Discovered the amazingness that is Chipa Asador. Oh my gosh, so good. Also had my first Chipa Guazu. Also awesomely good.

-Met my first Paraguayan vegetarian. Gasp!

-They really like the Simpsons (Los Simpsons) here.

It was a fantastic week! It’s hard to believe that I’m already in week 7 of training (only 3.5 weeks left).

Underwhelmed in Asuncion

My long awaited weekend of visits to Asuncion came and went, and I find myself underwhelmed. The American Embassy hosted a 4^th of July celebration on Saturday, July 2, then the Peace Corps gave us the day off on Monday, July 4. Yay America.

 

My fellow volunteer and went to town early on Saturday to hunt for nerdy books. At the bookstore, appropriately named Books, we found bird books and animal books specific to Paraguay. Score.

We then proceeded to the mall to hunt for some other items. They have malls here. Some like anything you’d expect in the United States, others, not so much. If I ever feel the need for American commercialism, one of these places will be my first stop.

 

After scoping out the mall we walked to the embassy for the big picnic. They put on a pretty good show. The embassy is essentially a whole city block and has lots of nice open space with pretty trees, peacocks, parrots and deer. I also heard a rumor that there is an ostrich, but I couldn’t get a visual confirmation on that one. They had a whole spread of typical Fourth of July eats like hot dogs, hamburgers and chips. Plus, they had some not so traditional stuff, like turkey and Chinese food (I’m thinking these were leftovers from the party for actual important people held the night before). The highlight however was the dessert table(s).

They made dessert into a contest, so various women who work at the embassy each made their own American dessert in the hopes of winning something magical (I actually have no idea what the prize was, as I left early). We got to try as many desserts as we wanted, so we could be informed voters. My vote went to whoever made the Buckeyes. Delicious.

 

My fellow volunteers competed in a bunch of silly (serious?) games like the three-legged race (which my friends actually won), tug-of-war, egg toss and a popcorn eating contest. I mostly just hung out and wandered around looking for animals.

I also scouted the pool, which I’m sure will look more appealing when it’s 100+ degrees out in the summer. All in all a nice “Yay America!” experience, but I was so ready to be out of town by 3. It takes an hour plus by bus to get to Asuncion from where I’m living, which can be an adventure. The buses vary greatly in quality, popularity and driver insanity.

 

Luckily, we didn’t need to take the bus in on Monday, as Peace Corps gave us a lift as a Fourth of July present. I trudged off on my own to see the sights of Asuncion and was generally left with one conclusion: unless it’s my site, I won’t be spending a lot of time in Asuncion. I basically went to the central district to see all the historic buildings, museums and get a general feel of the town. I was underwhelmed. The highlights of my day were the abandoned train station/museum, and the cemetery.

That about sums up the town for me.

 

The train station was really neat, but super depressing. Paraguay actually had the first railroad in South America. They built this great station and had great plans for bringing rail to the country.

However, the dude who brought the railroads also was around for a war with Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina (the Triple Alliance). This war basically devastated the country financially and population-wise. The real trains stopped running in the 1900s and now they only run a weekend pleasure train between the Botanic Garden and the city of Aregua. The station is now a museum, complete with plenty of old cool stuff to check out, including two old chuchi (fancy) train cars.

 

Other cools things about Asuncion:

• The Cabildo, the old legislative house, is now a free museum with a view of the Bay of Asuncion. They actually had a really cool art exhibit on display.
• La Recoleta cemetery near the Peace Corps office is one part creepy, one part cool. I wandered around there for a good half hour exploring all the above ground graves.
• Mercado 4 is the mall for regular Paraguayans. It’s a giant maze/market that sells every item imaginable. I had a hard time not getting lost among the fresh meat, moth ball smelling clothes and questionable electronics.

 

Not so cool things about Asuncion:

• The smog. I’m pretty sure the buses here would never be allowed to drive in the United States. They, along with a lot of the cars and motos on the road, are just pouring out icky smoke which makes walking on the sidewalk rather miserable.
• Lack of awesome crafts. I went to a few “artisan” markets and didn’t find a single thing I’d want to buy for myself or as a gift for anyone I know. I know there are creative people in this country making beautiful things, I just haven’t found them yet.
• General lack of cool old buildings. I’m a huge fan of cool old buildings and there just aren’t that many of them here that have a lot of character.
• Lack of distinctiveness of neighborhoods. Everything basically felt the same to me the whole time I was walking around. Sure there are some areas with nicer, rich-people houses, but otherwise, it all looks and feels the same to me. More experience needed I guess to know the difference.
• The fact that I had a hard time coming up with cool things about Asuncion.

 

I still have yet to explore a few more museums, the zoo/botanic garden, and this cool looking city park. Hopefully those will improve my opinions of the town, as it seems I’ll need to go there for various reasons over the next 2 years.