Currency: Guarani (4800 Guaranis=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Asuncion, Encarnacion, Ciudad del Este

In order to enter this country, you will be required to pay a $45 (one entry only) visa fee and provide a bunch of paperwork beforehand.  Think seriously about what you are doing before you decide to go there.  You might want to spend more time here or visit other parts beyond the ones we visited to get your money’s worth?

Paraguay is the most corrupt country in South America.  You will see a tremendous income gap between the obscenely wealthy and the poorest of the poor.

Although one of the poorest countries in South America, it was very hard to find restaurants or hostels that were as budget friendly as those in Bolivia or Ecuador.  In our experience, the cost of everything was comparable to Argentina or the U.S.

Guarani is a currency and a language in Paraguay.  Many Paraguayans speak Spanish and Guarani.

People are crazy for mate. (See post)

We did not see many travelers (or foreigners) in Paraguay until we reached the Itaipu Dam.

Tours of Itaipu Dam are free, but don´t expect the 30-minute documentary preceding (and included in) the tour to be in English.  Additionally, the tour guides will not speak English…only German or Spanish. There are only 2 tours offered per day (9 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and they are an hour each.  On weekends, there may be more tours.

The Jesus and Trinidad ruins are outside of Encarnacion and require a bit of planning to get back and forth using public transportation.  If you have already seen any of the ruins in Peru, you may not get too much from going here.

Bus companies in Paraguay are especially tricky and fraudulent.  The buses will not leave on time, they are not direct, and they will not have airconditioning.  Additionally, expect the time of travel to be double what they tell you.

Bring mosquito repellent; dengue and malaria are prevalent.

Despite what the Brazilian border patrol people (teenagers) say…there is a bus that goes directly from Paraguay to Argentina and it´s yellow!  It will not be stopped as it crosses the Brazilian border and you will not need a visa.

Things we liked:

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Empanadas of meat
• Experience: Being sick for 2/3 of our time in Paraguay didn’t leave room for too many experiences outside of the ones posted
• Something to remember: The people we met in Paraguay made the trip bearable.  Thanks Alison, Will, and Maria for your advice and Sunday experience with the kiddos.  Thanks Sandra for hosting us in Encarnacion and teaching us about mate.  Thanks to the two men who picked us up at the bus stop on the side of the road near the ruins to get us back to town on that hot, humid day. Thanks Gene and Meredith from North Dakota who showed us that traveling is possible at any age.

Ben´s list…

• Food: Steak
• Experience: Getting scammed by a bus company who switched our bus two blocks away from the terminal from airconditioning to non-airconditioning in 90 degree heat
• Something to remember: Walking down a random street in Asuncion and seeing a man carrying a giant guinea pig cradled in both arms.

The Problem

In making the decision to travel through Paraguay on our way to Iguazu Falls in northeast Argentina, we knew that we would have to travel through this border post.  The problem is that Argentina and Paraguay do not share a border in Ciudad del Este.  Brazil fills the gap between these two countries and as American citizens, we require a reciprocal visa to enter Brazil which would cost us $135 each.  To avoid this, we had heard that there is a 1-hour bus from Ciudad del Este that goes directly to Argentina, through Brazil, which requires no papers to enter Brazil.

Confident in this fact, we walked to the border station in Ciudad del Este and completed our exit formalities from Paraguay.  As we had a single entry visa, there was no going back.  After doing this, we started asking people where we could find the direct bus to Argentina.  Everyone from run of the mill locals to military men kept pointing us towards the Brazilian border until we had crossed the river and we were at the immigration post.  We decided we would just go ahead and ask the Brazilian security where we could find the bus.  One problem…they told us we needed visas to enter Brazil and take the bus to Argentina.  There was no other option and after talking with a number of the teenaged border security we had no affirmative answer.  According to them, there is no bus directly to Argentina without a visa being required.  The last border agent was particularly annoying.  He lectured us for a few minutes on his necessity to have a $135 visa to come to our country to visit his mother and  in return we have to have the same visa to enter his country.  We wanted to remind him that if we planned on actually visiting his country (instead of going through it), we would have paid for one.  With no help from the Brazilians, we sludged back over the river to figure out what to do next.

The Solution

On our walk back, I could not help but entertain ideas of boycotting Brazil if we did somehow make it to Argentina through Brazil without a visa.  As we approached the Paraguayan border guards once again, we were not thrilled.  We were on our way to Iguazu Falls, one of the highlights of our time in South America and it would be lost if we could not go through this border post.  When we arrived, we dejectedly told them that the Brazilian officials would not allow us through, we could not continue onward and had to return to Paraguay.  They looked at our passport, saw we had been stamped out and refused to let us back into their country with our single entrance visa.  As we started to protest (were we supposed to spend the rest of our life stuck between Brazil and Argentina?), the Paraguayan guard told us in an annoyed manner that we just needed to cross the street and wait for the bus.

We crossed to wait with no idea what we were looking for.  We decided to ask another border guard to confirm and finally got the information we needed.  We were told to wait for a yellow bus that would take us to Argentina directly with no visa required.  As we waited, we started to worry more and more about all kinds of scenarios.  Where would we go if the bus didn’t come?  What would happen if the Brazilian border guards did what they said they would do and stop the bus?

We waited for an hour, which was probably the longest hour of our entire trip.  Perseverance, advice of Paraguayan border guards, and the help of locals eventually led us to the yellow bus.  It appeared behind a long line of trucks and was close to being a religious revelation by that time.  We boarded and crossed our fingers as the bus sailed through the Brazilian border post on its way Argentina.  A local man even realized he was on the wrong bus while we drove through Brazil, but he was not let off until we had passed through the exit gates for Brazil.  We finally made it to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and poor Brazil will not be enjoying the presence of our travel dollars or opportunity to return the favor of reciprocal visa fees for a long, long time.

Moral

You can cross from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina without dealing with annoying teenage brats that disguise themselves as Brazilian border agents.  The key is the yellow bus.

Sandra explained that the liquid inside the thermos is called mate.  “Mate,” she stressed, “is similar to tea, but it’s not tea.”  During the summer (which was when we were there), the liquid is cold and it is called terere.   As for the little cup, people purchase yerba or “herbs” to fill the cups and add flavor to the mate.  Herbs can be bought fresh in the morning from vendors in markets who will chop up the right combination for you or they can be bought dried in packages at grocery stores.  The herbs vary depending on the taste you want or ailment you’d like to treat.  There are combinations to aid in digestion or even to help you lose weight.  The cup is filled three-quarters of the way with these herbs and then the user pours the liquid in.  The metal straw is enclosed at the end and has small holes which strain out the liquid as one sips from it.  The yerba in the cup is usually replaced every day because people drink it so often and because it’s pretty inexpensive.

Sandra then went on to describe a very popular morning drink called mate cocido.  Like coffee in the U.S., mate cocido is drank almost religiously by everyone in the country. Sandra fondly remembered her mother making mate cocido for her and her sister during the course of their childhood.  Because we did not have any experience with mate cocido, Sandra decided to make it for us that night and because we were curious, we watched her make it.

The first thing she did was heat a piece of coal.  While it was heating, she piled sugar and dry yerba mate on a plate.  When the hot coal was ready, Sandra put it on this plate and covered it with the mate and sugar.  The goal was to burn the sugar in the pile because this would give it its distinctive flavor.  When everything was satisfactorily cooked/burned, she transferred it all (coal included) into a small pot and added water.  The ingredients were left to boil for a bit and then strained.  The strained liquid was to be the essence of mate cocido.  We were a bit baffled by this process and by the dark green coloring of the strained liquid, but Sandra added milk and the color of the liquid changed to light green.  We tried it and found it to be an interesting blend of flavors unlike anything we had had before.  The milk balanced the mate and coal flavors by adding creaminess and texture.

We enjoyed being hosted by Sandra and she was a great guide to the ins and outs of mate.  She was able to answer all of our questions about this very popular beverage and she granted us an experience of a cultural tradition that uniquely belongs to the people of Paraguay.

Paraguay is known to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is enormous, which is why this organization was started.  A few years ago, Maria’s friend witnessed a child collapse in her yard from starvation.  Because of this event, Mitakuera was created to feed children and assist families living in poverty.  Every Sunday, Maria, Alison, Will, and some of their co-workers bring food to the children who live on the edges of Asuncion.  Besides feeding them, Alison and the other teachers help them with their studies and do projects with them.  The Sunday of our visit was to be extra important because it was the end of the school year and the students with the best grades were going to be treated to something special.  Like students in the U.S., students in South America get a summer break, but their break falls between the months of December to February (approximately) because this is their summertime.  Our visit landed a few weeks before Christmas and it gave us a wonderful and meaningful way to kick off the season.

When Sunday arrived, Ben and I took a bus to a high-class suburban mall outside of Asuncion to meet up with Alison and her crew.  Her crew consisted of Maria, Will, and 12 children between the ages of 6 and 12 who had earned this day.  We met them in the arcade playing games with the Guaranis they were treated to.  When their Guaranis ran out and the screen returned to pre-play mode, the kids continued playing not realizing that their game was over.  Alison explained that this would be a day of firsts for them.  After video games, they rode the Merry-Go-Round (another first).  The biggest surprise of the day was seeing the movie, A Christmas Carol, in 3D.  The children had never seen a movie much less one in 3D.  Ben and I shared in their excitement as we put our 3D glasses on for the very first time.  The glasses were awkward for us all at first, but the children adjusted quickly and spent the rest of the time watching Scrooge get visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future in hearty amazement.

After the movie, we all went to Burger King to enjoy kid’s meals for everyone.  They played in the play place with other children until it was time to eat.  The group was so big that we ate outside because there weren’t enough chairs to sit inside.  During this time, the kids threw some curious glances our way and asked questions through Maria, Alison, and Will.  We tried communicating in our broken Spanish the best we could.  After lunch, we were invited to take a ride to their neighborhood to drop them off.  Ben went with Maria and 4 of the kids, while I went with Alison.  During the drive, the children practiced their English by reciting their numbers to me and saying some key phrases they knew.  They also asked Alison questions about the things around them.  I got a kick from their questions about the public buses passing by our window.  They wanted to know what things were in the buses and when Alison asked them to guess, they listed beds, tvs, and other items they considered “luxurious”.  It was interesting to hear their perceptions of things they had never experienced.

When we arrived to their neighborhood, I was able to see the houses (if you can call them that) the kids live in.  Small brick buildings lined a gravel road and we eventually arrived to a larger brick building where the children were dropped off.  This building was their school and Alison explained how different these children’s school is to the school she works in.  In these children’s school, there are not enough classrooms, teachers, and resources for the students so they attend for half a day.  The school holds all grade levels, but because of it’s size, some classes are held outside.  Because of the lack of resources, students are unable to have the quality education of those in the suburbs around them.

The stories of these children’s lives brought back memories of my time working with the children of CCF.  It is always deeply troubling to see that poverty reaches all corners of the world, but assuring to know that people like Alison, Will, Maria, and many others are trying to do something about it.  As our time with the children came to an end, Alison handed out gifts which included bags of candy and mini photo albums.  The children were delighted by these gifts and proceeded to show us all the photos in their albums before heading home.  Spending the day with Alison, Maria, Will, and the children was a great way to jump-start the holiday season by seeing a bit of the Christmas spirit in action.