So, Friday 5th and on to Paraguay and Asuncion.
We left Puerto Iguazu and passed into Paraguay via a ferry crossing on a flat, barge like ferry which was driven by a small boat attached to it. Getting through immigration was painless leaving Argentina – 2 customs officers sitting in a small cabin quickly checked us through. The ferry ticket operator was busy cooking a pig over an oil barrel with his friends but quickly came into his booth and sold us our tickets and we boarded without problem. Immigration was equally painless arriving in Paraguay – it all felt rather inconsequential, and that if we hadn’t actually presented ourselves at the immigration booths we would have been able to cross from one country to the other without being checked by either.
A taxi took us to the bus station where we were inundated with shouts from ticket booth operators all keen to sell us tickets to Asuncion. After a quick look around and purchase of tickets and some food, we boarded our bus for a 6 hour journey which was thankfully uneventful. Interestingly though, that at every stop (and there were several) for passengers, we were also offered everything from bottles of water to mobile phones to bingo cards, by hawkers plying their wares on the bus.
The landscape was relatively flat and uninspiring to begin with, roads being very long and very straight, but it gradually became more lush and winding. Sadly, the bus window was not clean enough to take decent photos from.
We arrived pretty much on time (which felt a bit odd given our SE Asia experiences), and set off to walk to our hotel, but eventually gave up and got a taxi as it was getting dark. Technical difficulties with roaming packages had left us without ability to use translation tools but after some difficulty, we managed to use the map to direct the driver to our hotel.
It seemed extremely quiet around our hotel’s location, but on checking in, we were advised that on that day, the whole country had been granted a spontaneous holiday to celebrate the Paraguayan football team gaining a place in the World Cup next year for the first time in 16 years and that therefore, pretty much everywhere was closed, however, we managed to find somewhere for a drink and meal.
Two full days exploring Asuncion (also known as ‘Assumption’) has been an intriguing experience. Asuncion is ‘curious’. Like most large cities, it is a mix of neighbourhoods from run down shanty to wealthy but we were struck by the sharp contrasts between them. One minute walking down a smart and well maintained avenue to then turn a corner into a run down and dilapidated street. The feeling is that there was a sudden ‘stop’ point in a lot of development which has impacted many streets and buildings. However, there were plenty of interesting sights and the people are generally friendly and welcoming.
A bit of old and new
Mercado 4 – a very busy market
Some sculptures found on our travels
Along with a lot of street art:
Wherever we have wandered so far in South America, we have been able to find good icecreams. Always nice to have.
