Asuncion and Encarnación

Had a great day walking around Asuncion. There´s not much to see, but it was nice to see the place. It´s a real contrast. On the one hand, there are super modern buildings, Humvee´s, and pimped up 4X4´s. There´s also shanty town´s right in the middle of town, and people driving horse and carts.

Here´s a few pics:

Spanish Colonial:



Post Modern:





And over the road from the above building the slum - bang in the centre of town:



And finally - Classical:



Oh yes - it`s Christmas - Here`s a shopping centre - think Bradford Arndale (or Bracknell - or if you can`t picture those - think late 60's / early 70`s:



And finally - the main square:



I bumped into a real nice couple from London in a cafe / bookstore, who were in Paraguay because they are getting married and she was from Paraguay. They gave me some tips on places to go, and suggested the missions.

I´d only planned to spend two days in Paraguay, but it sounded good - so the next day I caught a bus to Encarnación.

Encarnación is really nice little town - again, not much to see, but it was great to walk around with all of the locals, who were all out enjoying the holiday´s.

Here`s a pic of the main street:



And the rather pleasant main square (with a great Heladeria - Ice Cream Shop!):



The next day I headed out to the Jesús and Trinidad Jesuit Ruins - which are famous for being the least visited Unesco World Heritage Site in the entire world.

The first ruin in Trinidad, with the second - Jesus - 12 km´s away. I looked around Trinidad and for most of the time was the only person their. Which was great. Having had a good look around I decided to go to Jesus, the second set of ruins that are about 12km´s away.

As there was no bus at the time I set off walking, and walked most of the way.

I did manage to hitch a ride with a guy on a tractor, and sat on the cross beam at the back with my legs dangling by the large back wheels. Kind of fun and slightly scary at the same time.

There were a few more people at Jesus, but after I´d had some lunch it was quiet again.

Here are some pics:

The road to Trinidad - the red earth is caused by Iron in the soil. There`s also an aquifer (The Guarani Aquifer) 500 meters under the ground, which is one of the largest fresh water aquifer`s in the world - which is why everything is so green even if doesn`t rain. According to the locals (and a few others I spoke to - and also see Wikipedia), the Americans want it, so are interfering in Paraguay, including imposing troops in El Chaco...George Dubbya`s also bought a rather large farm in the area :-( Even more bad news for Paraguay - which is the second poorest country in South America.



These are of Trinidad:











Er...a plant:



And another...



You get the picture:



Okay - so I "had" to move it to get a picture of the altar - and it wasn`t fastened down or anything - and there was no one there...whatever...





Here`s an ant hill, with my backpack to give it perspective - these things look soft, like mole hills, but are really strong - they must use PVA:



And finally, some owls - these live in holes under the ground like rabbits:



Here`s a pic of the road to Jesus:



And here it is:







Ahhhh...Lunch :-)



On the way back, I bumped into Greg and Andy who are from the UK and we went for a few beers (una otra cerveza por favor). I was really glad for some conversation, and to swop notes on places we´d been and were going.

That night, at the hotel I met Sam, who is from the States, but has been working in Paraguay. He´s doing a charity ride in aid of one of the forests here. Check out his web site: Ride For The Trees.

We went for Tenabay (I think that´s how you spell it) which is the local tea drink, which has roots and all sorts in - was fantastic to finally try it. And then after the best pizza on the trip so far, and some great conversation, I called it a night.

The next day it was off to Ciudad Del Este and Brazil.