Paraguay

I'm back in BsAs from Paraguay (and Iguazú), safe-n-sound... what a whirlwind week of traveling. The itinerary took me from Buenos Aires to Asunción, then down through Paraguay to Encarnación on the border with Argentina, next up to Puerto Iguazú (Argentina), and finally back to Buenos Aires.

So, my commentary on Paraguay... it was "interesting". This is probably a two-part blog entry but we'll see. The building over on the right is the Pantheon of the Heroes of Paraguay -- it's the most famous building in the entire country, from what I could tell in all of the (very scant) literature about the place. It was nice but suffered from being wedged into the middle of a bunch of non-descript shops, office buildings, and what not.

To the left is a picture of the interior... I piggy backed on a tourist group of old folks that seemed to know where they were going. Everything I heard about the dearth of tourists in Paraguay was correct; besides the old folks, I saw ONE other tourist in the city plus TWO backpackers at the bus terminal when I was heading out of Asunción. And that was it. As far as the country being a glimpse into "old timey, original South America", if that means tons of garbage, poverty, buildings pock-marked by bullets from the last coup-de-tat attempt, plus military automatic weaponry (literally) everywhere, then Paraguay is the real deal.

On the other hand, the people were really nice and it was a very "secure" feeling place... decades of a military dictatorship that can imprison / execute you at the slightest whim for whatever infraction tends to instill that into the populace. See also "Saddam Hussein".

So, besides the Pantheon, the Government House for the President (to the right) was quite impressive. In the late 1800s, when it was built, it was said that the dictator who had it built laid down the edict that anyone caught looking at the building would be shot in the act. Charming. Anyway, besides guards with endless AK-47s surrounding the place, it was quite impressive looking.

Also it was sort of hot while I was running around photographing it IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!! I can't imagine how hot this country gets when it's any season other than winter. I think the temps went up in the low 90s while I was there "in the dead of winter".

OK, moving on... I next ventured over to the Congress (equivalent) building. It was interesting for several reasons... it's your standard (pink) government building but directly behind it, down a huge hill towards the river that Asunción was founded on, was a massive urban slum. In short, it was a place one does not venture towards, or after, sundown.

Also, if you looked at the edge of building, you could see pock marks from the bullets of yesteryear, during whatever previous coup attempt (or success) that went down. It's still not repaired. But here's a close up photo of it for your perusal and enjoyment.

OK, that's enough typing this time around. I'm getting carpal tunnels or something while writing this sequel to "War and Peace". At any rate, this is all the "Chamber of Commerce" type of stuff. If there was such a thing (but usually you have to have tourists if you have a chamber of commerce). Next time around I'll continue this recap with my "Poverty Tour '07" experiences. You can hardly wait.