From A to B in Asunción

A small blog entry that has almost been forgotten in our drafts since February due to lack of pictures, but actually we think it could complement the insight into our life here, Asunción, and a little bit into the life of the Paraguayans themselves.

The daily routes are an essential part of the everyday life of a true Paraguayan! As mentioned before, there are countless cars here, for example our family has 4 cars for two and a half drivers... But well, they are also used, everything is driven by car, even the way to the gym, which is 300m away!!!, while for some reason at least one car always has to be in the workshop for days (or weeks).

Driving in Paraguay is generally never fast or smooth, you are actually always stuck on one of the three main roads. 

But when it's running, you traditionally drive in the middle of all lanes to create the next traffic jam. So a bit of blame for the traffic is also simply the people, one would think. But somehow not completely, when we found out that there are driving schools in Paraguay, but you don't have to attend them. You simply buy your driver's license, all you need is a little money, identity card and proof of blood type. We found this out when we were in the car with a friend from old work and her brother after an evening in the city. The brother had been drinking, the little sister had just gotten her driver's license and was already behind the wheel in the middle of the main road when we became aware of all this. At a red light that was very close, we couldn't help but shout from the backseat, "Brake, brake, you're going to crash into the other car!" , to which she actually braked and nervously said, "Thank you! Thank you for telling me, I forgot to brake". From then on, we understood the traffic much better.

In Paraguay, it is actually forbidden to drink and drive, but it can also easily happen that in the middle of the city, on the main square, a lady stops the traffic because she just ordered a Paraguay Döner and two 0.5l Mojitos at the snack stands. It is clear that she wants to enjoy her ice-cold, immensely large Mojito first.

Otherwise, there is a lot of honking and little consideration (that is probably the biggest mystery that remains: How can a whole nation that is so nice, hospitable, funny and lovable change all its characters so quickly as soon as it sits behind the wheel? Well, unfortunately they can't answer that. (But an apology is also due here: Honking is not always meant in a bad way, for example, our boss drives a car that honks 2-3 times whenever he turns too sharply..) But there is always something going on at the roadside, for example, you always come across at least one sensational vehicle or funny streets....

There are sellers at the traffic lights or sometimes in the middle of it all, who then knock on the window (by the way, everything is sold from fruit to cutting boards, inflatable flamingos for the pool, newspapers, lottery tickets, and if a holiday like Valentine's Day, Friendship Day, Family Day, Labor Day, etc is coming up, always thematically matching balloons, ....) There are also crazy street artists who stretch a rope from one traffic light to another and balance, juggle, ride a unicycle or spit fire on it!

The traffic is not only caused by the masses of cars but definitely also by the few large and mostly very bad roads. So a tree in the middle of the road is not uncommon, neither are huge potholes and never-ending puddles, not to mention what happens when it rains heavily. During such a downpour, the drains overflow after minutes (which is probably because many people don't want to pay for waste disposal and therefore conveniently throw it into the drainage pipes) and the streets turn into raging rivers and lakes. The head of Operation Sonrisa once told us that she actually floated with her car on the way home from work and drifted on the road until she hit a wall and found support on the sidewalk again. So you can't imagine it.

Zero consideration, but you know how to manage

However, walking is not a foreign word, after a long lunch we are often invited for a walk. It's crazy actually that we were surprised that such a walk means driving to the nearby shopping center, so as not to break a sweat at a comfortable 18°C :D

If you don't have a car, you take the bus in Paraguay, a collectivo. A single trip is an adventure. With 2,200 Gy (about 30 cents) for a collectivo without air conditioning, or 3,600 Gy (about 50 cents) for one with air conditioning, you're in. The most exciting thing is such a ride in the morning, when all the buses are overcrowded and only about every 10th one stops at all. It is not uncommon to sit by the windshield or have your backpack and one foot sticking out of the door. 

This is partly due to the fact that there are many independent bus companies, each of which wants to make maximum profit and therefore loads as many people as possible onto their bus. Some days we have already experienced that we couldn't get on a bus for a whopping 40 minutes because they were all too full (and a bus definitely leaves every 2 minutes..)

Waiting for the bus:.....

By the way, it is also good to know before taking a bus trip: In the center, there are now bus stops, but no timetable or other information about where and when the buses are going. So you have to talk to a lot of people to find out such details. But actually, there is always someone who knows someone who knows which bus you should take. The question that remains, however, is who was the first to find out and how? And very important: do you get genuine information or does the Paraguayan just not want to say that he doesn't know? - The latter can only be read in the eyes, but unfortunately that doesn't always work..

With this practical means of transportation, you can theoretically get anywhere, sometimes it takes over an hour for the journey to work (about 5km) and there have even been occasions when our colleague happily whistled past us while walking next to us....

And that's exactly why nothing has revolutionized our everyday life here as much as our bicycles!!

We got them super quickly after asking a bit because they are not used so frequently. With our bikes, it only takes 20 minutes to get to the office, you can ride routes without knowing how which bus goes where, and the best part: you can simply bypass the traffic jam and feel like the greatest hero! The nice thing is that the others also celebrate you like a hero (They just can't believe it... cycling... every day.. crazy :D). It is not uncommon to be asked: Are you still cycling? And every day and also up to here? And then other people are nudged and it is said, look, they are on their bikes! On the road, you are constantly honked at, but not only out of anger towards bicycles or the traffic, often it is also just an exuberant greeting because someone is so happy to see us on our bikes. (We only find out about this afterwards, because you can't see through the tinted windows)

Of course, every Paraguayan urges us to be careful and sometimes they are completely excited that the Germans cycle and even at night. But with a reflective vest and blinking lights, there are no paths that we couldn't master with our bikes!

How else should we explore the area.

And not only that, by now we know our neighborhoods like the back of our hand, we know how to balance all our purchases on the bike, we know when to hold our breath because we pass the butchery, we are always kindly greeted by chipa sellers, cafetería owners and carpentry employees, we know which puddles we don't want to drive through because there are always little fish living in them and we are about to give nicknames to the most notorious potholes. Clearly, sometimes the enthusiasm is dampened by sudden monsoon rain and sometimes you have to ride past that butchery in knee-deep water, sometimes you can't overtake because there's a boy peeing out of the car at the traffic light. But Hansi is sure, through our time in Asunción, we have definitely become demonstrably better cyclists ;)

Oh yes... There is no TÜV here.