Oh how beautiful Paraguay is

Caution - this blog is relatively long, but the break before was also quite long. So sit back and make yourself comfortable.

Our time in Paraguay is coming to an end - and yet at the last minute we managed to escape the hustle and bustle of Asunción and see more of Paraguay.

It all started with a dinner with Eric's family, whom we finally got to meet after living in their house for a month. We realized that we had to leave the country again to renew our visa after 90 days. We told them about our plans to rent a car, but then Eric's dad disagreed (after dipping his bread in schnapps and then in cheese fondue) and announced that he would drive us across the border and take us on a little road trip. Whether it should go to Argentina or to his cattle ranch in Chaco - the northern part of Paraguay - could not be said for sure until we were in the car with him.

So we took Thursday and Friday off for these big plans, wanted to start early but then the Hora Paraguaya got in the way and for reasons we still don't understand, we left 2 hours later.

But anyway, we headed west to the nearby border, while Eric's dad told us how good it is that he is with us, as he knows how to bribe the police officers and save time and stress.

After the officer at the border used his fingers to count the 89 days we had spent in the country since our last trip and sadly found that everything was in compliance, we were waved through and continued our journey. The long journey from Clorinda to Posada on the Argentine side of the border river was marked by interesting stories about cattle farming and the less interesting facts about the colors of the soil along the way. The only excitement on the drive through the flat, exclusively used for agriculture landscape were numerous police checks in the middle of nowhere, where they looked into the back of the car and then let us go.

In Posada we had a very good meal, the Argentinians know how to do steak. 'You never eat badly with Dad,' Eric had said - and he was right. We stayed overnight in a hotel in the middle of the main square, for hardly any money because the peso is losing value so brutally.

On Friday morning we crossed the border early and with a new stamp in our passports we headed to Encarnacion, made a short stop at the Costanera and continued on.

Costanera Encarnacion

Another stop at a hotel where many Nazis were said to have hidden after the war, we learned a lot about this rather dark part of Paraguay's history. The former dictatorship was apparently very sympathetic to the refugees and took in, among others, Josef Mengele, the death doctor from Auschwitz, and successfully hid him until his death.

The history lesson continued at Paraguay's main attraction (and only UNESCO World Heritage site), the Jesuit ruins. Since we were early, we were all alone and had a great time with the excellent guided tour.

To further emphasize the German influence in the region, we had lunch in 'Hohenau' with Leberkas (a type of meatloaf) and fried potatoes. Super delicious. Then we headed back to Asunción and while this part of Paraguay pretends to have hills, we quickly returned to flat farmland. We had the idea of driving to a friend's ranch and learning more about cows, but unfortunately it didn't happen. We called, but our friend was already in Asunción and we are still not sure if the plan ever existed. Instead of returning on Sunday as planned, we were back on Friday evening at 8.00pm after two very busy days. Well, it was shorter than expected, but still very beautiful and interesting, and we ended the evening with billiards and beer.

The next trip had a better reason: Carolin, Ari's sister, came to visit and since two weekends were planned with us, it was clear to us that one of them had to be outside the city due to the lack of sightseeing opportunities.

After a 24-hour journey for Carolin, we picked up the car for the road trip and made a short detour to the city center: After the rooftop bar in the colorful neighborhood of San Jeronimo, we went to bed early (Carolin may not remember this due to tiredness ;) )

Despite the expected effort and fatigue of the journey, we had made the friendly plan to start hiking to the highest mountain in Paraguay at 7 o'clock the next day!

At this point, a little digression: How Paraguayans plan an outing: Actually, we wanted to do this hike with the entire Pofi before and for weeks. There was a lot of talk about it, many calls to bus companies, many friends/family/fiancées invited, and well, it didn't happen. Hora Paraguaya somehow reached a new level of disorganization :D

Fortunately, getting up early was no problem, because instead of pursuing our dinner plans, Carolin was in bed at 8 and wide awake at 5.

Driving in Paraguay, it should be said, is not as scary as everyone here says, and we are also glad that we broke our original vow never to sit behind the wheel here.

We drove east to Villarrica, made a short stop for empanadas, checked the weather and decided to spend the night in Villarrica. After another hour of driving, we climbed the highest (!) mountain in the country through dense jungle and very steep terrain.

Some can already catch a glimpse of the highest mountain in the country on the horizon!

Difficult and exhausting ascent, although the mountain is only 850m high. At the top, we met our boss, Mateo, and after he told us about his three-hour hellish ascent, we were very glad that the trip took place with Carolin and not with the Pofi. We made it to the top in an hour.

Based on Rachel and Ferchie's recommendation, we stayed overnight in the Cuckoo Clock Hotel and had surprisingly good food. After the German owner addressed us, mentioning the Paraguay travel guide on the table and asking if we had found her in it, Hansi couldn't help but laugh a little and say, 'No, unfortunately the guide is so bad that it can't hold my attention for that long.' While Ari and Carolin apparently read the situation better and inwardly slapped their forehead, the owner slapped hers on the table and said, 'What's so bad about it? I happen to know the author!' (......!) After we had then talked ourselves very uncomfortably out of the faux pas, we still got many recommendations for the way back the next day. Railroad museum, wooden churches, and mainly tired eyes on demand. Because these tips all sounded just as boring as the travel guide, all those involved were sure that the owner not only knew the author, but was probably the author herself.

We decided against Paraguay's allegedly most beautiful waterfall, Salto Cristal, on Sunday due to the lack of water, and made a leisurely return trip. And then it happened unexpectedly that the boring book turned out to be useful after all, as it recommended a Chipa Museum on the way. What may sound boring to you made our eyes sparkle as big fans of this delicious pastry, so we drove there. By chance, it was the village's national holiday, during which they commemorated child soldiers from a past war. We met a super nice dance group who were having a photo shoot in their traditional outfits in front of the picturesque church, and we were invited to join them.

The road trip continued with increasingly bad weather and therefore shorter stops at Paraguay's holiest church, Cacupé, and its viewing platform. We took the first train in passing, and although almost every South American country claims to have had the first train on the continent, this might be Paraguay's second biggest attraction :D Despite the rain, we didn't let the obligatory strawberry stop in Aregua spoil our mood and got a dance performance by children in return, which reminded us all of Carolin's elementary school children's final performances.

Back in Asunción, we returned the car and Carolin made the right decision for all of us to take a stroll to the Paulista and have dinner there. With the all-you-can-eat concept of a Brazilian churrascaria where waiters bring the most delicious steak on long skewers to the table, as well as cinnamon-grilled pineapple in between, it is actually one of Paraguay's biggest attractions. Actually, we would also like to recommend to every reader to travel to Paraguay just for that reason ;)