Paraguay: Asuncion

The bus ride from Concepcion to Asuncion took about 7 hours and was uneventful. In Asuncion, the hotel nightmare continued. Originally, we had booked a room in a hostel at a moderately affordable price. The room was supposed to have its own bathroom, at least according to the description, but in truth, it didn't. Well, at first glance, that doesn't seem so bad, if there's only a shared bathroom, but the bathroom was about 3km away from the room, one floor down, through the courtyard and the garden on the other side of the surprisingly large property. 1 bathroom for all rooms! At the end of the world! For me, who has to go to the bathroom at least once every night, that's an absolute no-go. If I have to get dressed in the middle of the night and make this journey, I'll be wide awake afterwards and definitely won't be able to sleep anymore. We complained to the hotel manager, as this was definitely not what we had booked. The friendly man immediately offered to find an alternative solution and booked a room for us in a nearby hotel in a similar price range. At first glance, that was an acceptable alternative, although the room was also quite run-down with sagging, paper-thin mattresses, but the essentials were there and it was somewhat bearable. At least until you turned on the air conditioning. From that moment on, you felt like you were sleeping right next to a construction site with a jackhammer. And there was no question of sleeping with all that noise. So we had the choice between a jackhammer or 40°C in the room. Yay. That couldn't go on, so after a terrible night, we had to strain our budget again and move to a "mid-range hotel". It was simple but really well located in the city center and offered an excellent breakfast buffet, where we even snatched a few rolls for lunch as compensation for our budget. You have to make ends meet, after all.
Another hotel curiosity in Paraguay is the arrangement of the bathroom fixtures. Often, the bathroom is very narrow. First comes the sink, then the shower, and at the back of the wall, the toilet. Mind you, the shower is simply a hole in the floor and a shower faucet on the wall. This means that first of all, it's not possible to shower without getting the entire bathroom wet, and secondly, once you have showered, it is impossible to go to the toilet without wading through the entire flooded bathroom.

Our first day in Asuncion was a Sunday, and as we found out, you don't want to do anything there on this day. I have hardly ever seen a place that is so deserted, and mind you, this is the capital of the country. Most restaurants and shops are closed, the streets are empty, and only a few suspicious characters are hanging around in the parks. So we relatively soon gave up sightseeing and spent the day in the air-conditioned hotel room.

Then on Monday, life came into the picture or rather into the city, and we went on an exploration tour. But there's not really much to see either.

First of all, there's the Panteon de los Heroes, a mausoleum on Plaza de los Heroes, where the mortal remains of Mariscal Francisco Solano Lopez and other key figures from Paraguay's catastrophic wars are interred and guarded by a military guard.

We also visited the Estacion Ferrocarril, where there is a railway museum. The small museum was generally nice and entertaining. The Asuncion-Encarnacion railway route was the first in South America. Among other things, one of the first trains to travel on this route is displayed in the museum, along with other artifacts from that time. But in Paraguay, the railway has long been out of operation. However, the most interesting thing was the conversation with the two older Swiss ladies we happened to meet there. And from Küttigen, of all places, who would believe such a thing.

We also visited the Casa de la Independencia, where Paraguay, in 1811, became the first country on the continent to declare its independence. As interesting as that sounds, the museum doesn't really offer anything despite the guided tour by the motivated staff member, and the visit is not really worth it.

We also passed by the Palacio Lopez, the seat of the government, but could only look at it from outside.

Despite the absolutely scorching heat, we wandered around the city quite eagerly, visited the river promenade and the port, as well as the city parks and the small craft market at Plaza de los Heroes (where we even met a Santa Claus).

The two Swiss women we had met at the railway museum also recommended the Escalinata. A hidden stone staircase in a very colorful small neighborhood, adorned with colorful mosaics. Both the staircase and the entire neighborhood really appealed to us. It is actually the most charming place in Asuncion.

There we also met a photo crew, who was taking pictures with a model. Ironically, we ran into the same crew in nearly every other place we were that day. Of course, this led to a conversation, and they recommended the Restaurant Lido at Plaza de los Heroes, where you can eat typical Paraguayan food.
Of course, we followed this advice and treated ourselves to a delicious lunch there, where we tried, among other things, chipa, a typical Paraguayan pastry, a kind of cornbread with egg and cheese. When I ordered the Sopa Paraguaya, I naively expected to be served a soup. I was surprised when a casserole of corn, cheese, milk, and onions was served. It was delicious, but until today, I have absolutely no idea why this dish is called "sopa".