Hear America Singing
Paraguay: Where The Warmth Of The Climate Is Matched By The Warmth Of Its People
If you have never traveled to Paraguay, you are missing out on one of the undiscovered jewels of South America. Paraguay is like the Mona Liza: at first glance maybe not the most beautiful in the world, but as you peal off the layers you start to realize there’s more depth to it than you ever dreamed.
Should you arrive by bus, you will end up at the Asuncion bus terminal. Don’t be put off by the somewhat seedy appearance of the surrounding city blocks. The terminal itself is modern and from here you are able to get a bus to virtually anywhere in Paraguay. City buses also leave from here – bus no 8 goes to the city center. Inside the terminal you will find a restaurant and numerous small shops.
The city center is old and sometimes crumbling. But for some strange reason the gentle decay of many buildings just add to the charm of this old place. As you wander down the main street (called Avenida Palma), you will hear harp music streaming from many shop windows. The harp is after all Paraguay’s national instrument.
There are numerous shops offering the renowned spiderweb lace that Paraguay is famous for. The stall owners are not as pushy as their counterparts in many other South American countries. The numerous money changers will, however, accost you quite aggressively with their calls of ‘cambio, cambio!’.
Paraguay’s second biggest city, and also the trading capital, is Ciudad del Este in the east near the border with Brazil. In many ways this city is not a typically Paraguayan city – it actually more resembles a place like Bangkok or Jakarta. It’s virtually one big shopping mall, where you can buy the latest version of Windows before its been released in the US! Everything is for sale, from ebook readers to laptops, from an antiquated black helmet to the latest motorbike.
A lot of Paraguay’s charm lies in its countryside. Around Asuncion you will find a number of small towns where the artists specialize in one type of product. Whether it’s nanduti lace or the cute little ceramic chickens that have become so popular, you are sure to find something that will forever remind you of this most special of countries.
Make sure you have enough scrapbooking paper: Paraguay will make you want to remember every single moment. From the wide open spaces of the Chaco, to the cool breezes beside the Paraguay river, from the many vendors shouting ‘pan, pan!’ (bread) to the flashy shopping malls of eastern Asuncion, it’s a country that will never allow you to forget it.
I Hear America Singing