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Bus trip from Montevideo to Asuncion was long, but went really well. In the bus we had a non-stop service by our so called flight attendant, who also took care of all the border formalities. Easy trip for us! The trip took us 22 hours and we drove through three countries. Changing a country always makes us a bit confused, but especially this time, when we were not sure what time it is and the currency was also crazy, haha.
For the first time we had someone waiting for us at the bus station. Luis! I met Luis during this same trip earlier, in Brisbane, Australia about 5 months ago. You can actually read the story about meeting Luis in this same blog, weird! Anyway, Luis came to pick us up from the station with his friend and they took us to our hostel. On the way to the hostel Luis told a lot about the city and the places we passed. Tourist guide, yay!
Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay and there are about 550 000 inhabitants. Asuncion has a low number of tourists visiting the city annually, which was quite easy to recognize while being there. We saw only few blond people, there were only a few hostels and the guests in our hostel were mainly from other South American countries. As a surprising fact the people still were selling lots of things at the streets that usually is common in very touristic places. You were able to buy antennas and remote controls from many street corners, haha.
The afternoon we spend walking around Asuncion. It was Sunday, so the streets were totally empty and like Lonely Planet described, it was like a ghost town. We didn't know much about the city, which made us feel a bit unsecure, but the city seemed nice. First thing to do was to find something to eat. That was surprisingly easy and later we understood how good deal we got. Half a chicken and mashed potatoes for 2,5 euros, awesome! We went to see some governmental buildings, the old city center and went for a coffee to a nice café, which was one of the only ones open.
In the evening Luis picked us up to see more about Asuncion. We went to an amazing local café or restaurant somewhere out of the center to try some local delicacies. The place was really cozy. Even though the weather was not that warm, we stayed eating out. The local foods we tried were called Chipa and Mbeju and for drinks we had cocido. Just to tell you something about them; Chipas are a small, often cheese-flavored buns that were sold everywhere in Paraguay. The most basic ones are the most popular ones, but you can get them in many many different flavors like with ham, cheese, chicken etc. Mbeju instead is starch cake made of corn flour, eggs, cheese and many other ingredients. It is high-calorie food originally made during the war time to fill the nutrition needs when supplies were hard to find. Cocido was a hot drink that tastes bit like coffee and tea.. Weird but good!
All the local foods tasted really good and we had a fun evening. Luis took us after dinner to see other places in Asuncion, like the new center of the city, Times Square and a huge shopping mall. It is great to have a local guide, especially in a city that you don't know much about.
The next day was a bit unusual, while it took half a day to get to the bus station and to buy tickets to the next destination. We had some difficulties to find the station by bus, but on the way we saw many different suburbs and had a nice sightseeing tour, haha. In the afternoon we had a great late lunch - Ensalada de pollo. It was not that much a salad though…
Once again in the evening it was time to spend some time with Luis. Dinner at T.G.I Friday (first time I even heard of the place) was huge and really good. The place was almost full, even though it was 10pm. I felt so much like home in New Zealand when they showed rugby there, yay! After dinner we drove around and went to visit Luis's home and see his new puppy Nole. The house was really beautiful and it was easy to see that the family likes travelling. And Nole was sooooo cute running around and stealing shoes!
In the morning we were ready quite fast with our backpacks and stuff. Luis came to pick us up and we headed for brunch in the center of the city. For brunch we tried again some of the local foods and sat outside in the sunshine. Great morning! In the car I also got to try one more specialty for Paraguay; tereré! Tereré is a cold version of maté that I told you about in the previous blog entry. Luis had prepared it for us to try. I liked the taste and it changed every time we added water to the cup. Good experiences =)
This time I have to say that our bible was not as precious as earlier. The whole Paraguay part was really badly written, not much information and it didn't tell about any of the nice places. The book does not even mention the new center, not any nice local restaurants and not good sights. We were really disapointted about LP this time, even though it has usually gave good tips and told about important things.
Days at Asuncion had come to end and Luis took us to the bus station to catch our bus to Resistencia. Asuncion was different than the other capitals and it had many different faces. You were able to see poorness in many places, but also huge shopping malls and fancy houses. There were not that many tall buildings and it was a bit dirtier in many areas. We were very lucky to have Luis to show us places and take us around. If we would have been there by ourselves and had just stayed in the center area the city could have left us a "cold feeling". If going to Asuncion it is crucial to go around and see different areas and definitely find out what are the local traditions and specialties. Our stay in Asuncion was definitely a pleasant experience and we learned a lot about the culture and the way of life. Thank you Luis, thank you Asuncion!
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