Round the World

After leaving Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) we headed into Paraguay via Brazil - we are so worldly!

We had to get our passports stamped to exit Argentina (we all piled off the bus and back on again). Andrew got rugby tackled by some old ladies who wanted to get off the bus before him. The trick appears to be to get back on the bus before the foreigners, in order to nick their seats. We had to get entry stamps into Paraguay at Ciudad del este. This is a frantic place which the whole of Argentina & Brazil visit to buy duty free on a Monday morning (or so it seems).

The following photo`s were taken on Argentinian soil, where Paraguay is to the left, Brazil to the right, and Argentina in the foreground.

Before heading to the capital Asuncion, we decided to sample a small town first, and made our way to Villarrica. We loved the bus journeys in Paraguay. The buses make several stops and people come on to the bus (as well as surrounding the bus with their wares) in order to sell you anything from meat kebabs to plastic blow up cows - evidently an essential item for any bus trip. However, everybody waits in anticipation for the lady to come on board with a basket full of chipa`s (cheesy bread) on her shoulder to sell; we thought it would be rude not to sample a few (very good they were too!) Villarrica was a very small place and we suspect the locals do not see a pasty white foreigner (Lisa) from one year to the next (judging by the number of stares she attracted off the locals). Villarrica has a lovely little brick church on the outskirts of town and a cafe bar that delighted us with Shakin`Stevens (miss) hits at very high volume. After staying in what resembled a stable, and because nobody visited in the night to bestow us with myr, we bussed it to Asuncion the following morning.

Asuncion has a small city feel, despite it being the capital of Paraguay. We witnessed a number of street protests during our stay, which appeared peaceful (although the demonstations were always accompanied by a large police presence and the protesting men carried large sticks which made them look menacing).

Palacio de Gobierno

Strossener (ex dictator) statue that was dismantled and encased in concrete after his downfall

Typical local bus in Paraguay

Panteon Nacional de los Heroes

Each day the soldiers guard the Panteon during the time it is open to the public. At around 5pm each day (though they were never very fussy regarding time keeping), they hold a ceremony to bring down the flags at the Panteon; this is accompanied by a bugle playing soldier. It reminded us of Menin Gate in Ieper, Belgium, although there were no crowds of onlookers, just a few interested tourists looking on from cafe Lido (a fabulous cafe that is regarded as an Asuncion institution). The "Panteon Nacional de los Heroes" was built to house the national war heroes and to honour the thousands of soldiers who have died for Paraguay. It contains (amongst others) the tombs of Carlos Antonio Lopez and his son (Lopez II) who thought himself the Napoleon of S. America, apparently. It also contains the tomb of an unknown child soldier to honour the child soldiers who died in the battle of Acosta Nu in the Triple Alliance War (1869). The boys would only have been in their early teens when they lost their lives. The Triple Alliance War killed around 180,000 Paraguayans (they only had a population of around 400,000 to begin with) and left the country with around 28,000 males, with most being either very young, or very old men.

In keeping with the bus journeys, the Paraguayan`s on the streets also love to sell their goodies. Whilst sipping Cerveza (at cafe Lido) Andyb was offered a fetching pair of sunglasses, which he politely refused to buy. The next moment, Andyb had a flick knife thrust about an inch away from his face. The man wasn`t trying to steal his wallet, but attempting to tempt him into a different purchase! Again Andyb (somewhat shaken) politely refused the weapon, and the man then played his trump card - showing Andyb the knife`s pieste de la resistance - a torch at the opposite end to the blade - why Andyb still declined to buy the useful gadget remains a mystery.

We had muchas fun looking around the world´s biggest hydro-electro producing dam. We were ready to sign ourselves up for one years hard, unpaid labour after they showed us the (propaganda) film prior to the tour; our services weren´t required though, because the dam was completed in 2006. Lisa had a face on in the beginning because she had noticed some tour groups were being given orange hard hats to wear and she didn´t get one. Tensions eased when she realised that part of the tour included a ride on the special (needs) train, which shows you around the Itaipu zoo park (this houses damaged wildlife from the surrounding area). Andyb got more excited than he does viewing a well erected piece of ducting, when he saw the vastness of the dam, which is 8 kilometers long. An awful lot of concrete (enough to build 210 Maracana stadiums) and steel (enough to make 80 awful towers) has gone into the dam´s production. It supplies Paraguay with virtually all of its electricity, and Brazil with about 25%. Furthermore, the indiginous people are all VERY happy that the dam was built even though it flooded vast areas of land causing millions of them to be relocated (so says Itaipu Dam´s company information film).

We´ve also added some photos of the wildlife that we spotted at the Itaipu Dam and the surrounding area of Iguazu.

Cabybara

Toucan

This is a very exotic creature, certainly not from these parts! (this photo was taken at 11:00am after the heavens opened)

Iguazu River (guazu meaning big in Guarani and I means water - stick with us kids, were a font of knowledge) is home to the most spectacular falls we have ever seen and if we were American we might even be tempted to call them AWESOME. The Brazilian side of the falls gives you a more panoramic view, but you can get much closer (and wetter!) on the Argentinian side. We´ve finally been blessed with some hot weather and when the sun shines on the falls, rainbows and swifts appear, which is very pretty.

We think we are best letting the pictures and videos speak for themselves though; suffice to say that this has been the best few days we have spent away so far. The scenery is breathtaking, as hopefully you will see....

Well, is that enough pictures of waterfalls? Are you still awake? Just wait for the slide show presentations we`re going to host when we get home! We have many more photo`s of the falls to delight you with.

One observation on bus queuing - this does not exist in Brazil or Argentina - The Bruntons have had to tut a few times as we have lost our place in line. It is typical for us to be last to get on the bus even though we were first at the stop.

Well, we had a fine time in the city of Curitiba. It`s a lovely little place; the standard of living is supposed to be much higher here than in other parts of Brazil. We still saw quite a bit of poverty though (lots of kids begging on the streets). Stayed in a 1970`s inspired hotel with tasty breakfasts. The good people of footprints did fail to tell us however that the hotel was situated in the middle of the red light district (there was a number of peep shows and ladyboys hanging around).

Highlights of Curitiba included the Lanchonette that served us cold (670ml) beers for only 2 reals (about 60p) and laid on the Liverpool v Arsenal footie match - Andyb in his element, Lisab tipsy. The Sunday market was also good to see - very busy and we were treated to dancing in the streets (we`ve uploaded a video of it).

What of food? Well, we found the BEST "Super Vegetariano Restaurant" South America has to offer. (It was on Avenue Presidente Faria - no. 121 - big sign, easy to find). It was a lunch time place that was all you could eat for 8 reals (are we starting to sound cheap?!) and the food was lovely - we would particularly recommend the black bean stew with brown rice, though you could help yourself to loads of salad and they had about 5 hot dishes to choose from too. It is only open Monday to Friday - about 12pm till 2pm, so we got to sample it twice - Lisab in her element, Andyb full.

The people, as in the rest of Brazil continued to be very friendly and we loved the relaxed atmosphere. Even the local dogs are friendly in Brazil - Lisa accidently made a fuss of one this day and it followed us around the streets for about 2 hours afterwards. Andyb says she`s not allowed to talk to any more stray animals; he has enough looking after the wife without taking on anymore commitments.

Wanting a little snack whilst waiting for the bus to Sao Paulo, Lisa spied the local lachonette across the road. Our mouths watering at the prospect of a tasty cheese pasty, we toddled over to the fast food outlet. In our best portuguese, we requested "Duas pastel queijo, por favor". The chinese gentleman behind the counter gave us a blank stare. "Duas pastel queijo, por favour" (2nd attempt). Chinese man screwed up his face and looked slightly bemused but still gave no reply. Attempting to alter our pronounciation, we (for the third time) asked "duas pastel queijo, por favor". The chinese man this time was very confused, and was now looking around for assistance, to which there were no helpers. The forth attempt: "Duas pastel kweso, por favor" - Chinese man with same screwed up expression, and now getting (ever so) slightly aggitated stated "ah, you mean CHEESE????" to which we shamefully replied "yes please".