Armele Asuncion

... find the favelas or the Paraguayan shanti towns with it´s metal sheds and dirt roads a result of years of war and corruption. Paraguay used to stretch as far as western Brazil to northern Argentina, but it is now the second poorest country in South America after Bolivia. The military presens here is impressive and it is not unusual to see soldiers with bullet proof wests wondering the streets all over the city.<br><br>But nothing keeps Paraguay together as the fútboll and the mate or ...

... bar, pool etc and the piece de resistance&#8230;the opportunity to upgrade.<br><br>5 of us girls (plus max the monkey who I shared with) piled into a 6 bed room, which would not have looked out of place on the set of prisoner cell block h, the next morning only 3 remained. Turns out my arch nemesis (blondey ruth jones) snores loud enough to wake the dead and the night was a cacophony of rip roaring snores interrupted by myself and nikki tour taking turns saying shush ...

... woken up and told to get off the bus and board another bus. The second bus was not a nice bus -as paid for - we were also told that they had double booked our seats. Anyway we eventually got to Asuncion in the middle of the night and chanced it with the first taxi we saw - people were looking at us very strangely by that point.<br><br>We got to our hotel which was thankfully very nice and proceeded to sleep off the bus. We went out for an early ...

... from the moment I crossed it's borders - this is a country resigned to it's faults. It doesn't try to mask them under a veil of shady politics and clever media tricks as I have seen in Argentina and perhaps this is a curse as much as it is a blessing. But in Asuncion's tiny centre I felt welcomed and more at home in the short space of time I had afforded it, than in the weeks I had spent in Salta. I would urge any traveller to make time for Paraguay, you will not regret it.

... is very ill. She is 17 and her appendix ruptured all inside her, and she also has an ovarian cyst. She is very ill and poor, so the neighborhood has been having fundraisers to raise money for her care. Here, you must pay for the majority of care up front before receiving care. This includes all medications, which the family has to go buy in a pharmacy and bring back to the hospital for the patient. Its really amazing how everyone has come ...

... I'm pretty lonely since all my friends left and I don't have any here yet. I know it's just the transition and it'll get better. I thought I'd do a little advertising for my 3 friends who are currently biking around South America to raise money for a couple causes here in Parauguay. The first is Sam, who is riding biking from the San ...

... going to happen?! Getting onto our next port of call, Asuncion in Paraguay. We left Bonito early on the Friday morning and took a bus to the border with Paraguay. From here we tried to take a bus straight to Ciudad Del Este but it seems the only bus we could take was a bus bound for Asuncion, leaving at 7pm. As it was only 2pm and we were in the middle of nowhere we found ourselves sitting outside a street stall for a good 4 hours ...

... Then dinner is at 6 most of the time it is very light, just soup and bread. After dinner most nights I study spanish, let me just say that verb forms are currently the curse of my exsistance. Then I usually chat with Denise, the nurse that I live with for a while and then fall asleep to the sound of spanish praise music. This week I will be traveling to the river with a small group that is here. The river is one of my favorite places. When I return I will post some good river stories

... and left and we had a break for an hour. We tried to ring Fernando, but had a lot of trouble with our sim´. We had no luck, so we were unable to arrange our evening with him. Consequently we waited úntil after 8.´00, and decided to go and get something to eat. Chose a restaurant at random and had a nice meál. The price of the meal was calculated by the ...