Cecilia Asuncion

... It's dirty, crowded, noisy, and full of illegal activity. Surprisingly, the minute you cross the Friendship Bridge into Brazil, you feel like you're in a different world. Suddenly, it looks very green, with plenty of grass and palm trees. We were pretty dumbfounded when we got to Iguazu, which makes Niagara seem a lot less impressive. Along a walking trail on the Brazilian side of the falls, view and breath-taking view eventually led us onto ...

... airport to speak to the tourist office. This worked out quite well and we got quite a lot of information, even though they spoke no English. We followed the route they gave us until we came to a section that was almost a dirt road and getting very residential in style and so we stopped and asked a couple of locals if we were on the correct road. We named the road, but none of the locals knew the road, and so we went back looking for it. We eventually ...

I left Santa Cruz-Bolivia, by taking a TAM flight in the a/noon, everything seemed to be fine, I could not fiind any hostel before going, so, i decided to go there and find whatever i could, I asked at information, in Asuncion's airport, and i got a not so expensive hotel. Hotel Plaza was 26 US$ per night, but my best choice. Going to the center is easy, just next to the airport is the bus stop, paying 2000 guaranies (half a ...

... dernière nuit dans un hôtel miteux, et puis j'ai mis les voiles, direction l'Argentine.

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A s usual in Paraguay, the bus to go back to Asunción was slow and hot, and stopped absolutely everywhere. By the end of the trip it was completely full but still stopping, and on a few stops groups of "westernized" Guaranis Indians hopped on. I had already seen (in Peru and Bolivia) what is the result of forced assimilation of Indios, but for Daniela it came as a shock ...

... field. On Saturday, about 30 men came out to house to start clearing the land for the field. The mayor came out with tractors from the municipality as well while pulling strings on his cell to get more money for the field (I have way too much that I could say about about politics, political favors, who knows who from what I have observed from getting this field built, but I am going to have to save that for another time, but it speaks to the core of the work of ...

This weekend I will be going out to a site to spend 4 days with a volunteer! I am very excited. We got our assignments yesterday, and I will going a site near Independencia in Guaira department, about a 4-5 hour bus ride from Asuncion. I leave Saturday and will be back Tuesday. Everyone is excited to finally be able to leave and get out on our own. Training is incredibly restrictive with little free time. Lots has happened in the last week, and I can't ...

... in fact, almost equally, Spanish in culture, American in agriculture. Occasionally you can even see a real live gaucho, like a European dandy compared to his US counterpart, but they look cool. I vaguely remember a river passing under us, so that must have been the Parana' but I couldn't swear to it. Bumps in the road become minor collisions in my semi-lucid dreams, but at least the Burmese didn't attack. That's only happens when I take sleeping pills.

... a really pretty old church, according to Joaquim the oldest in Paraguay, and after the waterfalls we had a really nice dinner. I had cordon bleu with french fries and coke (super yum). We then headed home. I just uploaded the pictures to my facebook and here they are... PHOTOS Tomorrow I'm off to Ciudad del Este, near Iguazu Falls.

... Paraguayan harp music aired on August 15 in conjunction with the inauguration of our new president Fernando Lugo. Who by the way just said that he will not take the salary given to the president and instead it will be given to a foundation to distribute as they see fit. One of my nieghbors(paraguayan) said that this is the first time that he has ever heard of a Paraguayan not accepting money and that surely he will be ...

... Truthfully, there isn´t much to see in Asuncion. I tried their famous Sopa Paraguay (Paraguay Soup). Ironically, it´s not soup but more of a baked bread. There´s a whole story about its origin, something about putting too much flower and leaving it to bake in an oven. I found it to be a cruel joke on us unassuming tourists. I really wanted the soup that day.