Hotel Excelsior Asuncion - A Summit Hotel

... station, next to the Cathedral, we found a good parking spot and so then set off on foot to go round the main sights. These consisted of the House of Senate in an 18th Century building, the Congress Hall, a brand new building, the Palace of the Governors, another old building. That covered the political bits, but opposite were 8 old house that had been restored, one of which was the oldest in the town and is used as a town museum. Next along was the ...

... more days to chill out in Asunción. Actually there aren't that many things to do in town, except getting lost because we don't understand anything to the omnipresent chaos of the city. :) We went around the monuments once more, and had a look at the zoological garden (which I found uninteresting). We wanted to take a ride on an old steam train puffing around for a couple of hours once a week, trusting the departure time given in my guide. At the reception the guy tells us that the ...

Annonce urgente Urgent personal ad ---------- Jeune homme, 29, bien sous presque tous rapports, recherche un(e) ou plusieurs compagnon(ne)(s) de voyage pour une petite folie: un pays perdu d'Amérique du Sud, sans trop de loi, une des polices les plus corrompues au monde, un raid des plaines du Sud jusqu'au limites du Pantanal dans le Nord, puis à travers les marais des Chacos dans l'Ouest, avec une ...

L'aventure: là où il n'y a pas de touristes
Adventure: where there are no tourists

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En quittant Puerto Iguazu, deux passages de frontières plus tard et j'étais au Paraguay. Les bus n'attendant pas les passagers aux frontières (à nous de prendre le bus suivant), je me suis retrouvé à attendre tranquillement au soleil sur mon sac d'un côté, et dans le bordel de Ciudad del Este de l'autre, à me battre contre les chauffeurs de taxi qui voulaient que je ...

... and then 2 teams were chosen to play. Unfortunately, 8 de Diciembre (our team) was not selected. But they will be playing this Sunday! Villeta is on the river, so you can see Argentina from the bank. They also sell alligator (or is it crocodile?? jakare in Guarani) meat down there that fishermen go across the river to catch in Argentina (probably not legal???), which I would definitely like to try. The men in my host family also supposedly hunt alligator ...

... look like they could be abandoned (though they are not) and need lots of repairs. They are also a lot of just multistory plain cement buildings. It is not a nice city. I suppose I was expecting something more befitting a world capital, but it looks like pictures I have seen of Cuba. Outside of the downtown area, there are a lot of basic buildings, lots of hardware stores, auto repair shops, etc. Nothing worth noting. The second time I went in ...

... happiest dream you could imagine for Peace Corps volunteers who hope one day their projects will be sustainable and successful. The field trip to San Rafael Reserve with a group of high school kids finally came to fruition and was even better than hoped. Even when rain started falling during the middle of the trip, trapping most of us there for an extra day, the excitement of the kids at their first chance to explore the famous San Rafael ...

This is a little taste of adventures in Paraguay with Armond. Armond is my Canadian friend who came with the team in 2003 and this year is now his 4th time in Paraguay. Every day in Paraguay is not an adventure, but every day in Paraguay with Armond is. This story is part of an email that I sent to my mom and it also shows the Paraguayan Brazilian South American mind set about time. As you know we are on Paraguay time. We were supposed to ...

Jetzt hab ich also die erste Woche hinter mir. Ich würde nicht sagen, dass sie ereignisreich war - das liegt in erster Linie daran, dass ich es immer noch nicht aus meinem Viertel geschafft habe. Interessant aber war sie allemal. Ausserdem muss ich ja die nächsten fünf Wochen auch was zu tun haben :) Ich fange am besten einfach an, wo ich bei meinem letzten Eintrag aufgehört habe. Aus der Karaoke-Bar wurde nichts, weil die anderen, die kommen sollten, drei ...

... have done as I passed locals wrapped up in winter wear. I had decided to tackle the 4km or so walk into the town centre and followed my instinct as to the direction in which I needed to head. After about an hour of walking, the largely commercial and residential streets had become lined by only open fields and I suspected that my instincts may have let me down. I turned around and headed into a small shop to buy a couple of empanadas for breakfast and to attempt to confirm the location ...