Papillon Asuncion

... bridge that lets you stand in the middle of the upper and lower falls right in the middle of everything while getting soaked by a never-ending mist. That short trip was what saved our sanity during this uneventful summer. <br><br>So overall, our experience in Paraguay (both in and out of the office) has been pretty dull and unpleasant. Generally, I don't like to say bad things about places but, other than a few local friends, everyone and ...

... 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 ...

... not pleasant to bathe in the stream when it is cold and windy. The family I am staying with is very loud. There are 5 sisters all in the their late teens or 20s, and they are quite loud. And 4 of their kids live with us too, so there is never a quite moment. They put the radio on full blast starting at about 630 in the morning, and there is not a quiet moment after that. I am looking forward to peace and quiet and privacy when I move in on my own.

... in rags, barefoot, dirty and smelling gross, it's the standard of all those forgotten people... Nowadays you add on top of that the pathetic influence from the US, so they adopt fake-gangsta style and gang attitudes. Civilization is beautiful...<br><br>The hotel our first time in Asunción was really crummy, so we didn't want to go back there. So we had to find somewhere to sleep, and in the end I decided to spoil ourselves with a bit of luxury, to break the routine of hostel dorms or ...

After a busride of 5 hours I arrived in the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. This time I was well on time for my bus because the hour changed here to summerhour, damn I could of slept an hour more :-( It was getting dark so I checked in in an hotel ...

... there was just no way we would make it to class so had to wait a while before it stopped. When its raining most people (like my host brother) don't go to work, and most children won't go to school, but not the Peace Corps, training must go on. It is miserable if we have to walk any amount of time outside since the road will turn into deep red mud. A lot more has gone on, but I will have to save that for later.

... was super fun. For all your World Cup Elimination round updates. You will notice that PY is number one in its region... as is the US. I don't have a ton of work going on right now. Allthough I'm feeling pretty busy. The new training group of PCVs is going to come out to my site for a night this month to do a technical excursion. I've been planning that out. I also have ...

... so. Part of the problem is 'reciprocity', in which countries want to require visas of those countries which require visas of its own citizens, even to the point of charging exactly the same fee. This usually hits US travelers hardest, and then Canada and UK, as these are the strictest countries for entry and the most popular for illegal immigration, not coincidentally. I understand their point but they may be shooting themselves in the foot, as ...

... projects started with at least one local small land holder. We also just built a gray water filtration system at our house to deal with all of the excess water we use now that we have running water. It is actually quite amazing how our water consumption rose with the arrival of running water without a rise in its need. Also, I am pretty sure we have previously written about the German hospital that used to operate ...

On Sunday we left Benito and got a private bus to Ponta Pora on the Brazil/Paraguay border. We stayed the night there and the next day we got our passports stamped out of Brazil and into Paraguay. Our destination was Asuncion, the capital city of Paraguay and apparantly the cheapest city in South America. It was also meant to be excellent for duty-free shopping. As it turns out it was ...