Aregua

As I hadn´t seen much of Paraguay outside two of the cities I took a day trip out to Aregua about an hour outside of Asuncion - it was quite apparent that why it was known for it´s ceramics as soon as you stepped off the bus.....

It was a pretty little town with a nice relaxed and laid back atmosphere - all the locals were really friendly and everyone who passed you said hello.

The old railway line and train station - there is only one train that still operates in this area of Paraguay - every 2nd Sunday the old train runs to Aregua from Asuncion with not only the ticket collectors dressed in period dress but actors who play the part of passangers. Would have been fun to take that but it wasn´t on the week I was here....

A ´guancho´ riding through town - quite often when on the bus between the cities or outside I saw ´cowboys´ - it is still a way of life out here....even in the cities there are lots of guys wearing cowboy hats....

I thought the first building was a church but when I got a little closer realised that there was in fact a church in the grounds so not sure if it was a monestry at some point but I decided it was now a private house.

This one was a church...

Aregua sits on a lake - lots of Asuncion residents come here in the summer weekends to get away from the city but it was pretty dead the day I was there - then again it is winter!!

One of the holiday homes that overlooked the lake.

The big frog I nearly stepped on.

The town church had a nice view from the hill over the town and lake.

Even the street art here was religous....

The view over the town and lake from CerroKoi (Koi Hill).

Cerro Koi and it´s nieghbour Chorori are one of only 3 places in the world where this unusual hexagonal sandstone formations can be found (the others being in Canada and South Africa) - though designated a National Monument the government have not bought the land so it belongs to various people and neither is it signed or any form of protection been put in place!!

I spotted these unusual honeycombs and wasp like insects on the sandstone.

The residential area around the hill was not as wealthy as that in the centre of the town, most of the houses had outside brick stoves and some had religous shrines (like the first photo) and the kids were friendly and amused as they don´t see many foreign tourists here.


I hadn´t intended to spend too long in Paraguay as it was just a quick stop on my way between Brazil and Argentina in the end I was only here for 8 days and stayed in only two places both cities so I can´t say I even got agood feel for the country. But from the minute I crossed the border there was a different atmosphere - it´s hard to explain exactly but Paraguay on a whole did not seem to have as much wealth - even though some individuals obviously did - the cities had more of an old town feel about them - was more run down in the city centres (though had it´s modern upmarket areas as well) and although the Spanish influence can still be seen there is less of a modern western influence here though it is there.

There is no international tourism either- the few other travellers I saw here were from neighbouring countries and in fact I have only met one other ´foreign´traveller who spent any time in Paragauy and he had been volunteering there!! There was only one tour company that I could find and they ran very expensive trips out to some of the more remote areas where you would find wildlife (they were even more expensive if you were on your own) so I avoided them and it was pretty difficult to get to these areas on your own (especially with my lack of Spanish) and even the one park that I found that I could get to I didn´t make it in the end due as the roads were closed due to the rain....

That said I really enjoyed my time here - the people were friendly and very relaxed and what little I saw of Paraguayan life was interesting:-

• There is a lot of history dating back from the Inca´s and Spanish occupation, various wars and a serious dictatorship which only ended about 10 years ago.
• Though Spanish is the official language a lot of peope only speak Guarani (local dialect)
  
• The currency is the Guarani 1 pound = 7,700 Guarani (try working that out in your head!!)
  
• There were no hostels but a hotel room with bathroom and cable TV in Asuncion was cheaper than a hostel in Brazil.
• Available food was mainly junk food and empanada´s - though local dishes were probably worse if I could have found them they were things like chicken heart!
• The roads between the main cities were in good condition but outlying that they are mainly dirt roads.
• People were friendly but reserved.
• There were even more street names here that were dates than in Brazil not to count the religous one´s like Ïmmaculate Conception´.
• The calabash drinking cup will forever remind me of Paraguay
• Most of my meals I ate in supermarket resteraunts which had the pay per kilo self service counters - they were popular with the locals as well.
• Televisions everywhere......
• Cowboy hats.

If I had more money and a grasp of Spanish I think Paaraguay would have been an interesting place to spend some more time before tourism takes hold here like it has in neighbouring countries but what I saw I liked........ now it is on to Argentina.

Till next update.

Jack :-=)