Paraguay is characterized by its borders, located between Andean Cordillera and forests
Paraguay is characterized by its borders. About seven million of inhabitants rival with two powers like Brazil or Argentine. Paraguay fought neighbors for land and water. Now, they are main tourists. Sometimes, they play jokes. We cannot choose our neighbors. This is like family. At Madrid airport, an Argentine lady boarded. She was on the Air Europe flight to Asunción. She heard a passenger’s comment. He spoke of his first Atlantic flight. She exclaimed, “You chose the worst flight?”
Her countrymen immediately laughed. After 12 hours, everyone admired the landscape. It was beautifully colored. Wild rivers rusted the land. Green fields competed with palm trees. Small wooden houses dotted the scene. Cows grazed under a blue sky. Dreamy clouds floated above. In Asunción, a good cocido is the best alarm. Cocido is a hot mate infusion. It contains milk and much sugar. Someone announces it on the street. They use a loudspeaker from 6 a.m. Mate is best served cold or hot.
People consume it at all times. Men and women walk with thermoses. These guangues are leather-covered. They often show local football colors. This ritual ignores social classes. They boast mate is their invention. Argentinians and Brazilians drink it too. They use it as a coffee substitute. What is new here? Guangue and bombilla are shared. The container holds herbs and cold water. The pajita is for sipping. Sharing is a local custom.
The hammock in the patio
Paraguay, located between the Andean Cordillera and the forest, lacks access to the sea. Its history is summed up in broad terms in the House of Independency, which is located in the center of Asunción.
It is a farmhouse that evokes the town of the XVIII century and celebrates the emancipation of the country. The walls made of clay bricks welcomed the secret meetings, during which the fall of the Spanish government was handled. On the night of May 14, 1811, Governor Bernardo de Velasco laid down his arms. He did this without unnecessary bloodshed.
He accepted a role in an interim government. Bells rang and people cried, “Hurrah, Union!!” Twenty-one gunshots accompanied that day. The patio features a hammock and vintage furniture. Religious icons and jewelry belonged to the early owners. The family included Spaniard Antonio Martinez and his Paraguayan wife, Petronia Caballero. Their belongings combine history with upper-middle-class life.
The town life
Out of town, life is happening along the street. The picture of mate vendors with their rudimentary stalls and their healing roots is part of the landscape. While you are walking, you recognize the lomiterias (the meatloaf is the traditional dish; Paraguay does not seem to be an appropriated country for vegan people…) and at the same time hand-carved furniture, homemade jams, or cornmeal are offered for sale. Everything under the shadow of mangoes.
Have they already tasted chipa? This question will be repeated all the way to Ciudad del Este. You can eat the cake, made of starch of manioc, as an addition to breakfast, as a cocktail, or simply to satisfy your sweet tooth. The cakes from Chipería María Ana are very popular. At the Chipería, single mothers dressed with local customers sell these hot cakes for the price of 3000 guaraní (Euro 0,50).
The travel to Ciudad del Este, just 300 km down South, across a two-way street full of trucks and vans seems never to end. In the little countries along the way (these little countries are just a few houses by the roadside or lost in the middle of the landscape; most of them have dirt roads, hens wandering freely, and cows grazing right before your eyes), you can feel the tranquility of the country and a way of life that seems to be on the verge of disappearing.
Life in the forests
Many countrymen move to the cities, looking for a better life, while soybean plantations and grasslands for cattle are growing, but these are places where time seems to have stopped, like the Botanical Reserve of the anthropologist and naturalist Moisés Bretoni, of Swiss origin.
Moisés Bretoni was one of these adventurous travelers, who carried out their own research in the forest with the Guaraníes. His house has been preserved, and also all that was left of his typography, where he published his research. In 1929 he died of malaria, a few days after his wife and he was buried in the same cemetery, under the incense trees. In the reserve live two dozen Guaraní families, who are surviving by government help and by sale of seed beads to the tourists. The Guaraní culture continues, and it is part of the roots of the country.
Bertoni used the river Paraná for its travels and at present there is the project to reopen this route for the passage of tourists, but now you can exit from the reserve only across a bumpy road made of reddish dirt, that is the characteristic and breeding colour of the High Paraná.
Paraguay: Land of opportunities
On the way back, you can see in many stretches on the asphalt the work to enlarge the lanes. If you add to this the improvement projects of the local airports and the excellent hotel infrastructures, you could say that civilization or whatever that means, advances by forced marches.
Even though its geographical situation, surrounded by two giant countries, Paraguay seems to be a land full of opportunities, where you can really have many things to do. Marcela Bacigalupo, former Tourism Minister seems to have quite clear future. “Paraguay wants to get out of being the great unknown”. Since Air Europe set up direct flights from Madrid, you can note an increased movement of tourists. According to official figures during 2016 2.300.000 travellers visited the country, of which 80% came from Argentine.
The river Paraná marks the life of Ciudad del Este, since the city, that arose with the arrival of workers who had to build the dam of Itaipú, is now a free commerce area. The traffic of goods and tourists flows like an impetuous river.
The Bridge of Friendship
Every day hundreds of Brazilians and Argentineans cross the Bridge of Friendship at the border to buy bags, blankets, motorcycles or sausage steaks. Each visitor spend 350 US dollars on average. Many visits end in the same day, but some families take advantage of the situation and extend their stay ,enjoying the emerging rural tourism and the hotels, that like the romantic Casa Blanca Hotel offer a wonderful view of the river, one of the wonders of Paraguayan nature.
In order to regulate the flow of Paraná, the fifth most important river in the world, the Itaipú dam was built, an impressing engineering work, like the one of Three Gorges in China, that allows to provide Paraguay and Brazil with clean hydroelectric power. You can visit its installations with a free tour, and, if you are lucky, you can also admire the exit of the waterfalls from the eight hatches. The visit ends with the crowning path of the dam on a bus for a few minutes until you come to the Brazilian bank of the river.
The jumps of Monday in the high Paraná (Paraguay)
A vision of the neighbouring country, Brazil or Argentine, depending on where we are, is a constant. Paraná and its tributaries carry an enviable flow, although many houses lack of electricity and drinking water. The jumps of Monday enchant you for its unstoppable strength of water. From a belvedere, where a sign forbids you to bathe, swifts are playing among foam waves, produced by water falling on stone from an height of 40 meters. There are zip-lines, surrounding the waterfall and also fishermen crossing the adventurous men to the shore.
Along this way Jesuits landed in Trinidad, one of the most important constructions of the 30 populations of the route of Paraguayan missions, where 3000 indigenous moved to. A flower very similar to orchid, inambú ceboy in Guaraní, cover like a white coat the lawn surrounding the massive ruins. Here they traded mate herb, sang in Latin and built musical instruments, in harmony with Guaraní population.
Among this ruins remains the echo of an utopia, ended in the blood, after the expulsion of the Order, imposed by Charles III in 1767.
The Religious were arrested and Guaraní people came back to the forest, but their language, rich in onomatopoeias, had already acquired the gift of writing.
The Great Church of the Jesuitic Guaraní Mission of Jesús de Tavarangué
Rubble buried the devastated town. Over years, it lost maize-growing seeds. This crop brought many profits. Spanish help dug up the mission. Mennonites cultivated this herb. They did so in the early 20th century.Today, not far from there in the locality Bellavista, where a large German community lives and resides after the two World Wars, some of the most important companies of the country arise and produce this kind of herb.
Hotels, Restaurants, Fishing and Water-Sport Clubs complete the path to Encarnación, a tourist city, built up around the beach along the river, where you can admire a wonderful sunset, with background of Argentine. Back to the capital, in Yaguarón the Franciscan Church of St. Bonaventure, built up in lapacho wood, show us how beautiful Baroque is.
The opportunities offered by Paraguay
Here missions seem never end. The Jesuits, like the Father Francisco Oliva, (Sevilla 1928) do not seem to be dark cassocks, as they were in the past. Everyone at Bañado knows Pa’i Oliva. Bañado is a poor, humble neighborhood. He commits to disadvantaged people. He left during Stroessner’s dictatorship. Then he later returned with democracy. People welcomed him as a hero.. Jesuits, like Father Francisco Oliva, are not dark cassocks.
This differs from the past. Bañado is a poor, humble neighborhood. Everyone knows Pa’i Oliva there. He commits to the most disadvantaged. He left during Stroessner’s dictatorship. Then, he returned with democracy. People welcomed him as a hero. He knew his missionary calling. He took up his predecessors’ legacy in Paraguay. We often wrote about Paraguay’s opportunities. We highlighted investment advantages. Doing business there is beneficial. It’s great for retirement.
Many good reasons exist to move. Safety is high. Crime rates are low. Life is relaxed. Cost and quality of life are excellent. The tax system is beneficial. Paraguay is a sought-after destination. Young people, entrepreneurs, families, and over 60s choose it. If you plan to move to Paraguay, forget doubts. Rely on experts. Trust the professional team at “Living In Paraguay.” Their mission is to help families. They assist young people and pensioners. They build a “safe plan B.” This secures a permanent residence. They benefit from Paraguay’s many advantages. This small, surprising State offers much.
