Terere and sopa Paraguay (Paraguayan soup)

Terere equipment hidden in the tree whole.

In Paraguay cold Mate (Terere) is extremely popular. In Asuncion many people are walking around with the cup, spoon and the thermos. Seriously, so many people, bread seller, taxi driver, bank Clark, even the policemen on duty has all his mate equipment at hand. I tried it and I like it. It is delicious.

Couchsurfing and studing Spanish

Diana and Manuel.

My most important aim for Paraguay was to devote some time and to study Spanish. Already being in Asia I bough a self-learning book with Cd's as well as I downloaded a few podcast for learning Spanish. When I was traveling in Asia I was listening to them from time to time, but I never had enough time to sit and study with the book. In Asuncion I managed to stay in Diana´s place doing couchsurfing. I was sightseeing a bit the city, but most of the day I studied Spanish with my book and it was very useful. After my stay in Asuncion I was able to keep an conversation with the locals :)

Funny building.

There is not too many buildings that might me lough. Actually I can recall two famous, funny buildings: dancing house in Prague and Crooked house in Sopot. One day when I was wandering around Asuncion I found the building that initially I could not understand what it was, and than I figured out that it might have been kind of architectural joke.

Charming Asuncion

Palace of president at the back, pigs at the front.

I seriously think that the Asuncion is a charming capital and very easy going. For the European standard, it is probably not the safest capital, but I guess it is one of the safest capital in south America. I could wander on my own there! Whiteout too much fear!!! Asuncion lacks touristic attractions but it has its hidden charm.

Jesuit ruins

Trinidad during the sun set.

I managed to get to the Trinidad site just before sun set. The ruins were nice, but the site did not impressed me too much. I liked a lot the beauty of the sky and the upcoming storm. But I was told that at the night there will be a night visualization of this site and that I could enter with the same ticket. And this visualization with the lights and music in the background was truly amazingly beautiful.

Adventurous bus trip in Paraguay

Paraguay women.

As a first stop in Paraguay I planned to stop at the Jesuit's ruins which were four - five hours away by bus from the Brazil-Paraguay boarder. But before getting to the bus station I need to fulfilled the usually, first quest after entering new country. Luckily this time I was much more successful than in Brazil. It took me only 1h to find working cash machine that would accept the Deutsche Bank maestro card. I was very happy from this success and I proceed to the bus station. On the way I met one Peruvian fellow and I had my first semi-Spanish conversation. I hardly could understands him, but at the end he invited me to his place in Peru....