Touring Paraguay
06/22/2009
My first three days in Paraguay were spent in my favorite part of the country in a place called Villarrica. Villarrica has a way of surrounding a person’s heart and taking permanent residence there. The country is beautiful with the open air, plants and wildlife, and most importantly, the amazing people that make it so welcoming I have soon come to call it my Paraguayan home.
After having spent 3 weeks in Asunción, the capital city, attending classes for a total of 90 hours, I was very happy to be back in Villarrica once more. What can I say? I just never have been much of a city girl. ;) The open air and sitting outside and soaking up the sun... walking down the rock paved streets to the park and watching the “gansas” (geese) and “parinchos” (native to South America) swimming in the lake... free to lay on the grass and watch the night stars from underneath the palm tree at Susi’s front door... I love that tree. :) Yes, this is the life for me!
Since returning to Villarrica, I was able to begin my research for the summer research grant I received in order to research the artforms of Paraguay. Susi, her boyfriend Diego, and I began our journey on Wednesday night and spent the first night in Ciudad del Este close to the borders of Brazil and Argentina. The city is crazy busy from early hours until around 3. There are a ton of stores and booths set up on the streets with barely enough walking room to maneuver from one to the other. Here, you can find anything you are looking for, or not looking for. The prices range from cheap to expensive and everything in between. It’s possible to find 4 stores side by side that all sell the exact same thing. Here, Susi bought a new camera to take pics on our journey around the country.
The next day, we packed up the truck again and headed to Argentina to see las Cataratas Iguazú (Iguazú waterfalls). Words cannot describe how awesome that experience was! We encountered people from all over the world here speaking many different languages. We even made friends with a couple from Israel who shared candy with us. The beautifully colored blue and yellow birds would swoop down to eat bread offered to them and the koati (local animal) walked along the railing of the walkways right alongside the tourists.
We began our venture through the forest trail and my first view of the waterfalls was from the top of the “Devil’s Throat.” It was huge! It had been rainy the previous day and that morning so it was a little dreary out to begin with, but once the sun poked through the clouds, the rainbows were gorgeous! We spent some time here taking pics and just soaking in the magnificence of nature. Then, we headed down, down, down to the bottom of the falls to get the view from below... again, I was awestricken. Even more fun, I paid 120,000 guaranie (approx. $24) to take a boat ride even closer to the falls. Just exactly how close did I get? Well, I got some awesome pics, and by the time I got back to shore, I was drenched. Yes, they took us underneath 2 of the falls. It was great!
Susi and Diego were pretty exhausted by this point and I was pumped with excitement and enthusiasm. (Last night, Susi said she had told Diego that she doesn’t know where I get my energy). We loaded the truck once more and made it to the missions and got a hotel for the night. The next morning we were planning to visit the Jesuit Ruins.
