Our short visit to Paraguay was spurred by our cultural and etnographical curiosity and had absolutely nothing to do with the desire to get an extra stamp in our passport and a cool status on Facebook. That would be childish.
Paraguay was 10 minutes away from our house and we couldn’t resist it. We were warned that Paraguayan bordermen were particularly corrupt and their favourite past time was stealing money off gringos but we had dealt with post-war Yugoslav bordermen and were prepared for anything (ok I was young but I still got bullied at the borders and feared for my gameboy every time). Armed with our false confidence that our feminine Eastern European charms could work they way past any Latino, and having stuffed all our money and credit cards down our bras, we made our way to the border.
Despite the Paraguayan border city of Ciudad del Este being probably the ugliest city in Paraguay and possibly the world, the border crossing is quite a romantic one. A river divides Brazil and Paraguay and to make it to the other side, you have to cross the Bridge of Friendship. There are Paraguayans on motorbikes you can pay to drive you across, be we decided to do it the old fashioned way and have one foot in each country.
We only had a little bit of time in Paraguay so we decided to go for a meal and a drink in a local restaurant, otherwise known as a shithole. (I’m kidding, I’m sure there is lots of great places in Paraguay but Ciudad del Este just wasn’t one of them!) We had some fried chicken and empanadas and the traditional Paraguayan beer, Budweiser (according to our waitress it’s Paraguayan). I read somewhere that 40% of the world’s chicken is consumed by Asia but after this trip I just refuse to believe that anything under 90% is consumed in Latin America.
Having mingled with the locals we walked around for a bit, took some photos with Paraguayan flags and made our way briskly back to Brazil. It’s a shame we didn’t get the chance to spend more time in Paraguay. All jokes aside I think it’s a misunderstood country that often gets forgotten about or confused with Uruguay. Firstly, the country has a great mixture of old and new, rich and poor and some beautiful nature as well. It somehow manages to be the 2nd poorest country in South America (after Bolivia of course) and yet in 2010, due to President Lugo’s good relations with Chavez and Morales, it was the third fastest growing economy in the world.
Additionally, for such a small country, it has a powerful wealth of culture and history. Imagine it was the first country in South America to declare independence from Spain. That was followed by years of dictatorships but still, in the early 19th century a move like that took balls.
Paraguay throughout the years has been bullied by all its neighbours and stood its ground. At one point, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay declared war on it all at the same time. The Paraguayans lost a large percentage of their population and by the end of the war they were sending kids as young as 12 years old to fight. Many years of bullying followed that, right up to the 21st century, although nowadays it’s more political and economical.
And it’s not just about rooting for the underdog that attracts me to the country. 95% of the country is indigenous and although for business Spanish is used and a lot of people are bilingual, Guaraní is the most common language. That’s a very unique fact, even for Latin America.
All in all I think there is something very special about Paraguay and I feel it would be an interesting place to visit. But I guess we’ll have to leave something for the next sabbatical 😉
Crossing the Bridge of Friendship
One foot in each country 🙂
We how welcoming the Paraguayans are- this Bridge of Friendship really works!
Paraguayan empanadas and beer
Number one Latin American food- fried chicken
Natives
No its not Dutch although it looks similar...cough exactly the same cough...
