5am, Thursday 28th of May and we’re off! My friends Darinka and her dad Pablo had invited me to join them on their travels and I definitely wasn’t going to say no to what they had planned! We were meant to have hit the road 2 days earlier but due to Argentine bureaucracy we were delayed. Any Argentine under the age of 21 must have a document signed by both parents and stamped by a solicitor in order for them to leave the country. If the parents are divorced it’s even more important and if a parent has already passed away a death certificate must be shown! They just love legal documents in this country!
First stop was 200km away- Resistencia, the capital of Chaco to meet the coach that was hopefully carrying Darinka’s gold leaf document that her mother had completed; thankfully it all went to plan! We hit the road north for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay! The landscape got wetter, redder and poorer as we headed north. We crossed the border into Paraguay with no problems. On first impression Paraguay seemed much poorer in comparison with Argentina. But at this point I had only caught a glimpse of how the poor live in their wooden little huts surrounded by boggy water; dirt and rubbish but maybe the grey sky and cold, wet ground made it seem worse than what it was.
When entering the city we had our first encounter with the Paraguayan Police. A bus had stopped right in front of us and to avoid colliding Pablo had swerved into the other lane and there was a policeman off duty behind us. He made us pull over, he got out of his car and started shouting, swearing and all sorts through our window. Once he’d let off his steam he let us go at no other cost (which is apparently very unusual)! We carried on cautiously to the hotel where Pablo’s girlfriend Sara was waiting. This is when I noticed the difference between British men and Argentine men. Pablo didn’t have a map so stopped every 200m to wind down the window and ask kindly for directions. This is something I’ve never encountered in the UK! Men generally have a map or have already studied the route and never get lost let, they just take “short cuts” and like hell will they ask for directions. I think I prefer the Argentine way.
We spent the afternoon walking around different areas of the city and seeing the rest by car. The first destination was a market which occupied a good couple of blocs close to the city centre. The pavements were lined with home made shacks and stalls made from all sorts of claimed or stolen scrap material selling sports clothes, fruit and veg, tedede thermos and cups and a variety of
fresh herbs which they grinded for you on the spot to add to your Mate or what not. Paraguay is a tax free country so is full of cheap imported goods- hundreds of Argentine’s and Brazilians cross the borders daily to stock up on cheap goods- there’s a restriction to the value of goods each person can carry across the border at any time (US$300) hardly anyone respects this restriction as I would soon find out in a couple of days time in Ciudad del Este. After changing our “pesos” for “guarani” and “US dollars” (most places deal in dual currency due to extensive importations) getting bamboozled by the sums we had to do and the atmosphere and chaos in the market we headed for the city centre.
The centre of Asuncion is full of glitzy modern American and “British” shopping malls, handsomely elegant houses, parks and people cruising in their luxurious cars. The contrasts were horrifying. There’s no wonder Paraguay is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world!
The following morning we re-loaded the car and were set to cross the country to the triple frontier of Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina. Before leaving the city we had our second encounter with the Paraguayan police. This time it was a little scam. He claimed that we had gone through a red light and that Pablo had two choices- hand over his documents and wait for a huge fine through the post or pay the policeman in cash on the spot and avoid the whole legal document process. Of course there was a small discount if he chose option 2 but still the price was absurd for something that never happened. The policeman wasn’t taking any of Pablo’s offers but when he realised that Sara was a Paraguayan he soon backed off and accepted 20% of the price he first demanded. Everyone in the car shrugged the incident off as if it was part of the
weekly routine but I kept silent with my jaw dropped and all sorts of things racing through my mind- there’s absolutely no hope in civilising this country!
Back on the road we passed through lots of little villages. On the road side there were little stalls selling each village’s speciality- sacks of oranges, grapefruits, pumpkins, hammocks, chutneys, chipas etc. We picked up a crocodile shaped chipa (cheesy bread made from mandioca flour) AMAZING!
First stop was 200km away- Resistencia, the capital of Chaco to meet the coach that was hopefully carrying Darinka’s gold leaf document that her mother had completed; thankfully it all went to plan! We hit the road north for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay! The landscape got wetter, redder and poorer as we headed north. We crossed the border into Paraguay with no problems. On first impression Paraguay seemed much poorer in comparison with Argentina. But at this point I had only caught a glimpse of how the poor live in their wooden little huts surrounded by boggy water; dirt and rubbish but maybe the grey sky and cold, wet ground made it seem worse than what it was.
When entering the city we had our first encounter with the Paraguayan Police. A bus had stopped right in front of us and to avoid colliding Pablo had swerved into the other lane and there was a policeman off duty behind us. He made us pull over, he got out of his car and started shouting, swearing and all sorts through our window. Once he’d let off his steam he let us go at no other cost (which is apparently very unusual)! We carried on cautiously to the hotel where Pablo’s girlfriend Sara was waiting. This is when I noticed the difference between British men and Argentine men. Pablo didn’t have a map so stopped every 200m to wind down the window and ask kindly for directions. This is something I’ve never encountered in the UK! Men generally have a map or have already studied the route and never get lost let, they just take “short cuts” and like hell will they ask for directions. I think I prefer the Argentine way.
We spent the afternoon walking around different areas of the city and seeing the rest by car. The first destination was a market which occupied a good couple of blocs close to the city centre. The pavements were lined with home made shacks and stalls made from all sorts of claimed or stolen scrap material selling sports clothes, fruit and veg, tedede thermos and cups and a variety of
fresh herbs which they grinded for you on the spot to add to your Mate or what not. Paraguay is a tax free country so is full of cheap imported goods- hundreds of Argentine’s and Brazilians cross the borders daily to stock up on cheap goods- there’s a restriction to the value of goods each person can carry across the border at any time (US$300) hardly anyone respects this restriction as I would soon find out in a couple of days time in Ciudad del Este. After changing our “pesos” for “guarani” and “US dollars” (most places deal in dual currency due to extensive importations) getting bamboozled by the sums we had to do and the atmosphere and chaos in the market we headed for the city centre.The centre of Asuncion is full of glitzy modern American and “British” shopping malls, handsomely elegant houses, parks and people cruising in their luxurious cars. The contrasts were horrifying. There’s no wonder Paraguay is known as one of the most corrupt countries in the world!
The following morning we re-loaded the car and were set to cross the country to the triple frontier of Paraguay, Brasil and Argentina. Before leaving the city we had our second encounter with the Paraguayan police. This time it was a little scam. He claimed that we had gone through a red light and that Pablo had two choices- hand over his documents and wait for a huge fine through the post or pay the policeman in cash on the spot and avoid the whole legal document process. Of course there was a small discount if he chose option 2 but still the price was absurd for something that never happened. The policeman wasn’t taking any of Pablo’s offers but when he realised that Sara was a Paraguayan he soon backed off and accepted 20% of the price he first demanded. Everyone in the car shrugged the incident off as if it was part of the
weekly routine but I kept silent with my jaw dropped and all sorts of things racing through my mind- there’s absolutely no hope in civilising this country!Back on the road we passed through lots of little villages. On the road side there were little stalls selling each village’s speciality- sacks of oranges, grapefruits, pumpkins, hammocks, chutneys, chipas etc. We picked up a crocodile shaped chipa (cheesy bread made from mandioca flour) AMAZING!
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