Paraguay: Asuncion

From Encarnacion, we headed to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. We first had a stopover in Yaguaron to admire its church. Check out the photos directly below; especially the one of the tremendously tall pulpit. The Jesuit missions would have looked just like this church, except this one was founded by Franciscans, which partly explains its good fortune of having survived.







We had a really strange visit to Asuncion. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon. The streets in downtown looked rather deserted, not to mention maybe 10% of the buildings are abandoned. Monday was a national holiday. Tuesday it rained a lot. It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon we began to see more than a handful of people at a time. It wasn't that we felt unsafe, it was rather eerie and disconcerting. [See the photos farther below.]

The highlight of Asuncion was meeting our new friends Gabriel and Diana at a vegetarian restaurant run by a couple of really nice ladies from Taiwan. Gabriel is a polyglot and learned Chinese on his own. They showed us around, took us to the lakeside town of San Bernadino, a major summer weekend destination, as Paraguay is landlocked. We were introduced to traditional Paraguayan food (4th below). We finally saw where crowds gather;that is, everyone had decamped to the suburbs. We had never experienced that level of urban flight as in Asuncion.









I had a major revelation - tapioca is yet another food native to the Americas. The plant is cassava (English), yuca (Spanish), and mandioca or aipim (Portuguese). Tapioca is the starch extract in English. In Brazil, it's a pancake made from the starch, also known at Mbeju (photo below) in Paraguay in the native language of Guarani. The bubbles in boba tea, popular around the world, is made from tapioca, a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking. Conquistadors took cassava to the Philippines, then spread to the rest of Southeast Asia, where it became a common ingredient, from which we now have the bubbles from boba tea, global phenomenon.



On the bus from Encarnacion to Asuncion in our fav seats: Upper Deck, Front Row!!!




Paraguay exports millions of tons of soybeans. We saw many grain silos (grainaries) along the road.




On the National Holiday we followed a walking tour of historic buidlings.


Municipal Theatre Ignacio A. Pane


National Pantheon of Heroes


Not an historic building, but on the route. ;-)


The Central Railway Station is now the Railway Musuem.




Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption




Typcial corner in Central Asuncion.


This green building catches the eye. It's under rennovation OR being demolished; hard to tell which.




Just a few blocks away is the Palacete Duarte (1908) Art Nouveau Building which is being renovated.


Lots of military police around the Palacio de los López, the office of the President of Paraguay.




View to the Paraguay River.


The Art Deco Marco Polo Building / Edificio Marcopolo


The Historic and Very Spiffy Asunción Palace Hotel


And bonus, John gets a haircut.


The striking non-historic brick Asuncion Super Centro Shopping Center


The so-called Mansión Art Déco was around the corner from our apartment.


Also the Church of the Incarnation was near our apartment


The next day we finished up the walking tour in the rain. Check out Sun-Ling's new yellow rain jacket.




And had a tasty meal at Comida Taiwanesa Y Occidental Saludable Y Vegetariana where we met Gabrial and Diana.


We are rewarded with a rainbow at the end of the day as seen from our apartment.




Lunch At Veggie Heart, another Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant.


More typical buildings in Central Asuncion.

Paraguay: Encarnacion

We based ourselves in Encarnacion for visiting the Jesuit Missions. Unsurprisingly the origin of Encarnacion goes back to a mission. However, there does not seem to be a single old building left in Encarnacion. Nevertheless Encarnacion seems like a rather tranquil, livable town. On the morning of our departure, we finally managed a little walk around town in the daylight - there was a Half Ironman aka Ironman 70.3. We seem to run into marathons quite a bit. This was a first.

Our apartment in Encarnacion was very close to the bus terminal, and even closer to this old-style gymnasium, now the home of Basketball Club Pettirossi.




The eating was good in Encarnacion. Our first night we had veggie arabes (sandwiches) at El Amigo (1st and 2nd below), and then a couple of chipas at a fast food place a block away (3rd below). According to Google: In Paraguay, chipa is a small, savory cheese bread made primarily from cassava (manioc) flour, cheese, eggs, and a fat like lard or butter. It is a staple food, often sold by street vendors and considered a symbol of national identity.






The next morning on our way to the missions we stopped for a few chipas at Chipa Don Pipo on the way to the bus terminal. A single traditional chipa costs 4000 Paraguayan Guaranis, about 60 cents.


After returning from the missions, we set out in the rain for veggie tapioca wraps and a quiche at NutriFrut Restaurant.




On the way home from NutriFrut we stopped by the Cathedral where a wedding was about to start.




The next morning we had less than an hour before our bus departed to take a quick look around at the waterfront, and were surprised to see a (Half) Ironman 70.3 in progress.




A photo-op at the nearby sandy beach with views across the Rio Paraná to Posadas, Argentina.


The former Encarnacion Railway Station.