Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007
To: touring@phred.org
From: “Michael Ayers” <michael@terminalia.org>
Subject: Gondwana - The (mostly) Pleasant Pavement of Paraguay
Mba’ Eichapu Phreds,
Yet another country overlooked by many, and another without superlative destinations, Paraguay, had nonetheless attracted my attention and was next on my route.
Somewhat distinct from the rest of South America, Paraguay possess certain features that caused my interest in touring there to increase over the last few months. Without any significantly rugged terrain, the entire land being mainly flat or moderately rolling plains, I expected cycling there to be a little less strenuous than other recently visited regions. The northwestern half of the country is a scrubby, thinly populated semi-desert, known as the Chaco, but I did not have a chance to go there this time. The southeastern half, which contained my zig-zagging route, is green and fertile, completely dominated by agriculture, and is where most of the population resides. That led me to expect a generally easy time obtaining necessities and services. Additionally, with little industry and a relatively rural society, I certainly wished for a distinct lack of traffic.
Another factor that interested me was the nation’s tumultuous and often tragic history. The area that is modern Paraguay was the first region in the southern portion of the continent to be colonized by Europeans, the Spanish in this case. However, its perceived value fell behind that of neighboring, younger, colonies due to its lack of precious metal deposits or other valuable commodities. Consequently, in the colonial era, the area never held a very large European population, considerably less than that of its indigenous Guarani people, and was treated as a relative backwater by Spain. This led, in turn, to Paraguay taking part in the first wave of Spain’s colonies to declare independence, in 1811. However, with a population comprised largely of peasants, there was little basis for an effective government, in the modern sense, and the country lived under the rule of a series of dictators, autocrats, and tyrants almost continuously, until as recently as 01985.
During its first few decades of independence, in an attempt to create a more egalitarian society, with increased rights for its large indigenous and mixed-heritage populations, the country turned inwards and became sort of a 19th-century, Latin American version of modern day North Korea. Its borders were strictly closed, lands redistributed, and military enlarged in an attempt to develop complete self-sufficiency. While its goals may have been admirable and policies largely successful, as often happens in such cases, the regime frequently employed brutal and repressive tactics. All of its early difficulties came to a head in the mid-19th century with the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance, with Paraguay fighting against the combined armies of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. While it had the strongest army at the onset of the conflict, with the Andes to its west and its enemies surrounding it in all other directions, Paraguay never stood a chance. When the conflict ended, the country had lost as much as 90 percent of its adult male population, and lay in ruins. After such a setback, Paraguay struggled to recover, but never could quite keep up with its larger neighbors.
Today, however, the country doesn’t appear completely similar to others in the so-called Third World, in fact, I might place it in World 2.5. While, in contrast to most of eastern South America, there is still a large fraction of the population with at least some indigenous, specifically Guarani, heritage, that fact is not especially apparent. One interesting exception is the Guarani language, which apparently is still spoken in many households, and as a second language by some others. Paraguay would be the first country I would visit in South America where an indigenous language is still widely used. The greeting at the start of this post is in Guarani, but though I tried for a while, I never could pronounce it properly.
One aspect seen in many other countries of a similar stature, namely rural villages constructed with traditional designs and materials, adobe, bamboo, thatch, or similar, was absent in Paraguay. At least in the areas I visited, rural citizens lived in modern-style houses, simple to be sure, but usually quite pleasant. Away from the countryside, larger settlements seemed, to my eye, to possess and almost Asian character as opposed to the European-style towns of neighboring countries. Large cities, of which there are only two, have a rather haphazard and hectic feel. The handful of medium-sized towns show a similar pattern, and small towns are almost always highway strip towns. A little curiously, there are a significant number of towns named after doctors, as in “Welcome to the town of Dr. J. E. Estigarribia.” This may be because in its early days there were so few educated people that doctors became prominent politicians, not to mention, dictators. There are also a surprising number of places with “New” names, such as “Nueva London,” “Nueva Allemagne” (Germany,) “Nueva Mexico,” “Nueva Colombia,” and even “Nueva Australia.” Most of these were fairly short lived, Utopian-type colonies set up in the 19th century when the Paraguayan government actively encouraged such ventures in order to help rebuild its population after the war. I thought about riding out to see Nueva Australia, in order to make a connection with Stage 1, but what little of it that is left is a bit off the highway on a dusty dirt road, so I didn’t go after all.
All of these factors did indeed create a country that was fairly easy to tour through, if not a spectacular one. However, a much welcomed consequence was that expenses, for both food and accommodation, were noticeably lower than in Argentina and Brazil. Food in restaurants ranged from rather basic fare to quite good meals, with a style very similar to Brazil. Supermarkets were only really well stocked in the larger towns, with a mix of items commonly found in both Argentina and Brazil. Accommodation was usually easy to find and, though never luxurious, was perfectly adequate and usually reasonably priced. Consequently, though I once again planned to start camping more frequently, I stayed indoors more than I expected.
My route began at the northern border with Brazil at the town of Pedro Juan Caballero, another open border town directly adjacent to its Brazilian equivalent, Ponta Pora. The town is another shopping-themed place, targeted at Brazilians, and though I had no particular interest in the place, I needed a day off and spent a rather uneventful day there. From there I would ride west, then south, then west, to the capital, Asuncion, a distance that I expected to take four fairly long days. This first part of the route was really nice, especially since the lack of traffic I had hoped for proved to be true. The other big plus was that the highways, all of which were the two-lane variety, were all constructed with a beautiful wide shoulder that made riding very enjoyable. The weather even became pleasantly cool, with enough wind to clear the still-present smoky haze away, at least for a couple of days. After that, the smoke returned for the rest of my stay, which was too bad. This was also a lightly populated part of the country, and though I was slightly concerned about some long distances between services, there were a number of small settlements and towns that did not appear on my map, and so the spacing turned out to be just about perfect. Another difference between what the map said and what I observed was that the posted distance to Asuncion seemed to be incorrectly short. After seeing the same discrepancy on a few signs, I began to wonder if there was another route to the city not shown on my map. Upon reaching the little town of San Estanislao, there was indeed the fairly new-looking Highway 3, which provided a short-cut to the city, eliminating about a day’s riding. Of course, I went that way. After making that turn, I picked up a better map in a local shop, which helped quite a lot.
One of South America’s smallest capital cities, Asuncion is nevertheless a large enough place, with a population of half a million inhabitants. Though it sprawls a bit, with the associated craziness, riding into the center was not especially bad, at least coming from the northeast, largely thanks to the aforementioned smooth shoulders, which continued to within 5 kilometers of the center. Once there, I found a decent place to stay and planned on a break of two days. However, I somehow expected to enjoy the city a little more than I actually did. There is not much in the way of an historic district, and the city doesn’t make very good use of its nice location on the banks of the large Rio Paraguay. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised at the good food to be found there. A well-known American chain of pizza restaurants was present, a nice break from the less-than-ideal Argentine variety, and I found a café that I enjoyed so much that I patronized it three times during my stay. In the end some nice meals and rest was more important than sightseeing, and so I stayed in town an extra day.
Next, I turned east, towards the “other” city of Paraguay, Ciudad del Este. Riding out of the city in that direction was less pleasant than entering had been. That was in part due to heavier traffic, but mainly because the wide shoulder, while still present, was practically spoiled by periodic speed bumps placed across its width. These were obviously intended to keep motor vehicles from driving on the shoulder, but in affect have also prevented everyone else from using it. For the first 70 kilometers, they were spaced about 20 meters apart, making the shoulder on that section completely useless. After that, they spread out considerably and one could ride on the shoulder, swerving into the main lane as needed. Though a slight improvement, avoiding them still occupied a lot of my attention. The distance to CdE could have been ridden in two long days, but now going into a slight headwind, I did it in two and a half, with the short day in the middle. Though I intended to camp along the way, the heavy agriculture in the area would have made finding a good place a little challenging, and with basic, inexpensive lodging in appropriate places, I stayed indoors again.
Ciudad del Este is another city built primarily to service Brazilian shoppers, being located right on the border, and has the appearance of being created for that purpose in the mid-20th century. It is a fairly large place, distinctly urban and sprawling, and not spoken highly of by most guidebooks. I did not dislike it entirely, however, as it reminded me of Asia even more than Asuncion did, with its streets lined with informal vendors selling just about anything. Fishing equipment seemed to be the hot item of the day.
My actual reason for stopping in CdE was to use the city as a jumping-off point to a visit to a major destination outside the country. Specifically, that was the famous Iguazu Falls, one of the largest waterfall systems in the world. Similar to Niagara Falls, Iguazu forms the border between two countries, this time Argentina and Brasil, with Paraguay just a short distance away. The falls can be appreciated from either country, however, the closest views are from Argentina, close to the town of Puerto Iguazu. Getting there from CdE would seem to require a short 18-km passage through Brazil first, which is not as straightforward as it would seem. I had seen conflicting information on whether a visa would be needed to transit directly though Brazil to Puerto Iguazu. Since mine had already expired, I though the best thing to do was simply turn up at the immigration point to find out for sure. There, I was told that a visa was indeed a requirement, but if I went to the Brazilian consulate in CdE, I could get a special “transit visa” costing 40 dollars. All right, I thought, and went back for that.
However, not only did that officer give me very poor directions to the consulate, he was completely wrong about the transit visa, and the consulate would only give me a normal visa, costing 140 dollars. To me that seemed excessive for a 45-minute stay in the country. Not normally one to complain, I rode back to the border in order to mention to the officer I spoke to before that he was wrong on two counts. Of course, he was gone when I arrived, and so I explained to another officer that I thought buying two visas and one extension already this year was enough, and another shouldn’t be needed for such a short distance. He didn’t really buy that line of reasoning, but after a while just told me to go on through, but that I should be careful not to get into “trouble.” A short time later, I was back in Argentina at Puerto Iguazu. There, I learned that there was a passenger ferry across the river from CdE directly to Puerto Iguazu, allowing one to bypass Brazil entirely, if desired. No one either in CdE or at the Brazilian border seemed to know anything about that, however. If I had been told in the first place, “Why don’t you take the ferry?” much aggravation could have been avoided.
Eventually, the falls were just as impressive as their fame would indicate. The viewing area is located in a national park, 18 km from town. I rode out the next day, and soon realized that two days would be needed to fully appreciate the falls and the surrounding forest, which contained more pretty butterflies than just about anyplace I’ve ever seen. After that I needed to return to CdE and intended to use the ferry to avoid further confusion. Of course, being a Saturday, it was unavailable, as it only runs on weekdays. That meant I would have to become an illegal alien once again and sneak back through Brazil. Not sure if whoever was at the border would look the other way this time, I was relieved to see most traffic simply zooming right through the Brazilian station. So I joined them and nonchalantly rode across, taking the opportunity to observe the falls from the other side, equally impressive, and visit the adjacent bird park.
From CdE I had only one section left in Paraguay, south along the eastern edge of the country to the town of Encarnation, where there was another border crossing into Argentina. That part of the country was the most fertile and exhibited more intensive agriculture than other areas, though I sensed that there was considerable foreign ownership there, a situation that has been common in Paraguay since the war in the 19th century. With gently rolling terrain and useable, if uninteresting, small towns spaced out along the way the riding was rather easy. There were more of the shoulder-destroying speed bumps on that highway, though not 100% of the time. When they were there, many had been removed wholly or in part, apparently by locals who were just as aggravated by them as I was. Despite their presence on more than half the route in the country, it may yet be that poor, inconsequential, Paraguay posses the best roads of any country in the tour so far. If someone could convince the local highway ministry to remove the rest of them I’d be sure of it. In fact, I preferred the Paraguayan roads to the busy Argentine ones, that I tried to find a way to stay in the country longer. There was a secondary road that ran a few hundred kilometers to the extreme southeastern tip of the country to a little town called Paso de la Patria. There was a similarly named town on the Argentine side of the river, and that made me think that I could cross there. However, though I was told that there was indeed a ferry, there is not an immigration station, so it was not possible.
There was one last attraction to see before leaving, however, namely the ruins of the Jesuit Mission at Trinidad del Parana. In the colonial period, the Jesuits established a number of missions in Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, with the intent to “civilize,” and undoubtedly convert, the indigenous Guarani people. These were set up as wholly communal endeavors, focused on agriculture. By all accounts the Guarani actually took to that lifestyle rather readily and the missions were extremely successful. So much so that they drew the ire of the more traditional colonialists, those of the type who preferred using cheap, even slave, labor to work standard, colonialist-owned plantations. This state of affairs contributed to the Jesuits being expelled from the entire Spanish empire.
To visit the mission, I stopped in the tiny town of Bella Vista, where there is a nice hotel run by descendants of the many German immigrants in the area. Today only portions of the stone buildings remain at the mission site, and though its condition is less than perfect, it is clear that it must have been an impressive operation in its heyday. After visiting there, a dreary period of rain settled in for a few days. Not really enthusiastic about the prospect of riding on busy, narrow roads in Argentina under those circumstances, I stayed put in Bella Vista until it cleared, causing another lengthy, and unintended, delay. While there I was able to join in the hotel’s Oktoberfest. While I appreciated the delicious meal, I declined the opportunity to dance with the costumed young ladies provided for the guests entertainment.
Once the rain let up a little, I had only to ride the short distance to rather frumpy town of Encarnation and exit the country. With that the eastern portion of the South American Stage was complete. I had hoped to make up for lost time in that region, but instead I lost even more. Oh, well.
From there, my route would take me back to the west, and the Andes again.
This time the Andes would be for real.
Aguije,
Mike
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The Tour of Gondwana
May 02005 - ???
http://www.terminalia.org/tour