Driving to Asuncion and our Mennonite Camping

Driving through Paraguay we got stopped at literally every single cop stop there was. It definitely slowed us down a bit. We had about an 8 hour drive by the maps  from Reserva Itabo to Asuncion, which was our next destination. We did lots of listening to The Bottom of the Bottle podcast. It was a fairly straight drive with a single turn I think, but the traffic was heavy and we ended up averaging about 60km/hr instead of the planned 100. That combined with the cop stops, we decided not to get all the way into Asuncion and instead stop about 50km outside of the city at a town called San Bernardino. It was a pretty touristy town on a large lake, with a pleasant square, some pretty fancy hotels, and a casino or two. Its essentially a weekend getaway for Asuncion residents. Lonely Planet recommended a campground that was a bit difficult to find, but after stopping at a market to ask the lady for directions (and get a case of Paraguayan beer that wasn't "low fermentation") we found it easily. Unfortunately, the place which advertised itself as being open 24/7 all year long on its sign was definitely closed. We waited for a bit, tried calling the numbers on the sign. Nada. We drove back into town and I walked into one of the fancy looking hotels to act interested in a room but really was just trying to get info/maps of the town. After discovering that it was about 60 bucks a night for the cheapest room and asking for a cheaper place, I eventually got a map and the receptionist gave me directions to camping.

As per the receptionist's directions we drove about a km out of town looking for a turn to the right just past a huge casino that "we can't miss".... we missed it. And kept looking for a casino. Nothing but a huge billboard for the champagne of beers, Miller High Life. But no camping. Then we stopped at a gas station and asked for camping. The guy directed us back the way we came and we eventually found a very nondescript gravel road across the street from the beer sign and followed it a ways towards a campground. It looked closed, but I jumped out of the car to see if anybody was there, and a German dude came and asked what we needed. I told him camping, which initially he seemed reluctant to have, but after reassuring him we'd be gone by the next morning he led us back through the property to a campground that was clearly set up to entertain a lot of people. BBQs, playgrounds, showers and bathrooms, dorms, a bar area. All closed down when we were there, since we seemed to be the only people staying. He apologized for not having cleaned the bathrooms after a large group of students had stayed a few days before, but other than that let us be. As usual, cards, Frisbee, and some Paraguayan beers put us to bed.

The next morning Acacia was not feeling well, but we had promised we'd leave the campground by 10. So we left at 10 exactly and then I wanted to check out the town in the day. We drove over to the main plaza and Acacia sat in the car while I walked down to the lake and checked out the lakefront and then checked out the farmers market in the plaza.

Farmers market! Is that bratwurst! German beer? Pickled things? German desserts? Woohoo! Of course I was freaking out and had to go back and tell Acacia. I told her what we had on our hands here and she sent me back for a few baked goods and supported my decision to buy some pickled goods. And that I did. I also got a 6 pack of a German pilsner (turned out to be InBev, the same company that owns Budweiser, so a bit of a disappointment after reading the bottle)  of sorts as well as a brat. Yum.

 From there we drove to Asuncion. This was dreadfully painful. The traffic may have been going only 60km the day before. But I'm pretty sure the next 50km to the city center took us 3 hours. Stop and go traffic with intersections that appeared to have no right of way designations. Also, this drive included turns; turns we weren't really sure about. In any case, we snacked on pickled peppers and garlic to give us the energy to keep going. Finally we arrived in downtown Asuncion and after going in circles around one way streets for a bit to find the hostel we were trying to reach, ended up at an old mansion-turned-hostel that felt super colonial with an open courtyard and ridiculously high ceilings.

We rested for a bit at the hostel and then were both pretty hungry so went to the closest restaurant, which also happened to be one recommended in our guidebook. Perfect! As soon as we entered, we felt super under dressed. But really only because the waiters were dressed in suits and bow ties. The rest of the crowd wasn't super fancy.

After lunch we walked around downtown Asuncion for a bit. We saw a few artisans making some pretty legit looking bags and things, saw some old colonial buildings and watched some kind of a festival or competition of sorts from afar. Acacia wasn't feeling well so she walked back to the hostel while I explored the town a bit more. Most things were closed since it was a weekend and all, but I did see the building where Paraguay declared independence (the first in Latin America to do so).

After I got back to find Acacia sleeping/reading I hung out at the hostel and watched a movie and then chatted with a French family who had been biking around South America for a few months. I went to the main square near us and smoked a cigar and then came back and did some reading while Acacia rested.

The next morning I was up super early since we didn't really do anything the day before. So early that nothing was open. But, I was bored so I went for a run, showered, and then went out to find the street vendors starting to open. I got a coffee from one of the street vendors and then hung out with a couple of locals who were also getting coffee. One of them was studying English at the university in town so could speak pretty well. The English speaker was 24 and wanted to move to the United States, and the other guy was 50 and probably still drunk from the night. Anyway, he asked about California and then told me that Paraguay had 7 million people, and they both found it pretty funny when I was like "only 7!" Seriously though, its a tiny number for how big the country is. Its gotta have the population density of Wyoming or something. While we were chatting I saw a guy driving a car around with a huge megaphone on top yelling about having coffee and cheese bread. It reminded me of The Blues Brothers. "And it's lady's night tonight!" Anyone? Anyway he was driving around selling breakfast out of his car. And people were flocking to him. Pretty genius idea to capture the early morning crowd before stores were open.

After getting back to the hostel I packed stuff up, Acacia showered, and we checked out of the hostel. We walked down towards the main plaza again and did a bit of shopping from the artisans. We also bought some food from the supermarket closest to us since our next destination was supposedly in the middle of nowhere and we weren't sure what kind of provisions would be there. We stopped and asked a taxi driver for directions out of town towards Filadelfia, a Mennonite colony/town and were on our way for an 8 hour drive or something like it.