A piece of Paraguayan paradise: San Rafael preserve September 20, 2010
Posted by Tracy in : Paraguay , 2comments
SAN RAFAEL RESERVE, Alto Vera Province, Paraguay – “You are about to enter the most beautiful place in the world,” Daniel advised me as we bumped along on the rutted red road, which was growing more rutted and narrower by the minute as the dark forest closed in around us. Waist-high ferns and vine-draped trees rose in the darkness.
It had been two and a half hours since we’d left Encarnacion, Paraguay’s southern hub on the banks of the Parana, and it had been nearly an hour since we’d seen any kind of human habitation. Instead, miles and miles of wheat fields stretched to the horizon – the winter crop here, which will be harvested soon to make way for Roundup-Ready soy.
“The changes here in Alto Vera have been really dramatic in the past few years,” Daniel tells me. He’s watched as the vast Atlantic forests of his native land and the small farms that once dotted them have fallen, mile after mile, to make way for these fields.
“What’s happening is very sad,” he said. “The campesinos who have lived and farmed here all their lives are in a very precarious situation – if they have one bad season, they will be hungry all year. When a big producer comes to them and offers them money for their land, many of them can’t refuse. At $6,000 a hectare, it’s an inconceivable amount of money – they think they’ll be able to live on it for years, and they move to the city. Within a year or two, it’s all gone.”
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Chacoí: A little bit of Chaco on the Río Paraguay August 23, 2010
Posted by Tracy in : Paraguay , 5comments
Like any river city, one of the best parts of Asuncion is its location on the waterfront – in this case, the mighty Río Paraguay. Sadly, the riverfront has been neglected in most parts and has been populated with ramshackle settlements of the poor. Nonetheless, the area around the port and the government palace is quite beautiful and well worth a visit, and a boat ride on the Paraguay is a must for any visitor to Asuncion.
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Asuncion, Paraguay: Daily life in the plazas August 21, 2010
Posted by Tracy in : Paraguay , 7comments
ASUNCION, Paraguay – Life is settling into a rhythm here in Paraguay’s capital city. I start my day at a homey hostel called Casa da Silva with a cup of cafe con leche and some bread and cheese and conversation with Doña Da Silva, her granddaughter Angelica or Lola.
After this, it’s time for me to head to work. In the first days, it was an internet cafe down the street, but on my third day I discovered the Lugano Café, which has free WiFi – a scarce commodity in a city where only 16% of the population has internet access, according to a recent headline I read – so it’s become my unofficial headquarters. There, for the price of a couple hours at any other internet café, I can have a cortado, an espresso with cream, and log on and work to my heart’s content. I’ve discovered Asuncion is an excellent place to work because so little actually happens here, there is little to distract me.
My walk to the Lugano and back again has become one of my daily pleasures; I’m lucky to have along the route the city’s most important plazas, where I can watch the daily life unfold.
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