CYCLING for LOVE: Paraguay, hot and dusty

Phew lots to catch up on but while floating up the lazy Rio Paraguay for 82 hours I had plenty of time to catch up so I will be posting few posts over the next week or so...

Km332 to Km300: Hello Paraguay!
First thing in the morning we headed for Paraguay and it wasn't long before we were in the Argentinian border town of Posadas making our way to the border. After getting our now second exit stamp from Argentina we were filled with excitement to be entering our 7th and last South American country. We reached the rather wide Rio Paraná which runs all the way down the eastern border of Paraguay starting somewhere up in Brazil, flowing over the Itaipú dam forming a confluence with the Rio Iguazú which flows from the Iguazu Falls. This confluence also forms the border between the 3 countries and cities including Foz do Iguaçu of Brazil in the northeast, Puerto Iguazu of Argentina in the southeast and Ciudad del Este of Paraguay in the west.

We now needed to cross this healthily flowing river but bicycles and pedestrians are not allow to cross this bridge so we were instructed to either go on the bus or hitch a lift. Very diligently we had all already spent every Argentinian Peso we had so the bus was not an option leaving us to start scouting for a lift. People are nervous enough at borders as it is without 3 rough looking gringos approaching them and asking them if they can chuck their bikes on the back of their bakkie, so we weren't having much luck finding a lift. Eventually the customs officials took pity on us and took it upon themselves to start asking passing bakkies if they would lend us a hand and as usual the rich with huge empty 4x4s refused and the working class man with a load of cement already weighing his bakkie down happily obliged with a smile. There wasn't space for all 3 of us so I went with Andy balanced on top of the bags of cement holding on for dear life. The bridge felt so long, at least 2 or so kilometres and this guy seemed to be a in a hell of a hurry with his bakkie swerving from side to side under the weight of the cement. I was very relieved to arrive in Paraguay and hope off the back with my bike and body in-tacked. Mark soon came along on a different bakkie thanks to another kind working class man. Again we were thrilled to be South African because we were welcomed to the country with wide open arms and no fee for to enter, a luxury Americans, Canadians and Europeans haven't been granted.

Wow we were now in Paraguay just 300km from our destination, Iguazu Falls! Paraguay didn't look or feel any more dangerous than any of the other countries we had been to. It is quite strange but every country you go to their local population will tell you the next country's more dangerous than theirs, the Paraguayan guy that gave Mark a lift across the bridge to Paraguay said that Paraguay is 'muy tranquillo' or very safe but in Bolivia you must 'ojo' of beware! It must just be a fear of the unknown because most of the people you meet haven't travel out of their own country they just receive the bad news about their neighbours. After being let down at the last minute by a local couch surfer in Encarnación we decided to go in search of a hostel but in the 38 degree heat and with the Encarnación Carnival 2010 on that weekend the only air conditioned option we were left with was a slightly pricier hotel yet it was worth it because we had a nice room, good air conditioning, a balcony and our own bathroom for 3 days so we sucked it up and paid up. We would now be spending almost 4 days in Encarnación meeting a different local couch surfer, good friends with Rosana another couch surfer we had stayed with in Uruguay, celebrating my last Birthday in my 20's and then we would be enjoying the Encarnación Carnival 2010 on our last night before heading off up the Route 6 to Cuidad del Este!

Hello 29!

Having had our first good nights sleep in a while thanks to Mr Air Conditioner I awoke refreshed and very excited because it was my birthday! My parents had sent something over with Andy for me so just like a child again I was so excited to open it up but quite unlike a child it was not the gift I was excited for but the kind worlds inked to me from the other side of the globe. Andy had given me the card when he arrived with strict instructions not to open it until my birthday so I had put it away safely especially for this day. I was not expecting any other gifts but when I returned from having an early morning pee Mark and Andy had covered my bed with lots of little gifts. Mark had bought all sorts of cool South American stuff for me along the way and Andy had brought over a Monopoly card game from South Africa making it one very cool 29th Birthday! Once I had opened up all my gifts and now drown in gift wrap and sweets it was time to read the few kind words from home, as I opened the card I got an even bigger surprise when I saw a couple of Jacksons staring at me from inside the envelope! My parents had not only sent over some kind words but some very handy US dollars which I have put a way for a treat further down the road.

Having had a great morning it was time to meet our couch surfing friend, we would not be staying with her but we had planned to go out with her for my dinner. Jazmin came and collected us from our hotel after work and took us back to her families house which is on the lower end of town. By lower I literally mean lower as in altitude, a dam wall had been built on the nearby river Paraná which would soon result in the entire low lying area of Encarnación being immersed under water so the relative altitude of your house is quite significant in this city. Jazmin's household, as with many others had been compensated for the need to move house to a higher lying area but apparently it really is taking sometime to get the families out with many others basically just squatting in the area hoping to get compensation. A week prior to us arriving there many houses had been flooded due to unexpected rains but many believe it is just a ruse and that the government has actually closed the sluice gates and is using the high rainfall and resulting rising water as excuse to scare people out of the area. It is a very interesting site to see what with houses being part demolished and roads rerouted in anticipation of the rising water, its odd to think that where you are standing will one day be a ghost town under water.

Jazmin's family is very warm and friendly as with all couch surfing families and interesting to chat to but soon it was time to head off for my birthday dinner. Jazmin and her work colleague took us to their local Japanese restaurant, there are a lot of Japanese immigrants in Paraguay so this was a very authentic looking and smelling Japanese restaurant. For the first time in ages, in fact since Montañita, Ecuador we would be eating sushi and I was just too exited! The food was all just so reasonably priced and they even included 2 litres of free beer to get the festivities started so needlessness to say we had a great dinner only to return a few days later for more!

Carnival in Encarnación 2010

Jazmin managed to organise us some tickets to the Encarnación Carnival 2010 the following night so off we all went with her and some work colleagues. We had a great night cheering from the side lines and sharing in some banter with her friends but I'll let the pictures do the talking when it comes to the parade itself! Now while I really enjoyed the evening most of the time it is just floats and they move by very slowly so I think one evening is all I would be able to enjoy of a carnival and am quite relieved we decided not to race up to Rio de Janeiro in time or the carnival of all carnivals. I believe there you can get more involved with the festivities but I'm pretty sure you still spend a lot of time just watching float after float going slowly by, a lesson I should have learnt when in Dublin for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Now that I have the pictures and the videos let's hope I can finally tell myself, been there done that no need to do it again.




Km300 to Km270: Jesuit ruins

It was now time to start moving up the Rio Panará towards Ciudad del Este and ultimately Iguazu Falls. We had seen that there are some old Jesuit Reduction ruins about 30km out of Encarnación where we could camp so we decided that we would head off in the afternoon and camp there that night. The Jesuit Reductions were a particular version of the general Catholic strategy used in the 17th and 18th centuries of building reductions, in order to Christianise the indigenous populations of the Americas more efficiently. The Jesuits set up a settlements all over this region hence the name of the nearby provinces of Misiones in both Argentina and Paraguay where the Indians were expected to adopt Christianity but not European culture and under the Jesuit leadership of the Indians they achieved a high degree of autonomy from the Spanish. The resistance by the Jesuits to slave raids, as well as their high degree of autonomy and economic success, are given as contributing factors for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Americas in 1767 by the Spanish leaving only their ruins.

With temperatures still floating somewhere around the late 30's we arrived at the Trinidad Jesuit ruins just in time to grab a few photos before night fall after which they would be having the nightly light show. Mark and I have not really been into touristy things on this trip and we soon realised why. The magnificent ancient ruins being light up by night with eerie music playing in the background was awe inspiring but unfortunately it had to be ruined by a slow tour guide feeding you piles of useless boring information I could google if I wanted to known it. As if hearing the useless information once was not enough a French bloke felt it necessary to take it upon himself to translate everything over the top of the guide into French for his travelling companions making it even more difficult to hear the guides Spanish so I very quickly grew bored and began to understand the English's disdain for French arrogance. Having now stood and stared at about the 10th wall in an hour listening to the guide talking about another architect who had come there to build it we decided to make a quick get away. It was getting late, we hadn't set up camp and we were completely starving so we sneaked off into the dark and back to our bikes.

The spot where we could camp was perfect with great green grass and it was flat so after dinner, with it now going on for midnight, we excitedly headed to bed only to shortly be disturbed by a mix of 70s and 80s music blaring from the nearby hotel club/bar. Between the heat and the disco going on what felt like 2 metres away we did not sleep much that night.


Km270 to Km180: Environment awareness spreads faster than health and safety

Most of the next day as just spent going up and down hills enjoying the surrounding vegetation. Paraguay apparently is renown for its butterfly and resulting bird life which was becoming more and more evident. Every time you stopped your bike and lent it up against something a different beautiful butterfly would come floating down using it a as a landing pad. I remember as a child many butterflies in the summer in Johannesburg but as the years have gone by either I'm spending less time in the garden enjoying the elements or they have all but disappeared from our beautiful and green city. Perhaps my next door neighbours and good family friends persistent instructions to leave the poor insects alone had a lot more merit than I realised at the time.

That day while we were sitting at a local petrol station a child pulled up on a scooter, the child could not have been more than 10 years old and wasn't carrying a helmet let alone a drivers licence. He had come to the station to buy, hopefully, his Dad a bottle of beer but had been very environmental conscious and brought along an empty bottle along for deposit. As the child pulled off with the now full bottle of beer clasped between his legs I began to wonder if we had not become so obsessed with health and safety that we have actually already limited our physical freedoms quite beyond what we makes our lives more pleasant . All the towns we had been in we had seen people whizzing around on scooters of all ages, mainly without helmets, and it made me think what a freedom this little scooter has given these people and they don't seem too bothered by the seemingly huge safety risk they poses. No sitting around waiting for buses or getting the huge car out of the garage only to then have to find space to park it, one needs only jump on a scooter and off you go. Perhaps that's why I love my bicycle so much because its a good compromise between the freedoms and the safety risks and to boot it's good for environment and saves a load of cash on petrol too!

That night we just dashed down a little road into a very thick looking tropical forest where we hoped not to bothered for the night. It was quite a spooky forest and between the whistling of wind through the trees and the flashing fireflies I don't think Andy or Mark got too much sleep, neither of them looked bright eyed and bushy tailed come day break.

Km180 to Km75: Red dust

Andy and Mark were quite sleepy tired the next day so when we got to our lunch stop they both passed out in their chairs outside the café. It had been quite a scorcher that day and I was sure it must have been up in the forties and too boot it hadn't rained in the region for a while now so the red clayey sand had become a fine red dust under the passing truck wheels. As the afternoon grew on a strong wind heading in our direction began to brew to the point where the outdoor furniture had to be taken inside in order to stop it from being picked up and blown away. I decided this was a cue for us to get back on the bikes and get as far as we could with the wind behind us so up the 2 sleepy heads got and off we went.

The wind carried us a healthy distance up the road coming to a petrol station not too many kilometres from the t-junction where we would head right up to Ciuda del Este, it is at that intersection Andrew and I would have to return to a few days later in order to continue on straight to Asunción. The petrol station we had stopped at was perfect and the staff and owner were so friendly. They offered us a nice soft piece of grass round the back where we could camp then showed us to the bathrooms where they even had a hot shower we could use. En route it has started to rain heavily which we didn't actually mind as it would hopefully bring the temperature down all the while clean the bikes of all the red dust, which of course it didn't. The red dust on the bikes just turned to a red clayey mud caking everything so the shower was an absolute blessing meaning we could clean ourselves and our bikes off properly before hoping into our tents, I shudder to imaging what my tent would have looked like had we not found that petrol station. Andy too was quite happy to see it was a hot shower and not a cold one, but personally I can't see how anyone can go anywhere near the hot tape when it is over 35 degrees in the night!

Km75 to Km26: The 36hr fiasco
Being clean for a change and the cooler night allowed for a good nights sleep so we were now more than ready to make our way to Cuidad del Este just across the border from Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil but first we had decided to visit the Itaupú dam and related Tati Yupi Refugio. Reading up on the Refugio or nature sanctuary we had decided to take on the extra 30km north of Ciudad del Este need to get to the Refugio allowing us to spend 2 nights there enjoying the facilities so proudly advertised, and while staying there pay a visit the Itaipú dam and hydroelectric plant.

To reach the Reugio before it closed at 5pm we had to cover 75km in good time but Andrew's tyres were not having any of it. By the time we reached the t-junction 25km down the road Andy had already had 2 punctures one in the front and one in the back just for good measure. Any ideas that we could economise by having breakfast while repairing the punctures were shuttered when we discovered that one we only had one patch to cover 2 punctures and two we had lost our delicious brown bread somewhere along the way. So now starting to grow hungry we fixed the first puncture using our last patch and the other with the green tyre slime Andy had brought over with him from South Africa that we could put in the other tyre which we hoped would block the puncture from the inside. Once that was done thoughts turned back to our stomachs, being in Paraguay we soon managed to spot some empanadas on sale so we scoffed some of those and off we headed.

Now 30km out of Cuidad del Este the fiasco continued, first the back tyre went down again but of course we now had no patches left so we had to scrounge around looking for bits of rubber we could use instead. Having done a make shift patch we headed off again only for both tyres to go down a little further on. Lost for words we inspected and found that the make shift patch had come off the back tyre and the front tyre had gone down because an old patch had perished, something I had almost never seen before! We figured that fixing the make shift patch job on the back tyre wasn't going to work so Andy hauled everything out of his bag to find a spare tube he had lurking in there, great we thought at least now the back one will be sorted while adding some glue to the front patch which had come loose. Finally, although we're running late at least that should be the end of our problems. Yet low and behold 5km up the road the back tyre was down again, poor Andy couldn't work out what on earth he was doing wrong! A new tyre and it's already got a puncture!

It was now midday and piping hot so we figured let's sit down and have a look at it properly only to discover that although we had removed the cause of the first puncture in the back tyre there were 2 other culprits causing a second and a third puncture thus explaining why the new tube too got a puncture so quickly. Resorting back to the original tube with the slime in it, carefully patching each hole waiting for the glue to dry we hoped that the fiasco would finally be over. Once patched we put back on and pumped it up hard, seemingly holding out well.

With Andy's 2 tyres still inflated having had lunch at the turn off to Hariendas where the Itaipú dam wall is located we finally got to the visitors centre where we hoped to get 'permission' to stay at the Refugio before going on another 10km to the actual Refugio, but nope Lonely Planet was wrong we actually had to get 'permission' at the museum 1km back in the direction we had come from. By now I was loosing my sense of humour knowing that we were on borrowed time with the make shift patches and it being over 35 degrees outside so I was not keen to take one step back in the wrong direction but at least we were making progress so off we went. After asking at about 10 different Itaipú official looking places on the way back none of them giving us a clear answer other than that they knew very little about this 'permission' we got to a sign claiming it was the museum but of course the guards there knew nothing about this 'permission' and tried to send us back to the visitors centre. We were having none of it and informed them they were incorrect so the senior got called in and finally he pointed us in the right direction. But the fun didn't end there, this was just the begging of the treasure hunt, we had now been told to go out the back and find a lady with some strange sounding name I can't remember and she will give us 'permission'. Going out the back it was not clear which house she was in so the first door was banged on at random and luckily that was the secret door and the secret lady was there ready to give us 'permission', but first she needed our passports so she could produce 6 copies by hand of the 'permission' form.

2 hours later and an extra kilometre to cycle we were now on our way to the Refugio, which was due to close its gates in 40min time, with 'permission'. Now in a rush Andy's tyres decided it was a good time to start going down again so having pumped up Andy's rapidly deflating tyres about 4 times during the race to the Itaipú Refugio we finally arrived shattered but just in time before the front gates closed. Once inside the gates we then still had another 8km of bumpy and dusty road to traverse before coming to the very well kitted out Refugio. Unfortunately though we had not made it in there before the restaurant had closed so it was leftover rice and oats a la dulce de leche for dinner.

Itaipú Dam (now 2nd largest hydroelectric facility in the world, thanks to China)

Although it was still cooking hot I slept quite well that night only to wakeup and discover a huge hole in the netting at the bottom of my tent. While we had heard about these tent eating ants, or ant eating tents as we kept mistakenly referring to them, we had fortunately never actually encountered them, until now that is. At first I blamed the little guys that were still running around my tent but the next night as I as about to hop into bed I spotted about 10 huge ants with massive front pincers and bulging eyes chopping away at the netting again, I had seen them on the grass but hadn't suspected them, yet in hindsight I should have as they looked exactly like the kind of ant the would eat your tent! No use crying over spilt milk I thought, at least this will make some lovely Bolivian seamstress a bit of money when I return there in couple of weeks time and now I knew what this infamous tent eating ant looked like, so life goes on.

Given the previous day's puncture fiasco and that we would be spending another night at the Refugio I had had enough of the bikes for a bit and suggested we just hitch-hike and bus it back to the actual dam wall where they had a free tour going on. So to our frustration we did, firstly none of the rangers would give us a lift back to the road where we could supposedly catch a bus back into Hariendas. The one ranger came by in a bakkie with empty seats and an empty bakkie at the back refusing to give us a lift because he had stuff on the seats and it would be too dangerous for us in the back of the bakkie. Eventually when we had given up trying to get a lift and go by bike Murphy organised us a ride with a kind man, not working for Itaupú, who was quit happy to let us hop in the back of his bakkie. Once at the road a bus never did come so we decided to hail a taxi with very little success but after a while a 'colectivo' taxi stopped and picked us up. When we got into Hariendas he just said pay what you like as he had just given us a lift to help us out, clearly not an employee of Itaipú. Now in town we easily found a lift to the Itaipú visitors centre.

At the visitors centre we were greeted with smiles by the many staff working there and were shown to an auditorium where we enjoyed a video full of interesting facts but it was clearly out of date as it incorrectly stated that this facility was the world's biggest hydroelectric facility when in fact China has a dam which recently stole this title now making them the second. Sadly though as Lonely Planet kindly points out they don't include the facts and figures about how many homes and ecosystems were destroyed when the dam was built and filled. The dam wall itself is huge and the tour is impressive taking you over the wall to the Brazilian side so you can see it from both angles but we never did get to go inside hydroelectric facility which I believe you can do from the Brazilian visitors centre which was a little disappointing. I hate being cynical but it all feels like it is just being done just to satisfy the public that Itaipút is 'giving something' back but behind it all are just a bunch of government fat cats running a government facility inefficiently just like the many falling para-statals back home.



Once the tour was over we didn't bother trying to catch a bus anywhere and just took a taxi straight back to the Refugio but of course taxis aren't allowed in so we again had to try catch a lift at the gate down the road. Having spent 2 hours under the tree asking every passer by if they would help us out we eventually decided to do the 8 km by foot. By th time we headed off in the heat of the day we were left fuming at the unfriendly stupid Itaipú staff yet by the time we got back to the camp an hour or so later we had all calmed down thanks to the walk off and the absolutely beautiful environment we had reluctantly had the pleasure of strolling through. The Refugio has the potential to be great but by making it so difficult to get permission to stay there, not providing transport to the facility once you arrive at the gates and then finally to a banning swimming in the actual lake and forcing everyone to keep their t-shirts on when the region in so hot really does take a lot away from it. To boot the facilities advertised are not what they make them out to be there are no horses to be seen, no kayaks and the bikes you can hire for free can only be used within the camp site area and not to explore the Refugio complex. It all seems like a giant white elephant to me because no one is using the facility as it is so difficult to get to and it is just full of staff sweeping pathways, cleaning sign boards and guards sitting around under trees sipping on tereré, although it is creating jobs all this boredom has made the staff quite unpleasant to the point where I would say this facility was at risk of ruining my entire impression of Paraguay had it not been for the other great people we met in the streets. I would have much rather paid to use this facility if it meant accessing it was easier, shuttle buses were made available and the staff were friendly - I say save tax payers money and privatise it!

Finally back at our tents and with lots of food in hand we could relax and enjoy the Refugio for what it was. Again I slept well that night anticipating the excitement of cycling across 2 borders the next day taking us all the way to Puerto Iguazú in back in Argentina where we would soon take site of the amazing Iguazu Falls!

All the pics can be seen here.