Once I got to the Encarnacion bus terminal, it was a short 10-minute walk to the Casa de Pedro Hostel. The place was for sale and there were a number of workmen doing touchup work on the place, unfortunately, they weren’t working on the mold in the grout in the showers.
The common areas of this Hostel were really pleasant with a nice backyard and open deck. The kitchen and the living areas were comfortable. They were not very many travelers here just a woman from Argentina and a German who bought a motorbike to tour around for a second time in Paraguay and Argentina.
I walked down to the beach area that had a long promenade along the caramel-colored sandy beach with both walking and biking paths. The city across the river is Posadas, Argentina.
There were a few beachside restaurants and I tried one called the Yellow Beach and ordered a fajita for one of my dinners, but it looked nothing like the kind I had at home—very disappointed. Other dinners were a vast improvement.
This was Cordon Bleu which was delicious despite the color at a better restaurant along the beach area.
The Plaza de Armas had an interesting combination of a Japanese area complete with a koi pond and a huge kids' play area with swings and slides.
I had the eight-room dorm to myself for the first two nights and then Arif from my last hostel showed up.
The Hostel owner told us that the following day, Wednesday, all of the people would be staying home and all of the businesses would be closed because of census day. I don’t like to cook when I’m traveling so I just went out and bought a pint of yogurt—wish I had bought more.
I had planned to visit the two missions nearby, but neither the buses nor taxis would be running. If I had planned to stay just two nights, I would not have been able to leave town.
On Wednesday, sure enough, everything was closed up: no cars were running in the streets except for the police cars, which I saw several times as I was walking about. They did not stop me—I guess I looked like a foreigner, but they did stop others from leaving their homes during the census count.
Empty bus terminal and empty streets everywhere.
I saw many enumerators out with their little cloth bags that were inscribed “CENSOS” in orange letters on it. I asked them how many people were doing this in the city, and they said about 2,00 enumerators were hired for the city count on this day. The census is done every 10 years just like we do in the US.
I asked them if they were using cell phones or tablets to enter the data but they just showed me they had paper documents that they were filling out—- sounded like a lot of work for a lot of people. I told them I had worked for the Census in the United States back in 2000, and back then most of the data was collected by mailing back filled-out scanning forms and our enumerators contacted those who did not return the forms or the Postal Service did not deliver including homeless shelters, hotels, communes, and homeless encampments.
I stopped by a number of hotels thinking that they at least have their restaurants open, but no. Even the family-run bodegas were closed. I ended up having that peach-flavored pint of yogurt for brunch and looked forward to some restaurants opening up at 6 PM.
The empty streets and closed businesses reminded me of what it was like during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I finally had a fish dinner at this nearby empty restaurant.
We must’ve stopped over 100 times for anybody that waved their hand for the bus to stop. Likewise, passengers on the bus signaled to the driver to stop in the middle of nowhere except a dirt road leading off to some estancia. In addition, this main road—Highway 1 —must’ve had over 200 topes or speed bumps to slow traffic in the villages we passed. The direct buses also had to navigate these topes. Now I know to ask about whether they are general or direct and what are the expected arrival times.
The landscape was pretty similar with fairly with gently rolling hills and farmlands dotted by grazing cows and occasional grain elevators.
I got into Asunción about 4 PM and began to look around for a hotel. Paraguay is definitely not geared to tourists and their needs—no tourist information office at the bus station for example.
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