A visit to Recoleta, Asuncion's cemetery

The Recoleta neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Asuncion and was started by the Franciscan Priests, who built their convent where the church is now.  In 1824, when Francia suppressed religious communities, the Franciscans had to leave the convent that would later be used as a cemetery. 


The following 3 photos are of the crypt of Eliza Lynch.  Eliza Lynch was Irish, but met the future president of Paraguay, Francisco Solano Lopez in France, where he was training with Napoleon's army.  They fell in love and he brought her back to Paraguay, one of the wealthiest South American nations at the time.   She and Lopez never married, but had 6 children together.  After the Paraguayan war, she was banned from Paraguay and died in France.  Over 100 years later, her body was moved back to Paraguay under the direction of Alfred Stroessner, who declared her a heroine.   There is a neighborhood her in Asuncion named after her and she is remembered fondly in history by most, although some believe she was the one who convinced Solano Lopez to begin the Paraguayan War.

This is another of Paraguay's past presidents

This is the final resting place of General Andres Rodrigues, who led a coup in 1989 that ended the over 30 year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner. He had been one of Stroessner strongest supporters and surprised skeptics by restoring a free press, welcoming home exiles, and freeing political prisoners. Open presidential elections soon followed.

A trip to Yaguaron

Yaguaron is a small city about 50 kilometers outside of Asuncion.  It started as a Franciscan Mission and had the original name of Jaguarú, which comes from the Guarani language, and means an enormous dog or jaguar that was believed to roam the region in the Guarani mythology.  The town has a beautiful church, full of Baroque artwork from the time of the mission, around 1640.   The dictator known as "El Supremo," Jose Rodriguez de Francia was also born here in 1766.

We took a trip with other teachers to the church and to the top of Yaguaron hill, where you can see several of the surrounding towns.  Views from above are rare in Paraguay, so this was a rare treat!

 

 

 

Weird things seen in Paraguay part 2

These boxers were for sale in the market.  (the black thing is a hanger!)

Balloons?  Nope.  Intestines.

Having fun yet? 

This huge lighter will last us the whole two years we are here.

This shirt was $3, so of course, we bought it.

This store sells children's clothing.

Turns out you can only buy clothes here, not men. 

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” Vladmir Nobokov

It certainly cannot, although I sure wished it could after my walk to school this morning.  What normally takes 20 minutes took over an hour as I tried to weave my way through the neighborhood, avoiding getting splashed by cars or stepping in calf-deep rivers of rain water.  I could not get a taxi, as every other person was more forward thinking than I and the line was busy for 30 minutes until I finally gave up.

 Unfortunately, the torrent did not let up for several hours, turning Asuncion's streets into raging rivers and leaving me nearly stranded.  It's a little hard to see in the video, but you cannot even see the streets from all the water and some were even impassable for cars.  I got to work late and the veterans to this kind of storm laughed at me and said, "Wait, aren't you from the Northwest?"  It made me miss Seattle rain.

Jesuit mission ruins, yerba mate, boardwalk strolling...Spring Break 2013!

For our four day Spring Break weekend, we went with some friends on a bus 5 hours South to a town on the Rio Parana, which separates Paraguay and Argentina.  We visited the ruins left by the Jesuit missionaries when they were expelled from Paraguay for not bowing to the demands of the Spanish government.  We also visited a yerba production plant, hung out at the beach, spent time on the "costenera," and visited Argentina for the day.



This meat hanging in the butcher shop like this is pretty common-they put the best cuts out for people to see and entice them to come in.



This is the town centerpiece of Bella Vista, Paraguay . That's a giant guampa, the cup you drink yerba mate or terere (cold yerba) out of.  

Even Santa enjoys Yerba!



This is the beach on the river at Bella Vista.  Argentina is just across the river.  We had the beach to ourselves and enjoyed some wine and a great sunset.





This is chipa.  I thought I hated chipa, until I tried chipa "caliente."  The chipa vendors get on the bus with baskets full of this warm, chessy, gooey, bread for 25 cents and there is no point in resisting!





This is across the river in Posadas, Argentina where we were waiting for a parade that never came.  So we drank some beer instead.





The boardwalk at Encarnacion, looking across at Posadas, Argentina.



The church in Encarnacion with one of the last pink lapacho trees of the season.





The Jesuit ruins-This one is called "Trinidad."  It was once home to over 4.000 Guarani Indians and Jesuit priests until it was abandoned in 1768. 



Our transportation between the different ruins.  Cobblestone streets + tuk tuks (or mototaxi in Spanish) made for a bumpy ride.



While in Posadas, we saw this kiddie train that was giving rides up and down the boardwalk.  We paid the driver 100 mil (about $20 US) to give us a ride and not let any kids on, effectively creating our very own party train.