For our published article about Paraguay please visit Upshift Online (Issue 46, P106-P114)!
We left Asunción and the rain had actually stopped, it was warm and all seemed ok. However as soon as we got going it just rained all day without letting up at all for the whole 280 odd kilometres to Santa Rosa del Araguay. We didn't get to Laguna Blanca, which was our original target, as it was still pissing it down and we didn't fancy the muddy roads that we'd need to negotiate to get there. We'd paused for some fuel on the way at a small station, and for once I found it really hard to understand anything that people were saying as they just spoke so fast. The roads were also particularly long, punctuated by a plethora of 40kph sections and lots of police, however once again we were not stopped once. Considering all of the warnings on iOverlander, I was amazed. We were fortunate and found a place to stay quite quickly called Centro Hotel, which gave us a room for just 50,000 PYG a night...cheap and cheerful! We had a small bed, but it was clean and tidy, there was a hot shower, and although it was quite noisy until 10pm, afterwards there were no issues.
The next day we set off to Laguna Blanca, all of 30km away. I was very glad that we hadn't tried to get there the day before as there was 3km of sandy dirt road before we got to our accommodation 'Ecotur Laguna Blanca'. I had a little bit of a slide but it was ok and I managed to stay rubber side down, whoop whoop!
There was no one else at the lake, just us, so it was so tranquil. It was sunny, quiet and beautiful. Heaven! There were also two dogs at the site, one called Dankie, and I'm not sure on the other one. At a mere 150,000 PYG (£18) for a bungalow it was a bargain, and it suited us perfectly as it was just easier, and we were feeling a bit lazy. We wanted to spend the time going for a walk and finding some provisions rather than setting up camp, and if we got hit by more storms and torrential rain we'd be very glad of our decision!
We walked 4km to a local shop and back again as we wanted a bit of exercise and a bit of an explore. We felt a little weary after our 9km walk so we lounged around, chilled by the lake on the platform with the dogs, then meandered back to our bungalow for a beer. Sadly the wine we purchased was akin to vinegar, so we begrudgingly threw it away. Instead we enjoyed our three small beers between us as we watched sunset. It was truly spectacular, and as beautiful as the photos are they do not actually do it justice.
A little while later a backpacker called Jamie came over. She was scared of dogs so we helped to keep them away from her. She had met a fellow Overlander we met in Argentina (Nathan Pember) on his bike in Conception, and he'd recommended she come to this place. She hitchhiked from Conception to Santa Rosa del Araguay, then taken a collectivo (mini bus transport) to Santa Barbara, then walked from there...hats off to her! And I was moaning about getting rained on riding the bike in full waterproof gear!
The following day we kitted up and met the owner of the site (I think he was called Pablo), a very lovely guy. After a lot of chatting we set off again. The mud on the road was much much drier, so it was super easy. Our intended destination this time was Colonel Oviedo as we'd heard of an Overlander place there, so thought we'd check it out. Just before we got there my clutch felt funny, and wasn't disengaging or allowing me to get the bike in to neutral, which was a bit of a bugger and created a bit of an interesting last bit of the ride but I managed.
We arrived at the hostel and met Walter Schaffer and Domi who ran the place. They had a nice cosy double room for us for 80,000 PYG a night, which was a bargain. We ventured out a little later for some beers, and then just sat and chatted with Walter all evening. He had some awesome books and magazine articles about his travels. It was emotional with all of the reminiscing, but really interesting and he used a 2CV book as a visitors book, which was so cool.
He has such a great history, and it's so interesting to hear about others' adventures. I think as travellers we're a lot more interested in other people's stories and adventures when we meet them...a lot more so than friends and acquaintances, maybe just because it's like any other interest. We also met Walter's turtle 'Pablo'. Between the chatting, reminiscing, adventure and travel chat and discussion about various machines, we drank lots! Ha ha, oopsy!
The next day we were up 9am for a large coffee together and then we went off to find some engine oil. It happened to be Paraguay's mother's day so many places were closed, so we were shit out of luck on the oil search front. When we got back Kelvin cleaned out the switches on my bike and changed my clutch cable. My one had snapped so I was lucky we got to Walters in the first place...lucky, lucky! One thing we were able to buy was wine, and a lot less vinegar like this time, so we sat around and consumed a fair amount of wine together in evening and spent the whole time chatting adventures.
Breakfast in the morning was a giant grapefruit...nom nom. Kelvin then finished sorting my clutch cable before we set off in search for some engine oil again. After a bit of driving around in Walter's Citroen 2CV we managed to get our hands on some Castrol synthetic, yey! It was then off to a garage to meet a guy who was in the Paraguay Harley Club. He was a really nice guy, so we chatted for a while and then headed back to do the oil changes. On a random aside, during our return conversation we were told by Walter that 'Ya-ha' means 'let's go' or 'we go' in Guyrani. We'd asked as we'd heard it being used a couple of times and wondered what it meant. You learn something new everyday!
The evening was once again filled with conversation, wine and beer, plus we watched Walter's Russian TV appearance and some videos of his adventures in his custom built 4x4 2CV and listened to lots of music. Another really cool and interesting evening.
We waved farewell to Walter and the sun was shining, so definitely a positive start to the day. We stopped at the 'automobile club' to buy a Paraguay/South Brazil tourist map and then headed towards Cerro Akati. We'd planned it so the GPS would take us off the main route through little villages and dirt roads, which was so much more interesting, and very doable with the short spell of dry weather that we'd had for the last day or so. It was also forecast to be nice for the next few days so we planned to make the most of it!
We climbed up the winding dirt road to Cerro Ataki. It was littered with lots of ruts and rocks but it was no real issue if you kept a little momentum, even for me. At the top we parked up and paid the 25,000 PYG each to go in. It was well worth it as the view (mirador) was spectacular, and we could see for miles.
It was then off to Salto Suizo and another beautiful mirador, which we reached via quite a sandy and muddy track, so there was an element of squirrelyness, and sliding around, especially at the end, but again I just about managed to stay rubber side down. It was super hot walking up to the mirador, with a suffocating humidity which resulted in two very sweaty bodies caked in bike kit...nice!
Following our ascent we then descended down to a wooden bridge with a short, wide and beautiful waterfall, with several steps. We chilled out there for a little while and just took in the tranquility, as well as a chance to reduce the sweatiness! I forgot I hadn't eaten for a good while, so with the heat I started to feel a little faint. Munching on a packet of peanuts helped that rather swiftly, and I started to feel a little more normal (ish).
Following the road back that we'd used to get to the waterfall and mirador, we stopped at a place called Rancho Don Juan. It was 150,000 (£18) for a room, and it was run by a lovely family, with a playful white kitten, 2 dogs, and surrounded by pure undisturbed tranquillity. We sat outside and drank tea, enjoying the ambiance. Apparently we would be given 'cocido' (a Paraguayan drink) for breakfast with bread and dulce de leche. We looked forward to that and trying yet something else new.
Breakfast was bread rolls, homemade bread, homemade jam and cocido which was a milky, sweet mate. In my opinion it was a bit like a chai latte. After we had our fill of breakfast we got on the road again. It was a purely dirt road for quite a while, broken up by a smidge of tar and then dirt again. It was an amazing day due to the stunning route. We were so glad that we got good weather as the mud was mostly dry and there was a lot of mud! I dread to think what it'd be like in the wet, and from the couple of glimpses I'd caught of the dirt roads we saw in our first few days in Paraguay (when we chose tarmac), I think it would have been quite horrible...or for me at least! There was some sand in places on the route and a guy on a little bike told me to 'go in 2nd gear and go fast'! Ha ha, that was easier said than done when your bike is squirrelling around and top-heavy because I carry far too much luggage (in my opinion). It was nice of him though and he was trying to help me out.
The route was punctuated with so many tiny villages, it was just beautiful! In a few places that day I decided to stop for some photos, but on one occasion my bike battery went flat because the fan was running like crazy due to the heat and drained it! Doh! We had to bump start it twice, but after that it was all ok. By the time we got to the end of our day's ride Kelvin's face was covered in red-orange dirt...can you tell he rides behind me?! Ha ha!
We stopped in at a petrol station just before the town of Santa Rita for a rather late lunch, and had a chat to four petrol attendants who were really lovely, and very intrigued by our bikes and dirty faces. We then found a hostal called 'Hotel Primevera'. It was fine for a night, and originally we were planning on staying for two but they were lazy and said no breakfast on the weekend (although normally this was included in the price according to their leaflet and website) and the one guy said he could do laundry, but the other guy didn't want to so he said no. After that we decided one night would be plenty, and we'd head off to some waterfalls the next day, and then on to Ciudad del Este on the border with Brazil. We also discovered that Kelvin's shock was really done in and also his frame was cracking again so would decide in the morning if we thought it would be ok to go to the falls and go from there.
We walked to the nearest petrol station from the hostel for dinner as it felt the best option available...it seemed to be a frequent occurrence these days, lol! We sat and ate and reflected on the fact that so far we'd had no stops by the police. We'd been travelling with some reasonable apprehension about the police in Paraguay due to all of the posts on social media and iOverlander, but so far so good. We also felt it was a bit of a shame that we got so much rain to start our Paraguay adventures which petered us from the dirt roads and exploring further in to Northern Paraguay, but we were so thankful for the last two days as they had been truly awesome, and at least we'd managed to explore a little before the next lot of rains came.
We left the hostel early as there was no water and no breakfast, so we made a beeline for the petrol station again for some grub. It was then off to Salto Nacunday, which we'd been really looking forward to. Initially it was a tar road which then turned in to dirt and mud roads, and last 2km was extremely slippery mud, but we persevered as we were so close. We even had a dog that ran this last section with us. Unfortunately I fell on the mud, and after we managed to pick it up and continue on, Kelvin promptly fell off! The mud was a wet clay type mud, and even trying to stand still it was super slidey. Kelvin took his bike down the very last bit but I left mine at top as it was just so slippery, and would be very hard to get back up. I was definitely very pleased with my decision. After he'd had a look at the waterfall, Kelvin rode his bike back up and next to mine, and I walked down with the dog to take some photo of the spectacular falls. I was so lucky as I managed to experience the falls with a beautiful rainbow over it, I'd never seen anything like it before. It was such and amazing place and it was totally free, we couldn't believe it.
After taking in the place, we rode back out, sliding around again all over the place, but we managed to stay upright. It was mostly a mud road and then tar road to Ciudad del Este, and not too much traffic either. One guy on a little bike came up to me and shook my hand after asking where we were from, and what we were doing, which was odd but lovely.
We found a hotel in Ciudad del Este, although it didn't have the greatest feel to the place, and it was in a very dirty area, with loads of rubbish all over the place, but the actual hotel in itself was lovely and they even had reliable hot water, all for just 130,000 a night with breakfast.
When we were in the parking area of the hotel Kelvin moved my bike standing on the non-side stand side and promptly dropped the bike and fell on top of it, ramming my gear changer inwards. Doh! We had to pull it back out with tools after, and luckily the engine casing was not damaged. Note to self, if possible always move the bike standing on the side-stand side of the bike!
It was a Sunday and the place was dead. There was a very small shop for some snacks, and after chatting to the reception staff they managed to get us a pizza ordered...the first Pizza Hut we'd had in South America (well done to us, ha ha) but it was actually good. We did a quick check of the weather forecast and decided to leave the following day due to a nice weather window coming up for a visit to Iguazu Falls, which I was particularly looking forward to.