Asunción – Paraguay

Stopover in Paraguay

The Bus Ride

The bus ride from the airport towards the capital Asunción is what we'll probably remember the most. At every bus stop, people came into the bus one after another to sell something. Some carried a large, woven basket on their shoulder, covered with a white cloth. Inside were either sandwiches, pastries, or drinks. Others proudly displayed their electronic devices or jewelry in front of our faces. Next came the raffle ticket sellers, and lastly, you could buy socks or a new pair of underwear. The fact is: you don't need to go to a store. The stores come to you! We had to giggle a bit when we saw how suddenly all the vendors in this extremely narrow aisle of the bus were standing and struggling to get out again.

For the locals, this seems to be the norm because they were happily shopping here. When you looked out the window, you could see more vendors waving frantically, trying to seize the opportunity to sell their goods. 

As we continued, we saw old vehicles loaded with groceries. Often, there were cows, dogs, and chickens in front of every house. The background was lush green due to the many plants. The palm trees were particularly beautiful!

Arriving in Asunción

In Asunción itself, there aren't many tourist attractions. So, a few days here are perfectly adequate. In the center, there are some skyscrapers, and everything is close together. Occasionally, you'll find a small park in between.

Unfortunately, these parks are also (like in Sao Paulo) full of tents where homeless people live... When strolling through the city, you have to be careful not to fall into any pits or stumble over wooden pallets.

The most beautiful thing we found here in Asunción were the sunsets with a view of the entire city.

When it came to restaurants and such, we always had quite a bit of trouble finding something halfway healthy because the food here is often fried, contains a lot of sugar, is very meat-heavy, or the restaurant opening hours didn't match our hunger :D. Overall, there isn't really much action here. So, we were determined to move on. We booked a flight to Chile, as Max knows a very good friend from Germany who is currently a mountain guide there. The rough plan was set. We wanted to participate in tours together, celebrate Christmas with the Chilean family, and explore the beautiful regions. Easier said than done. It took 1000 steps just to book the flight. You have to present a current PCR test, register, make a sworn statement, fill out the health form, have your international health insurance translated into English with high coverage, and finally, validate your vaccination. After a huge amount of time, we finally had everything ready. At least we thought so. When we cheerfully and unsuspectingly stood at the check-in counter with our packed backpacks, we were informed of the following: "Your vaccination validation is still pending. No flight without complete validation." Well, that was it. We telephoned until our fingers were sore to get permission for the flight as quickly as possible. No dice. No chance. Validation can take up to 45 days. Too bad that wasn't apparent on the website! So, our plane flew away along with the 300 euros we paid per person. Bye bye! In a bad mood, angry, and frustrated, we spent the whole day somehow trying to get our money back. This involved hours of phone calls and what felt like years spent in the customer office. But thank goodness! Once again, persistence pays off.(We actually had a tariff in which cancellation was excluded)! A new flight was booked for us with only a small price difference. ‘‘hoffentlich‘‘ Yay! This time, we're "hopefully" going to PERU! The COVID measures there aren't quite as strict. We don't even need a PCR test.

P.s. : 

"As a traveler, you can't plan anything. Everything always turns out differently than you think!"

Good to know: 

For Paraguay, you need a yellow fever vaccination if you're entering from Brazil (costs about 90 euros)and an antigen test (costs about 20 euros)!

Next Stop: Lima – Peru