Last night, it poured rain and it was still raining in the morning, so I’m glad that I had prearranged a vehicle, driver and guide for the day. Coincidentally, it was the same guide as my walking tour on Sunday. I think there might only be one English speaking guide in Asuncion. The driver was Carlos and was very good. He drove the speed limit, passed when safe and slowed down for the bumps.
The entire trip was about 150 km and took us about 6 hours with stops including a very interesting museum of sculptures that showed the offspring of Tau y Kerana which were all monsters, some good and some bad. The bad ones, of course, were and still are used by parents to scare their children.
I got to see the large but shallow Lago Ypacarai which is actually a lagoon (according to the guide, but something might have been lost in the translation), and a very nice hotel that will be on my itinerary the next time I’m in Paraguay.
There was also a large Franciscan church painted with colors from natural sources (red was from powder in a cone which looked like it might be a type of willow; yellow from a hanging vine in the forest; green from mate; and black from charcoal), an art gallery where I bought my first painting from South America and un bano with a very fast light colored salamander traveling across the walls while I was not in a position to jump. Beside the art gallery, and while the curator unstretched and rolled up my painting, I got to try two types of chipa: chipa guasu and chipa tradicional. Apparently, you can only get chipa in Paraguay or from Paraguayan immigrants in other countries, so I’m glad I got to try it before I left. Chipa guasu is much like a quiche with hard corn in it, and chipa tradicional looks like a bagel, but is much tastier and enjoyable and requires no spreads or toasting; it’s no wonder chipa is very popular and comes in about 30 different varieties around the city.
Well, that is most of what I saw today. After returning to the hotel, I was determined to go eat the famous fish soup at the Lido Bar on Palma. And I did just that. It was like eating thick chowder without the filler. It was all fish, rich and delicious. With the provided bun, it was quite filling.
Getting up at 3:30 a.m. tomorrow to catch a plane to Bolivia, so I’m out of here.