My Adventures and Travels

Living far from home, in a third-world country, it is easy to think about the things that you miss or that aren't done the way you are accustomed to (the shopping cart situation, anyone??). However, this post is about some things here in Pagaguay that rock my world, and I wish were in the good old U.S. of A. Champiñ eras The beer here might not be good, but it sure is cold. When the most common beer size is a liter, it's important to keep it from getting warm. These things rock. I was soooo disappointed when I ordered beer in Chile and it wasn't served like this. Shopping Baskets with Wheels I mean, does it get any more convenient than this? I don't know about you, but I always get a basket, thinking "I just need a few things." Then stick a gallon of milk in it (back in my customary unit days when I could buy milk by the gallon) and have to haul it through the store. Who needs. that. Tiny Cans of Tomato Sauce Because sometimes all you need is 7...

This is the cabin we stayed in. Well, it turns out I took a LOT of pictures of the place, and they didn't all fit in my last post! Here are some photos from our second day. After a leisurely morning drinking coffee and eating breakfast, we walked into the town of Belen. In these little towns, you have to learn how to entertain yourself! We stopped by a tiny craft fair, walked forever looking for the river, talked to a really old lady who spoke mostly Guarani, got some ice cream, walked through the cemetery, and walked through a lot of mud! All in all it was a good day.  The next morning we walked a few kilometers up to Belen. Belen's claim to fame is that the Tropic of Capricorn runs through it! Cemetary This is the guy that crawled out of the lake!

Our first long weekend of the year is Spring Break, in September. As with all long weekends in recent memory, epic rain was predicted, foiling our original plans. A group of 8 of us (5 teachers, 2 spouses, and 1 teaching from another school) was originally planning to visit a lake and beach in Paraguay called Laguna Blanca. However, Laguna Blanca is at the end of a 40 km. dirt road. If it rained, we'd be stranded out there-possibly for days. If we made it. Our backup plan was to visit an Ecolodge outside the town of Concepcion, which is up to the north. It took about 5 hours to get there. One interesting thing was this weekend coincided with a big event, the Trans-Chaco Rally, a 3-day car race, said to be one of the most difficult routes in the world. We did see some of the vehicles while we were driving. Paraguayan Traffic Jam As always, as soon as we got out of Asuncion the scenery changed drastically, and it was beautiful. I love driving through the "chaco"-it ...

So to sum up the months of June, July, and August, I said goodbye to my students, about half of my friends/colleagues, went back to Colorado for three weeks, then returned to Paraguay with about 20 new teachers on my staff. Then only a few days later school started with my new group of kids. It was a whirlwind. All that whirlwind kind of made me think about what it means to live and teach abroad. I mean, obviously, you have the amazing benefits of being able to travel, explore, and see the world like most people only dream of. And the downside of missing "home" like crazy. I kind of expected both. But one of my friends here in Paraguay, Bree, summed it up more perfectly than I could: "It's like I live two lives. I have my life in the US and my life here, and there is absolutely nothing in common between them." It's so true, and it's pretty bizarre. I think it might be easier in a lot of ways to be part of a teaching couple or family abroad than a sin...

San Bernardino is a tranquil little resort town, originally settled by German immigrants, only about an hour outside of Asuncion. We took a day trip here to see what there was to see. Our first stop was a flea market. There wasn't really anything of interest to buy, but it was fun to be surrounded by people speaking German! Then we went down to Lake Ypacarai to watch people and boats come and go. It was a beautiful fall day so we just soaked in the sun! After that we started exploring. One of our Paraguayan friends had mentioned an old, abandoned amphitheater. We are the type of people who think that could make a fun afternoon! After many dirt roads, U-turns, asking locals for directions, we finally found it. The last concert held here was Ricky Martin in 1994. After that, the amphitheater was closed and basically became completely overrun by jungle. A couple years ago someone decided to clean it up-but since then it seems it's just a place teenagers come to drink, as ev...

After our hike, we moseyed down the road to an iron foundry called "La Rosada." It was used to make weapons for the triple alliance war in the 1860s-and was also destroyed in the same war. Now it has a museum and you can wander around and look at stuff. Parrots! This is a common scene in the countryside. There are many cows roaming all over the place. After all this adventure, we stopped in the small town of Ybycui to stock up on food and drinks, then went back to our hotel and did some more cooking, and leftover heating-uping. Another fun night of eating, games, and drinking led to this: LEMONS! Now for some reason lemons are not even available in Paraguay anywhere. It's not like they don't grow. In fact, on the hotel property they actually do grow on trees. So at 1 or 2 in the morning, Kristi and I went lemon picking. I'm not sure why it was so fun and hilarious, but the beverage selections of the evening *may* have been ...