Itaipu, Trinidad and Jesus
1st of April:
The main attraction of Ciudad Del Este (other then the market) is the Itaipu dam, the worlds second largest damn (after 3 Gorges dam in China). It produces some 14000 megawatt’s a year, supplies Paraguay with 93% of its power, and Brazil with 25% of their power. It is absolutely freaking huge and awe inspiring. It was built in cooperation between Paraguay and Brazil, during a time where they were both under dictatorships, which unfortunately wasn’t good for the nature. A set of waterfalls (supposedly better than Iguazu) was drowned, species gone extinct as their habitat disappeared (though a lot were saved and relocate by the government) and indigenous people forced to move to other parts of the country.
However the amount of pollution that isn’t done is quite incredible, more or less all of Paraguay and a quarter of Brazil is a huge quantity of oil and coal not burned, in Brazil it works out to be 500.000 barrels of oil not burned every day. So why isn’t 100% of Paraguay powered y this hydroelectric plant? Distant parts of Paraguay (Chaco in particular) are not only distant, but isolated and scarcely populated, so the big power masts simply don’t make it that far).
Because the damn is such a big achievement for a country like Paraguay, the government does anything to promote it. Not only does it feature on their 100.000 guarani (110 DKK or 15 euro), the 30 minutes information movie and guided tour was all free. The nearby nature reserve with a zoo that we didn’t go to is free as well, so they really try everything to get good publicity, in fact the movie we watched was even in English. The movie was quite unintentionally funny due to the whole 80′s trip, everything was made with very poor “futuristic” effects and nobody in the movie would want to be caught wearing those clothes today, not even the geeky engineers.
After the tour, we all headed back to Ciudad Del Este where Dan and I did some shopping, amongst other things, I bought a pair of havaiana flip-flops. This is the first pair of flip-flops that I have ever bought, so why did I do it? Well I went try out walking in flip-flops, always walking in shoes is beginning to get on my nerves; and secondly they cost 35.000 guarani or approx. 38 DKK which is approx. 5 euro. After some shopping, the three of us went out for lunch, and ended up eating at a Chinese place. Once again, the price is essential, I paid 2,5 USD for a giant portion of delicious fried noodles with rice. How they manage it so cheap I don’t know, yes labour costs are lower and so is the price of goods, but still…
The bus terminal was 15 blocks away, we all had a fair deal of luggage and Ciudad Del Este is a rather dangerous place, so we split a cab, and arrived safely. I bought a ticket to Encarnacion and was rushed to the gate as supposedly it would arrive in 5 minutes. Out on the platform I asked the information guy and he told me it would arrive in an hour. As another bus was about to leave for Encarnacion, I tried to get a refund for my ticket and buy one for the other bus. But the salesman said my bus would be along in a few minutes and refused to take my ticket back. I went out on the platform again, and only just then did I find out that the information guy worked for the other bus company, and posed as an information guy in order to lure people into buying his tickets.
Dan and Rommi were heading to Asuncion, the capital of this cute little country. While I was still waiting for my bus, we had a nice little farewell and then they were off. About 5-10 minutes later, my bus came rolling along, I got on and said farewell to Ciudad Del Este, patiently waiting for my bus to get to Encarnacion.
I only have one picture from Ciudad Del Este, I took from inside the bus when the bus was at a small bus stop. Ciudad Del Este is quite dangerous, and so I didn’t feel like brandishing my camera, in fact I never carried anything except a bit of cash. What makes the bus system in Paraguay so very different, is not only the rubbish buses (compared to Chile and Argentina), but at most stops (every major and some minor), people will stand outside your window and shout to heaven about the goods they want to sell you, mainly drinks and edible goods. But those who sell sunglasses, small radios and the like will board the bus and walk up and down the bus, hoping that you buy some of their crap. The ones you really have to watch out for, are the ones trying to sell socks and perfume. They will hold the goods all the way up to your face, and say something along the lines of “Do you want to buy some cocaine?”. In Ciudad Del Este they were everywhere, several to each corner, but they were easy to ignore, you just shook their hands off your arms (they do grab you), but here they have you cornered, and getting rid of them can be quite troublesome.
The rest of the trip was easy though, I just leaned back and continued reading in The Odyssey, a book which I am enjoying more and more, I really have to try and find the Illiad soon. But the sun sets very early in Paraguay (18 o’clock) due to a weird time system (above Argentina, but same timezone as Chile, and summertime just ended), but then again it rises very early (while I’m sleeping). However unlike the nice buses in Argentina and Chile, the buses here don’t have any light on them, so it was soon pitch black, and reading was out of the question. But thankfully my iPod came to my rescue and entertained me (I love my iPod) with a good podcast; I filled my iPod with podcasts before I left home.
I arrived in Encarnacion around 21 o’clock and was at my hotel within minutes, Hotel Germano which the Lonely Planet not only describes as the best value in town and “neater than a Japanese origami figure”. I ate some cheap dinner at a terminal restaurant and went to bed shortly after, with great expectations of the day to come. Just like in Ciudad Del Este this is a hotel run by members of the German speaking minority. When I inquired the owner about the buses to Trinindad (my activity for the following day), he offered to help me in German, which I at first tried out but quickly went back to Spanish, this was the first time where I had been better at Spanish than German. I had previously on my trip met German speakers and spoken a bit of German with them, but this really is testament to my ever improving Spanish (although my German is quite poor to begin with).
I didn’t really explain the German population yesterday, so here it is. The Mennonites (as they are called) were Canadian Germans that were invited to Paraguay seeking more religious freedom (wasn’t that the point of North America to begin with?), where they initially settled in Chaco, and horribly underpopulated part of Paraguay following the Chaco war (1932-1935) which followed the war of The Triple Alliance (1865-1870) where half the population of Paraguay perished together with 26% of the country. The first war hurt the Chaco region especially, and the Chaco war finished off most that had survived. However the Germans had arrived in Chaco before the Chaco war, which might explain why Paraguay won that war despite being vastly outnumbered.
However the Germans were offered to live in Chaco as nobody else could grow anything there, however the Germans succeeded, and today they make out the wealthy upper-class. So whenever you see a nice car, it’s a German speaking person driving. Even in some of the small towns I make it through, they have a Mercedes Benz dealership; and naturally they have hotels all over the country, which I stay at (they are nice, and cheap).
2nd of April:
I woke up quite late (10 o’clock), but that had no chance of deterring me, I found a supermarket and bought 5 apples, 5 pieces of bread, some sliced ham and a bar of chocolate. The supermarket was under a heavy German influence, but still didn’t manage to have knoppers or any kind of Haribo I like (they only had Piratos). On the way back I came past the German consulate, but all the way back at the bus terminal, I caught a bus to Trinidad, the worlds least visited UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a Jesuit ruin that was left to crumble in 1767 when the Jesuits were expelled from Paraguay. The site is… different. Anywhere else in South America (or the world really), this place would be overrun by tourists, every single historic square millimeter would be fenced and out of bounds.
But I was allowed to wander freely about (I was the only visitor), walked all around the ruins, inside the church, down into the crypt, climbed the stairs inside the church to get a better view, you could do anything that didn’t directly damage the ruins (although it didn’t say that anywhere); so I sat down in one of the Indian housing ruins and ate my ham sandwiches. The only damage (and sign of human recent life) is the few chains blocking you from entering places that would collapse if you entered (no, really) and the carvings left by other guests in the rocks. I hate it when it can be removed, but when it is permanently destroying something this fantastic, I detest and despise the very persons who did it. However I was soon intrigued by all the carvings, a lot of them were up to 50 years old, and I even found some left there in the 1920′s and 1930′s, that was… Different. It doesn’t justify the destruction, but it is interesting, especially since I found the carvings of someone who had been there, the exact same day as me, just in 1947.
After having seen Trinidad (which means Trinity in Spanish) I went back out to the main road and took a right (left leads back to Encarnacion), walked 80 meters to the sign to Jesus, another Jesuit run, just some 12 km away (Trinidad is 30 km from Encarnacion). However the bus only comes every 2 hours, and I had no idea when it had last come by. Next to the turnoff there was a man who offered to take me there, wait for 30 minutes and take me back for 20.000 guarani. I first thought about waiting for the bus, it would be cheaper. But the guy had the biggest mullet in the world, so I accepted his offer and climbed onto his motorbike.
The trip to Jesus, is one I hope I won’t soon forget. The road was sort of a rough cobbled off road (that’s very bad), on a motorbike with no suspension or upholstering (VERY bad), which was making bad sounds (getting even worse) until the side of it (literally) fell off (does it get any worse?) and the battery and parts of the engine fell out (yes it does). That however didn’t deter my big-mulleted driver, who was whistling a happy tune while he picked up the parts (I helped), went back to his bike, knocked them back in approx. where they belonged, ripped some wire from another place to tie it in with, put the sidecover back on, and unsuccessfully fired up the engine. So he took the side off, hit some more on the engine, pulled the wires a bit more, but the side cover on and the engine fired up again. So I wearily climbed back on and we were off again.
Jesus is a different kind of ruin, it isn’t as big and impressive but it is in a much better condition, over the course of time, stones had been taken from Trinidad and used in houses etc. in other places, and some parts had crumbled (the same thing even happened to the Colosseum). But Jesus had been saved from that fate, quite possibly due to its far more remote location, the only thing that was really missing, was inventory (anything loose had long ago been taken/stolen) and the roof. Unlike what I thought, I didn’t even need the 30 minutes there (I spent 25 minutes), so after having seen all of Jesus, I (carefully) climbed back onto the motorbike, and hit up the 12km back to the main road, where I had to wait for 40 minutes or so, before a bus stopped and took me back to Encarnacion.
By now it had gotten quite late, so after some reading, I headed up to eat. On the way I came by an orthodox church which puzzled me quite a lot in a strictly catholic country. But apparently some of the Germans had come from Ukraine (really), and set up their own church. But despite the church I found a nice little place and ordered a delicious lasagna. As I was about to eat my first spoon, an inanely loud sound started pulsing… The presidential election is coming up, and the campaigning is in its highest gear, and Lista 1, though the best way to get voters is to put stickers on cars and play music so loud my eardrums almost blew next to a restaurant. So the restaurant closed all doors and windows, and turned on the air condition, which did quite a lot to help.
Having eaten, I went back to the hotel, wrote in my travel journal and read in The Odyssey, before asking the hotel owner about bus times to Asunción on the following day. So I decided on a 7.30 bus, and went to bed.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 22:26. It is filed under Paraguay.
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