Asuncion

After crossing the bridge to Paraguay at Ciudad del Este it got more fucked up as I was hoping for. Near the bus terminal was a field full of people in tents out of plastic. It looked like a refugee camp from Africa. In the bus there was a Jean Claude van Damm movie with a scratch, so we had to see half of the movie 4 times in a row. It was already getting dark when I arrived at one of the main plazas of Asuncion. And also this place was full of tents, kids running around and people cooking in the park. Later on I found out that these people were indigenous people protesting some kind of land reform.

Asuncion is not spectacular, but it has some features that make it special anyway. There are a lot of Koreans and Japanese people which also influence the dishes your getting served (Sushi,...). The presidents HQ is a very nice colonial palace and is situated only 40m from the slum. Security is tight in the center and military police is at every corner. In the evening the street fill up with whores standing next to the officers and the playing children.

I had the perfect hotel on the plaza Uruguay with a view over the indigenous people camping in the park. At night you could see children playing hide and seek and fires in front of all the tents. After travelling that fast down the South American east coast I needed some rest. So I chilled in front of the TV, did some writing and slept a lot. In five days of Asuncion I saw 5 other turists.

All in all a really rewarding city.