When we entered Paraguay we immediately understood it had nothing in common with its cousin Uruguay. The avarage ear tends to confuse the two countries as they sound alike...Uru or Para, there is always that 'guay' that misleads people to overlap the two. In indigenous language guay means river, and that's as much as the two countries have in common! We entered Paraguay from Ciudad del Este, at the border with Brazil. Total chaos. The smuggle empire. Sellers everywhere, screaming the name and qualities of their merchandise, prepared to show them and bargain the price despite you being absolutely not interested in buying anything at all. I have no idea how street markets in Bangkok or India look like, but I fear Ciudad del Este is even more chaotic, noisy and smelly! Fish and french perfumes coexist together in the same half square metre! After the enchantment of Iguazu it was almost a shock to re-enter the uncivilized world of humans and we felt like escaping that unberable mess.
Once arrived in Encarnación, in the south, we could see what is the Paraguay behind the mess of Ciudad del Este. Overall a quite atmosphere, surprised staring faces not yet used to tourists, omnipresent sellers on bus, on the streets and anywhere else, and a lot of kids and pregnant women...For the rest the country has some interesting Jesuitic ruines in the south and the wild (for us unexplored) Chaco in the north. All in all, Paraguay can be a terrific experience, though once bought our reserve of mate, we preferred to move on. What I will always remember is the red colour of this country. The intense red of the ground, sprying the air with a reddish sand.
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