We left Puerto Iguazu for Posadas on Sunday morning in relative luxury with our ‘semi cama’ seats (they recline 160 degrees), so the 5½ hour journey flew by.

We arrived in Posadas bus terminal a little cold (the bus drivers do enjoy their air conditioning) but we were welcomed by 35 degree heat and blazing sun, so quickly warmed-up. We hopped on an international bus and headed straight to the border with Paraguay.

At the borders, everyone scurries off the bus, runs through passport control as quickly as possible and aims to get back on the same bus before it leaves. We followed the crowd and the first passport control in Argentina was navigated successfully as we safely re-boarded the bus, which then crossed the bridge to the Paraguayan border. Unfortunately the lady at passport control in Paraguay was veeerrrrrryyyyy slow, so the bus left without us.

We decided to wait for the next bus, since we were told they run every 20 minutes, so we waited, waited and waited in the heat. To be honest, that wasn’t the best start for our stay in Paraguay… After waiting over an hour and a half, we gave up and decided to go and look for a taxi and this is when our luck turned…

A young couple in a big BMW stopped and asked if we needed a ride. A bit surprised, we accepted and jumped in; this decision definitely changed the next 48 hours for the better. Nicolas and Amira greeted us like old friends and offered us “terere” which is the Paraguayan version of “mate”. Mate is a traditional, caffeine-rich infused herbal drink that is often drunk in a social setting. Indeed, we saw many Argentinians walking around with their thermos flasks of hot water in Iguazu and Ed wondered what it was. Terere is made with the same herbs but mixed with cold water, so it is much more refreshing.

Bonding over terere and Amira’s enthusiasm to practice English, it only took a few minutes for us to become friends and several hours later, we were having diner together in Encarnacion. We were picked-up at 8pm and driven to the finest restaurant in town. Unfortunately it was closed, so we then drove to a new restaurant on the waterfront for our main course, followed by arguably the second best restaurant for pudding! Wonderful hospitality!

 

Encarnacion is located on the shore of the Parana river, and sits opposite Posadas in Argentina. Lately Encarnacion has become the tourist capital of Paraguay, with its “beachfront” and blossoming reputation for one of the best carnivals in South America. We were encouraged to return later in January, when the country would descend on Encarnacion to witness 4 weekends of carnival.

The following day, Nicolas and Amira insisted that we take their car and their driver Jorge so that we could visit the Jesuit ruins in Trinidad, Jesus and San Cosme y Damian. We enthusiastically took them up on their generous offer and were relieved that we wouldn’t be navigating the ruins by local buses!

From all of the posters, you’d have thought that Trinidad was most famous for its “Fiesta de la Sandia” (Watermelon festival – 9^th/10^th January if you’re interested in seeing a 23kg watermelon). However, its main attraction is the ruins of the Jesuits missions, which were founded by Jesuit missioners during the colonization of South America in the 17^th century. These religious missions were created in 1609 and developed over the next 150 years and at the peak of construction there were some 30 missions bordering Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil.

The Jesuit order was expelled from Paraguay in 1767, leaving some of the sites, such as that in Jesus, unfinished. Since 1993, these ruins have been considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the way to the third site, we stopped in the city of Coronel Bogado for lunch. On the advise of Jorge, we bought some local snacks called “chipas”, which are sold in “chiperias”. A chipa is a small baked bread roll often filled with cheese. We also bought some with cheese & ham and meat. They were utterly delicious!

Full of energy, we ended the tour with a visit to San Cosme y Damian. This mission was overseen by a priest who was passionate about science and astrology so he built a perfect sundial and created his own station to observe the stars. The modern day site also has its own planetarium, which we also visited.

Back in Encarnacion, we enjoyed a walk along the Costanera (the broad walk running alongside the beach). We established that a popular pastime for OAPs (Old Aged Pensioners) in Paraguay is beach volleyball and we spent a good half-hour watching the local old guys battling it out – it was the most graceful game of beach volleyball we’ve ever witnessed and much more fun than bingo!

Later that evening, Amira and Nico came to pick us up but before dinner they had a treat in store – we told you that Encarnacion is famous for its carnival, well, they had organised for us to visit some of the rehearsals taking place in the city that evening. We were told that in Encarnacion there are 5 clubs competing, each of them represented by a Queen. The winner then becomes the Carnival Queen (in the picture below the girl wearing red is Sol, who is one of Amira’s relatives and reigning Carnival Queen – you can see why!).

We went to two different clubs and witnessed some unforgettable music and dancing. It was amazing and we’re very sorry that we won’t still be here to see it live, when it kicks-off in a few weeks time.

Our last morning, we woke up early to have a traditional breakfast with Amira and Nico, who took us to the local market where they also have little food stalls. We had breakfast at “Comedor Parrillada Dona Feli”, where we tried “reviro”, a sort of porridge made of flour (extremely filling), “cocido”, mate herbal tea with sugar and milk, and tortilla, a deep fried concoction of eggs, flour, milk, salt and onion. We truly enjoyed it – the perfect way to end a wonderful 48 hours in Paraguay!

Back at our hostel, we packed up and headed for the train station – this time we would cross the boarder by train!   This proved to be an excellent decision, given the torrential rain and long queues across the bridge.

Paraguay may not be the number one destination on travelers’ lists but we absolutely loved it and we’d thoroughly recommend Encarnacion. Not to get to sentimental but what makes travelling so amazing are the people you meet along the way and it could not be more true. Amira and Nico, thank you for making our stay in Encarnacion so amazing: we had a fantastic time! We will be back for Carnival one day and hope to see you in London!

Next stop: Ricon Chico, Argentina…

Highlights:

• Meeting Nico and Amira, you made our stay!
• Carnival experience, albeit without the colourful costumes
• Hostel Kerana, the mangos that fell on the roof and woke us up were made into fresh mango juice each morning

Gastro highlights:

• Breakfast at Comedor Parrillada Doma Feli
• Chipas, oh so good…