Asado

Barbecuing here in Paraguay is an art form since people here love their meat so much. Families get together every Sunday for an asado (Spanish for BBQ), so I have started to do some weekend asados myself to practice this new-found art form.

The first challenge with asados is that the charcoal here is very different than that in the States and is very difficult to light (as anyone who lived in Honduras with us can testify to). It takes some alcohol (dumped on the charcoal as lighter fluid, not the drinking kind), fanning with a special asado hand fan, and patience to get the coals just right. This took me a few tries to perfect, but I think it's going pretty well now. Then you have to get used to the different cuts of meat (and the corresponding vocabulary) here which don't exactly correspond to those found elsewhere. After 8 months or so I figured out the cut that I like best which is called Bife de Chorizo and roughly corresponds to a Sirloin Strip steak in the States. Would you believe that I can buy 4 of these steaks for about $5 here and they are great quality grass fed beef?

Anyway one of the best features of our apartments, and most nice apartments and houses in Paraguay, is the built in asado grill in our patio area.

If you look closely you will see a crank at the top right of the grill opening. This crank adjusts the grill up...

and down.

Pretty sweet right? All this adjustability, 4 nice bife de chorizo steaks, and some nice spicy chorizo sausage made for a nice asado this day and just one of the many to come.

Just Another Paraguayan

Last week I heard some of my students talking about the NBA playoffs during class so naturally I eavesdropped a little on the conversation and overheard them say that they were cheering for Steve Nash because he had a Paraguayan wife. I had never heard this before so I inquired and they were a little hazy on the details so I checked it out and it turns out to be true. Nash visits her family here in Asuncion in the off season, has done some charity work with a hospital here, and even worked out with a local soccer team when he was here a year ago. Unfortunately the soccer team he practiced with was Olimpia, the Yankees of Paraguayan soccer, otherwise Nash could have become my favorite NBA player. It was cool to find out that someone famous has connections with Paraguay though and that Steve even speaks Spanish and drinks his terere like a local as seen below.
If that's not a Paraguayan, I don't know what is!

El Super Clasico

A few weeks ago a group of teachers decided to attend the biggest sporting event in Paraguay (outside of national team soccer games that is). The Super Clasico is a soccer game between the two biggest (and richest) soccer teams in the country. Olimpia is more or less the Yankees of Paraguayan soccer as they have the most championships and the most money. Their eternal rival is Cerro Porteno who have only slightly fewer championships and almost as much money. While none of us are fans of either team, this was a game that had to be seen in person at least once because it involves a packed national stadium of 36,000 fans screaming, chanting, insulting the other fans, throwing whatever they have on the field, and most importantly police in full riot gear.

We arrived in the neighborhood of the stadium an hour and a half early to get tickets and grab some lomitos. The area was already overflowing with supporters of both teams and the stadium appeared packed as we bought our tickets from a "ticket resale agent" outside. We got lots of weird looks from people in the streets after buying the tickets, as you might imagine a large group of gringos would, since we were the only people walking away from the stadium instead of towards it. We also made a special effort to wear neutral colors so we wouldn't be mistaken for supporters of either club (this meant no Olimpia black or white and no Cerro red or blue) and we thus stood out even further among all the passionate fans in their team colors.

Part of the teacher group dressed in our neutral colors.

After our delicious lomitos we headed into the stadium about 30 minutes before kickoff and found it to be nearly packed already. Apparently futbol games are the only events where "Paraguayan time" doesn't apply. The only seats we could find in our section happened to be right next to the police in riot gear separating the supporters groups of each team. We were not directly in between the opposing "hinchatas" since those folks sit in the end zones of the stadium, but we were a bit concerned none the less. For those of you who may be concerned about our safety after reading that, the worst that happened to us was that there were a few unidentified flying objects that fell near us during contentious times in the game.

Check out the line of riot police next to where we were sitting!

It turned out to be the hottest day of the last couple of weeks so these guys must have been frying in their full riot gear.

The game itself ended in a 0-0 tie but it was still worth going to view the spectacle. The stadium was alive with chants and drumming when we arrived 30 minutes before kickoff and the fans were all screaming and engaged while they watched the reserve teams (kind of like minor league baseball teams or a JV basketball team) for each side play a match before the real game started. Right before the teams came running out of the tunnel (or giant inflated bus as it is here) to warm up on the field both hinchatas went crazy with chants and started throwing rolls of adding machine tape that they had smuggled into the stadium onto the field.

The Cerro side of the stadium with quite possibly the largest banner I've ever seen!

Clearly the Olimpia side of the stadium won this contest of "Who can litter the field with more garbage and delay the start of the game longer" which made the Olimpia fans among my students very happy (interestingly this was more important to them the Monday after than the fact that they tied the game). Once this ended and the game began the level of chanting, drumming, singing, hurling very inappropriate insults, and attempting to hit the opposing players with bottles and even more rolls of adding machine paper (the city must have been unable to print receipts for days afterward) was very impressive and sustained throughout all 90 minutes.

Almost game time!

The view from our seats was pretty nice. This is the Olimpia side of the stadium
with the Paraguay River in the background. The land on the other side of the
stadium is actually Argentina.

All the teachers were glad to have witnessed the spectacle that was the Super Clasico, but I believe that we are all content with our one experience and probably won't head back again. Still, for those who say soccer is a boring sport the opportunity to experience a game like this was a great opportunity and a fun way to contradict that criticism.

The Last Few Weeks

Since the last post on semana santa, its been a very busy, yet chill time. I'll let Jess do the post on the superclasico soccer game we went to last weekend, but I thought I'd just post to write a bit about my weekly routine. I've been continuing my twice a week Spanish classes and I really am seeing improvement in my Spanish language. I've also started a Spanish language book club and we're currently reading novels from my 5th grade classroom. So while I may not be able to converse in Spanish at a 5th grade level, I can read books at that level!

This last week I also found out about a marathon, half marathon and 10K that are taking place in Asuncion in August. My friend Danielle and I, who run together twice a week, have decided to train for and run the 1/2 marathon. August 8th, 2010 be thinking of me!

Next week, I start my fourth and final master's class for the school year. It seems as if I just agreed to take this program and now I'm almost done with year one. Its crazy how time flies! In 7 and 1/2 short weeks, we will be in Wisconsin for a summer vacay. The countdown has definitely begun, along with planning for almost every day of our stateside stay. I'm trying not to count the days, but its too hard not to!

Punta del Este

I realize that I haven't posted in awhile about the final destination for our Semana Santa trip. Its been a busy few weeks! So here's a brief snapshot of our three days in Punta.

First, I'll preface by saying that Punta is the place where a lot of our students go for the summer, and its the "it" place to be seen by Argentines, Paraguayans, and Brazilians. So we thought we have to go there once and at least see what everyone has been talking about. Quite honestly, it was an okay beach with a lot of people! It was our least favorite part of the trip. We did play some paddle ball on the beach, laid out in the sun, ate some good steak, and went for a nice bike ride.

Here is a view of Punta- notice all the high rise buildings along the white sand beach?
Here is a view of the rocky side of the peninsula.

Finally, us in front of the "hand." There was a famous artist who built this structure on the beach here and its a famous landmark in Uruguay. Our hotel was about two blocks from here, which was incredibly nice to be so close to the beach.

Monte de Ombues and La Paloma, Uruguay

After Cabo, we went to a went to a national park with a population of the national plant/tree the ombues. Biologists don't know exactly how to classify the plant, because its huge like a tree, but doesn't grow like a tree, it grows like a bush. Anyway, they were pretty cool and along the way there we saw some amazing waterfowl.
After the park, we went to La Paloma which is known for its surfing. Jess and I had tried surfing two years ago in Costa Rica, and he wanted to try it again. He needs more practice!
La Paloma was a very chill beach town, but one thing that was cool was that they had a whale skeleton in the center of town. Here, Flat Tristan (my cousin's flat person who took the trip with us) had his picture taken with the skeleton.

Cabo Polonia, Uruguay

In almost all Latin American countries, the week before Easter is Holy Week, which means time off from school. This year, Jess and I headed to Uruguay and the beach! I don't know about Jess, but I have definitely been missing the beach after the easy access we had last year, so it was an easy decision for me to head to Uruguay with some friends, Chris and Trish.

The first place we went to in Uruguay is called Cabo Polonia. This place was both Jess' and my favorite place we went to. Cabo is interesting in a few different ways. One, there really isn't a road to get there. Anyone going there has to take the 20+ minute tractor ride on sand to get there.
Once there, we had to find our "hotel". Cabo isn't a huge beach destination and where we were staying was actually a lady's house who rents out two rooms. The coolest part for me about Cabo was the house that we stayed in.
Cabo doesn't get electricity from the country's powergrid- any electricity that houses have are from solar panels on the roofs of houses. Our posada (rented house) had some, so there was some electricity for a few lights and a radio. There also isn't water piped in, we used rain water collected in blue barrels on the roof to wash dishes and shower.
The entire community was created in a kind of haphazard construction in an environmentally friendly way.
We were also only a two minute walk to the beach, which was almost completely deserted and absolutely beautiful!
The entire atmosphere of the place was just incredible, with ecologically minded people who have created this self-sustainable area. We also walked over to the lighthouse which was very pictoresque and reminded us of classic lighthouses.
During the summer months, the rocks along the coast of Cabo are filled with sea lions and seals. Since it is now fall, the rocks weren't filled, but we did get to see a few sunning themselves.
Beautiful!

Parque Nacional Ybycui

A few weeks ago, we had a three day weekend for Hero's Day in Paraguay. Wanting to explore the country we live in a bit more, we rented a car for the weekend with Danielle and Kagan, and headed to a national park that we had heard good things about from a few people. The drive was surprisingly pleasant, and while we had a little issue with some people who didn't know how to drive on mud and got stuck so we had a picnic while they waited for the tractor to come and get them out of the ditch, we got to the park. We again were surprisingly surprised. Living in Central America for two years I guess our expectations for national parks was pretty low, but this park definitely surpassed them all. While we could set up our tents wherever we wanted, there were quite a few picnic tables and grills around, and there were some pretty nice bathroom facilities as well. And the location isn't too bad either! Jesse and Kagan had a really fun time after we realized that we didn't have chairs to sit on. My size coolers anyone?
It was sprinkling when we first arrived, so we didn't do much that first night. But the second day, we went on a hike. During this hike, we encountered many interesting items. First, we were amazed that a well-groomed trail existed here. Well, it was well-groomed until the first mirador or lookout point.
After this, the trail continues, but the word trail is used lightly. We continued, in 100% humidity, and climbed over boulders, walked into countless spider webs, were attacked by biting ants, and the final straw was a huge patch of burrs that proceeded to attack Danielle's pants to the point where she actually had to strip so that we could pull all the burrs off.
Going down, the trail was nice, and we noticed how many different ecosystems we were passing as we had climbed up one of the only hills in Paraguay.
After the hike, we were all just dripping in sweat, so we changed, and jumped into the river. The park is known around Paraguay for its waterfalls, and is supposed to have over 15 waterfalls. What's really cool is that the campsites are set up right by some natural waterfalls (Salto Mina).
After we enjoyed the cool, fresh water in the river, we took a shorter, much gentler hike to the Salto Guarani (Guarani waterfall). This waterfall was absolutely beautiful and incredibly relaxing.
We returned to the campsite, and noticed that we had some neighbors!
Looking back at the weekend, I felt that we participated in something that many Paraguayans would do (I feel like I can say that based on the amount of people that were at the park that weekend). It was a great weekend and was a fabulous way to see more of Paraguay.

Our New Wheels

After returning from the vacation, Jesse and I decided to get a mode of transportation, other than our feet, to use in the sweltering heat. So we bought a 150cc Leopard Moto. We've already used it a few times to experience and visit different parts of Asuncion. The challenge for Jesse now is to teach me how to drive it!

Cotopaxi, Banos, and Papallachta

In order to see more of Ecuador instead of just Quito and our friend's apartment, we signed up for a few excursions. One of which was mountain biking down Cotopaxi Volcano. Cotopaxi National Park is the second most visited park in Ecuador, after the Galapagos. Its a national park because it is the water source for the city of Quito and beautiful Cotopaxi can be seen from different parts of the city. We took a two hour van ride to the park, then drove up the volcano until we could see the refuge for the mountain climbers.
It was really really cold at the base, so we were bundled up!
Jesse really enjoyed taking pictures of me while we biked down.
In addition to this, we also went to Banos, which is town, much lower than Quito altitude wise, where we rented a motorcycle to see some really cool waterfalls. The town is pretty small and is tucked in a valley in the mountains. We also just enjoyed the atmosphere of the town. It was pretty chill and relaxed, and has obviously been recommended in lots of travel guide books!

There were two waterfalls that were really awesome to see, one was called Cascada del Diablo, which is you look carefully, the devil's face does seem to appear in the rock.
Jesse crawled all the way up to the top (and I do mean crawled, hands and knees) to see and experience the mouth of the falls.
The other waterfall was tucked away and required us to hike down over 400 steps (yes I counted on the way up) in 100% humidity.
The last Ecuador adventure I am going to write about (Jesse will have to do one on the hike he did) is about our hike to Papallachta. Papallachta is a town, about two hours outside of Quito that has natural hot springs. Caitlin really wanted to go for her birthday which was a few days before we arrived. However, just arriving on bus didn't warrant the gloriousness of natural hot springs. We felt that we had to do something to deserve such a wonderful event. So we decided to hike to Papallachta. Jess and I felt fairly prepared, since we had just done the Inca Trail, so we were game. However, we were not prepared for this.

First, we went an hour out of our way. Not so bad, it was chilly, but our spirits were still high. We walked along for quite awhile, enjoying ourselves, chatting, following the trail. Then the trail disappeared. We were hiking along a ridge, with the wind gusting so much you could lean into the wind without any problem, when we lost the trail. The map we had wasn't very detailed (to say the least) so we had to depend on our wits. The land wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and neither was the cold.
We saw what appeared to be a trail on the other side of a lake, and then had to find a way to get there.
The unfortunate aspect was, that the mountain we had just climbed to see the trail, dropped off in a cliff. So we had to go up and down another mountain to get there. We basically slid down the mountain, holding on to the grass so that we didn't fall all the way down. Jesse and Caitlin, both needed to take breaks so they didn't go crazy.
Once we got to the lake, we had to cross a marsh and fjord a river, well creek.
All the while we were getting quite hysterical and were saving ourselves from mass hysteria with dried fruit, chocolate, and the vision of steaming hot springs in our future.

Then, once we actually found the trail and thoughts of imminent death has ceased, we could actually enjoy the rest of the hike and take pictures. The clouds and misting had dissipated, so the scenery was actually enjoyable.
We arrived at the ranger's station, looked at the map of the trail (we were way off!) and caught a ride the last 2 km to the hot springs!