Laguna Blanca- on the water

During our camping trip, we wanted to spend as much time in or on the water as possible. This was a little difficult, since the weather didn't cooperate for half the time. But we were still able to keep ourselves busy. The ranch had a rowboat, a canoe and several kayaks left over from the 70's available for rent. The decision was made to go fishing.

The poles that the ranch had to offer were the classic Tom Sawyer style- a stick with a string and a hook on the end.
What to use for bait? Well good thing Jesse and Danielle are such good grasshopper catchers! They caught plenty for us to use.
We all climbed into the boats to head out and try our luck in catching supper.
Jesse was the only lucky one to catch a fish. Since we only caught one, we threw him back. But the fish was a tilapia, one of my favorites!

Laguna Blanca

Last weekend we had a much needed, five day spring break. In our effort to see more of Paraguay, we hired a driver, packed up the tent and supplies, and headed to the elusive Laguna Blanca. Teachers had spoken of hearing of a white sand beach with a lake of crystal clear water, but some thought this was a myth. Its not. Paraguay does have a spring fed, crystal clear lake, surrounded by a nature reserve. In fact, there is a team of scientists there right now studying the flora and fauna of the area, and have found what they believe are two new species of frogs.

Anyway, we went with three other couples, Kathryn and Lorenzo, Jac and Guille, and Danielle and Kagan. All of our supplies barely made it into the van, but soon we were on our way. The laguna is partly owned by a man who runs a ranch nearby and rents out cabins and offers camping as well. It is incredibly hard to get to. Three hours on paved roads, and then another hour on dirt roads, that include four of the sketchiest bridges I've ever been on . Think planks of wood across little creeks. Super scary in a big van!

We got there, set up our tent, and explored the lake a bit. We spent three days there, and it was a wonderful way to get out of the city and enjoy the nature of Paraguay.
We played quite a few games of sand soccer. They resulted in injuries for almost everyone.
We also took a few hikes around the lake to look around. Jesse will be doing a post later on some of his findings.
Since it is anaconda mating season, we were hoping to see one, but alas, we didn't find one. We didn't even see a tarantula. Maybe we'll have more luck on our next camping excursion.

Newest Piece of Furniture

We went downtown a few weeks ago and came back with this! A little Paraguayan stool to be our souvenir. Surprisingly, its pretty comfortable!

What is he doing? What is that?

The arm you see is Jesse's. What he is doing is cutting is the layer of skin off of a slab of bacon before he slices it himself. Yup, we are starting to slice our own bacon. This is supposedly the best bacon our middle school principal has found in Asuncion. We'll let you know after we eat it.

Club Mbegua

In an effort to get out of our suburbia bubble, I spoke with a few teachers who are married to Paraguayans to get a few ideas. One of those ideas was to take the ferry across the Paraguay River/Asuncion Bay to a place called Club Mbegua (pronounced Bay-wah- is Guarani for a type of bird). Apparently Paraguay is the birdwatching capital of the world, with more species in the country than anywhere else. The teacher that I spoke to said that it would be a good time to cross the bay because all the migratory birds are currently migrating and we might be able to see some cool birds. Well, we did see some birds, so she was right. But more than that, we saw a glimpse into Paraguay's past.

Remember the resort that Baby and her family go to in Dirty Dancing? Kellerman's? Fifty years ago, Club Mbegua was the Paraguayan version of Kellerman's. Now it is a decrepit, falling down, country club-esque area that could be absolutely beautiful. Walking around was almost eery. Visions of horror films at the abandoned country club definitely went through our minds. I imagine that when the country was under the control of the dictator, this place would have been an ideal place to go for a family picnic, to host sporting events, weddings, special events, everything. But it appears that no one has really used the place since the dictator fell out of power.
We did get to take an amazing/scary/how-is-this-boat-actually-moving-this-might-be-the-first-engine-made-in-Paraguay boat ride across the river. This picture doesn't quite do the boat justice. The engine was right in front of Jesse, and we paid the driver $4 to take us across.

Back to the club, there were a few people laying around by the kiddie pool, and it appears as though the local crewing team uses the club to store their boats and use the river to practice, but the rest was deserted.
The big pool. Jesse and Kagan are practicing their front crawl.
The nice thing about the area was that we got a pretty decent view of Asuncion from the other side of the bay.
Who knows what we'll see next time we leave our bubble!

80's Party Night!

There are five teachers that have birthdays in August, so traditionally here, there is an August birthday party. Themed parties always seem like so much fun, so we had an 80's night, complete with Dirty Dancing being shown on the side of the house! Do you like our outfits?

A Piece of Grad School

As some of you know, I am currently enrolled in a master's degree program through the University of Alabama. They send a professor down four times a year to give us a whirlwind graduate course in two weeks. Friday was the last day of my last class. Since Jess and I have been so incredibly busy these last few weeks, I thought I would share something I wrote for that class. We read the poem Where I'm From (click to read the original) by George Ella Lyon, and were told to write our own. I only had 7 minutes to write, so take that into consideration while you read. I don't think this would be ready to be published just yet. Enjoy!

Where I'm From

I am from Wisconsin
Land of beer, brats, and cheese
Summers by the lake,
soaking up the sun, laying on the boat.
Winters in the snow,
with red cheeks and noses
coming in to warm by the fire.

I am from the land,
farmers are my heritage
growing corn and cows
picking strawberries with Grandma
or watching the tractor with Grandpa

Brothers, sister, cousins, all together
a noisy bunch we were
We still get together,
although less each passing year.

Moving from country to town
was hard for all of us.
Little league, flag football, track and field
Sports became almost all we knew
Seasons were not winter, spring, summer or fall,
but cross country, wrestling, track and softball

I'm from homemade cakes and cookies
never from a box or store
Crisp fall apples made into applesauce
country food at its best.

Paraguayan Birthday

One of the biggest aspects of Paraguayan culture is the consumption of terrere, a cold tea made from yerba mate. Paraguay is the only country that drinks mate in this way, and it is sort of a symbol of national pride. Jesse wrote a post about terrere early last year (Terrere).

When the weather here gets hot, there is nothing better than drinking ice cold terrere. Every day, you see Paraguayans sitting, relaxing, drinking their terrere. It really is the main way the majority of the population who can’t afford a/c, are able to cool off a little during the summer months. Thermos (thermos used to hold the ice, water, limes, and whatever else you add to the water), guampas (special cup used to hold the yerba), and bombillas (special straws with a filter on the end so that you don’t suck up the yerba leaves) are sold everywhere around the city. There are jewjos (special herb) stands all around the city that sell fresh herbs to add to your terrere.

I started drinking terrere with some of the other teachers last year, bought a bombilla and guampa but I never got a thermo. I was jealous of all the other teachers with their beautiful, hand-stitched leather thermos, but I never got around to going to the leather store and picking mine out.

Well, Jesse, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, he knew of my desire for a beautiful, leather thermo. He took Danielle to the leather store; they collaborated, and designed my birthday gift together.

Isn’t it beautiful? I realize to most of you who are not in Paraguay cannot realize how important this gift is, and you might even think it’s a little silly, all of my carrying on. However, once the weather turns warmer, I will be using this thermo daily. And you can guarantee that I will be bringing this back to Wisconsin with me next July, and enjoying ice cold terrere at the Cabin and at Hodag.

Bicentenario Maraton

Back in March, Danielle (fellow teacher) and myself, we heard about a marathon and half marathon being held in Asuncion on August 8^th. We had been running two to three times a week for a few months and we both decided that it would be fun to train for the ½ marathon. I consulted Runner’s World for a training schedule and we sort of stepped up our running, adding distance to our runs and running one or two times more per week. It was really hard to force ourselves to run when we were in the States over the month of July, but Tricia (Jesse’s sister) helped me run in Minneapolis, and Dad and Mom biked next to me on my runs in Stevens Point to help me get my miles in.

Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. This year is not just any year in Paraguay, so therefore, this marathon was not just any marathon. This year, Paraguay is celebrating their Bicentenario, which is their 200^th year of freedom from Spanish colonization. This marathon was a kickoff to the year’s festivities, which will culminate in May.

Danielle and I signed up, got our time chips and t-shirts, when we realized that the organizers wanted everyone to wear the t-shirts that they gave us. The color of the shirt determined the distance- 10k runners wore white, ½ marathoners wore blue, and full marathoners wore red. Those are the three colors of the Paraguayan flag, and we actually lined up for the start in the order of the flag: red, white, blue.

The race had over 3000 participants signed up, including many from different countries, as far away as Europe. Adidas, the main sponsor, and some of the other sponsors, had an entire weekend of festivities lined up for the out-of-towners.

When we arrived at the starting spot, we had to laugh. A guy in a chicken suit (one of the sponsors) was leading a jazzercise/Jane Fonda style warm-up for the runners. Personal (one of the main cell phone companies here) had their workers out in blue spandex uniforms passing out PowerAde vouchers. We got to the starting line, where the national anthem was sung and the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, sounded the air horn for the start of the race.

Once the air horn started, about 3 minutes of firecrackers sounded off the start as well. Paraguayans, they love their noisemakers. The first 6K of the race was around the downtown region, and it was pretty amazing how neat the streets looked filled with red, white, and blue runners. It thinned out a bit as we kept going and soon we were heading out of the downtown region towards our apartment. It was pretty shocking to realize that we were running from the President’s house, downtown to past Danielle’s house, and back to downtown, and it was only a ½ marathon. It just shows you how compact and small Asuncion really is.

Jesse and Kagan (Danielle’s boyfriend) had their motos and traveled along the course to cheer us on, take pictures, and offer water. Danielle’s roommates also came out to cheer us on as well. We finished in a time of 2:13. Considering that we had each only ran one 10 mile run in preparation, and that our goal was to finish without walking, I am incredibly happy with our time. After the race, we went to Danielle’s house, where her roommates made a fantastic brunch for us to eat in celebration. Maybe next year at this time, we’ll be celebrating finishing our first full marathon?

Strawberry Festival, Aregua

Ever since arriving in Asuncion, I’ve heard about the Aregua Strawberry Festival. Last year, we took the train to Aregua, but we didn’t notice any strawberries, so I thought we had missed the festival by a week or so. Well it turns out, we were there last year during the strawberry festival, we just didn’t go to the right spot. The “festival” (you’ll see why I put it in quotations in a minute) is a good way out of town. There was no way, outside of a taxi, that we were going to be able to find it.

This year, we caught a ride with Kathryn and Jac. Kathryn’s boyfriend Lorenzo being Paraguayan, he knew right were to go. Let me describe for you the “festival.” There are about 15 booths along the side of the road. Each booth has the following things for sale- strawberries in a basket, strawberries with cream, strawberry shortcake, strawberry liquor, and strawberry jam. There were no games, activities, nor variety in the booths. Each booth had exactly the same things that cost exactly the same prices. It was hard for me to consider it a festival.

The highlight of our Aregua trip for me was shopping the pottery that Aregua is famous for and Jesse and I bought a little addition to our house. Paraguayan legend/folklore says that its lucky for a house to have a sapo (toad or frog) around the house. So, we looked for the most outrageous frogs we could find, and settled for these cute guys. The total cost of the newest addition to our house? 10 mil, or 2 dollars. And that includes the bench.