You could wait for a lifetime, to spend your days in Asuncion

Arriving late in a city after dark it is always hard to get a true impression, Asuncion immediately felt different from Argentina, the road infrastructure felt less well maintained and the roadside stalls looked like one of the hallmarks of a less developed country. It seemed this would be a different side of the continent which given that Paraguay is one of the least visited countries in South America, despite being bang in the centre, is to be expected.  We arrived at the address given for the El Jardin hostel to find a terracotta coloured wall decorated with murals but no signage indicating that beds would be available. The road was dark, pavements cracked and pipes leaking in the street, slight apprehension crept in. We rang the bell to relief that we were indeed at the right place.  As we walked in the hallway opened up into a shady courtyard garden, complete with fruit trees, hammocks and a high sided pool. This was somewhere we could stay.

As always our first objective was to head out on a walking tour to start getting a feel for the city, the heat was the most noticeable change, autumn did not seem to have a grasp on Asuncion. Following the typical grid structure the centre is easy to negotiate and makes room for large shady plazas, both Plaza Uruguaya and Plaza de los Heroes are places to gather during the day and the latter particularly at night.  The Plaza de los Heroes is home to the city's most well known building the Pantheon de los Heroes, where armed soldiers guard the remains of leaders of the countries war torn past. At one point Paraguay tried to protect Uruguay from Brazil which required permission to cross Argentinian territory resulting in Paraguay being at war with all three simultaneously. Even this wasn't as devastating as the war with Bolivia over Bolivia's desire for a sea port via the Rio Paraguay.  The pantheon, lit up in pink at night gives the plaza a centre piece and a heart where people gather throughout the day and night.

For future reference, Sopa is used throughout South America to mean soup. This evening I discovered Sopa Paraguaya, is corn bread with cheese and onion served in small loaves. I will leave it for you to assess my satisfaction with my evening meal choice.

The move north combined with change of time zone meant that by six am it was light and very warm, it would be a day for breaking the shorts out. At home I live in shorts as much as possible and when travelling am always aware that this is rarely the usual custom, often such as strongly Muslim countries would just not be possible culturally, or even in the case of Iran, legally.  I'll always respect strong reasons for this, though you can sometimes relax more in big cities in Buenos Aires it seemed to be more of a fashion statement though still generally stuck to trousers so I didn't stick out too much.  In Ascuncion,  the dress code was clearly much more relaxed (it was also the weekend) and shorts for the lads and stringy vest tops for the ladies were clearly fine and dandy. By the middle of the day as the temperature soared, they say summer last ten months in Asuncion, I was glad to be dressed down.

Saturday morning was buzzing with activity as the market stalls lined the streets around Plaza de los heroes. Ray-ban and Gucci sunglasses in equal measure with football shirts and mate gourds were on sale.  Colonial style buildings were again in evidence, some in bad disrepair some in great condition, overlooked by condemned tower blocks blackened with pollution, mixed with glass and neon fronted banks and shop all giving an atmosphere of old meets new.

A walk down to the river brought a welcome cooling breeze. Avenida Costanera serves as a river front road during the week but is closed off for weekend activities such as pedal go karting, skating, kite flying and cycling, it gives a great view back to the city and just off the river bank a battle cruiser which served in the Chaco war with Bolivia is moored. How many landlocked countries have battle cruisers, I wonder.

On Sunday we took the local bus to the botanic gardens, not quite riding with chickens but an entertaining experience nonetheless.  The gardens themselves were quieter than we expected but this might be explained by the sustained mosquito attack I underwent, not normally attracting them I had no repellent on and these things were merciless.The gardens themselves were a pleasant enough break from the city but nothing special, the big attraction for locals is clearly the zoo. which we gave a miss on account of less than favourable reviews about how free running the animals are. I believe zoos do have a role to play in conservation and eduction but standards must be high for animal welfare.

Bring your kids to work day on Bus Asuncion?

Sunday afternoon back at Avenida Costanera and it was clearly the place to be. Beach, football joined all the activities of Saturday as groups of rapping and skating teenagers mixed with families on up to six person cyclos as youngsters with barely any sense of navigation swerved across the road with reckless abandon. Dan was in her people watching element.

Storm clouds overhead were gathering and as the low sun shone through a spectacular shaft of light caught the underside of the darkening clouds and spectacularly illuminated all below as the threatened lightning storm erupted in the darkening dusk.

We had both looked forward to a mobile theatre train to Aregua which had cheezy tourist attraction written all over it but unfortunately, due to major road developments, this no longer runs.

Aregua station, a tourist train runs here, apparently.

We decided Aregua was worth a trip anyway so got a couple of local standing room only busses for the hour and a half journey.  Aregua itself, is an artisan town with markets selling largely pottery. Some of these are traditional but the array of ceramic dalmations and Spongebob characters looked tacky to me.

The church overlooking the town is in prime spot and affords good views of Lake Ypacarai, billed as the most polluted in Paraguay due to growth of toxic algae. On walking down to the municipal beach, I'd suggest the floating bottles, polystyrene and plastic bags don't help. You can imagine that if the water could be cleaned up it would make a perfect summer hang out.  It makes you realise how well New Zealand has protected it's natural environment so far but also how fragile this is and how much work is needed to maintain our environment.  Food for thought.

Lake Ypacarai, even I wouldn't swim in it.

Another long journey back, particularly slowing down and standing room only once the outskirts of Asuncion were reached left Dan vowing never to complain about Auckland traffic or public transport again.

The plan was confirmed to head to Encarnacion on Tuesday, home of the Jesuit ruins that are, apparently the least visited UNESCO world heritage site.