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I've only been once in Paraguay, for a week in 1992, as part of a journey through Bolivia, a small part of Brazil, and Paraguay
Music
Anecdote
Foz do Iguacu is located on the borders between Brazil and Argentina. On the other side of the water there's Ciudad del Este (used to be called Stroessner City, but fortunately that's been corrected) in Paraguay. Near these two places there's a huge waterfall.
First I went to the Brazialian part of the falls, where there's a magnificent panorama over the wild Argentinian side. Everything was kept clean and tidy, a very sophisticated tourist attraction. I wandered around for a few hours and was overwelmed. The falls are really immens. I would have loved to give you more background information on its width, height and flux, but all Brazilian sides I investigated linked me through to dozens of popups with hotel reservations and more of that jazz. Typically Brazilian.
On the way back I noticed a helicopter platform. 50 US dollars for just 6 minutes in the air above the falls. My budget for South America was about 5 dollars a day, apart from lodging and travelling. So was kind of expensive like. In an impuls I did it anyway. It's not an everyday experience to hoover over the jungle and giant waterfall in such a nice blue white Bell 206-B JetRanger. This chopper had two seats in the front, and three in the rear. My only fellow passengers was an American man, his wife and their kid. Filthy rich bastards. He kept the door for the seat near the pilot, but unfortunately had to help his son to board in the rear. That was my moment. Sneaky fast but with a cool apperance I jumped next to the pilot. Same rights as him, no? It was a very impressive flight.
Later on I went to the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. The journey reminded me of Southern Germany. Smooth hills, pastries with fences all around, very tidy, and it wasn't really warm or so. Asuncion appeared to be quite a big city, but with a really small center. A bit messy, and all was exactly not in the right shape. The view over the river, near the central square, was a big disappointment, there was a junk yard in between, and the smell even reached the square. It's probably my personal thing, but I don't dig Asuncion. After a stroll through the city, the market, churches, cathedral and botanic garden I went to a restaurant. There I was welcomed by the German owner. "Ah, mister ist von der Niederlanden. We wehr allways freunds. It was never the German intention to occupy Holland during the war, we expected a nice collaboration with our western bruder". Clearly Nurnberg missed some chances in justice, and if my name was Wiesenthal I surely would have checked this guy out.
I was smart enough not to express my feelings, as Paraguay is loaded with Germans.
