On March 20th, we met Jason & Lori at the international airport in BA. From there we flew to Asuncion, Paraguay, to spend the weekend with Jason's longtime friend, Marcelo Sosa and his fiance, Maria de la Paz. Jason and Marcelo were college roommates at KU and also business partners in Paraguay. Marcelo and Maria have a lovely home on a golf course across the street from a yacht club and resort.
Asuncion is one of the oldest cities in South America. We toured all of the "old city" which is downtown near the port. This is not an attractive area of the city anymore as all but a few shops and offices have moved out of downtown. Unfortunately many of the historic buildings have been torn down or are in disrepair. There is a new downtown area where Asuncion looks very "first world". There are also some very nice residential areas. But this is a poor country low in natural resources. It seems there is not much of a middle class in Paraguay.
On Saturday we drove outside of the city because Jason wanted us to see what the chaco, which is a large part of the country west of Asuncion. It is poor soil and looks like dry range land with some vegetation but most trees are only near water. This is where there are huge cattle ranches (estancias). In the eastern part of the country the land is very fertile and the estancias are very big in farming.
On our way back to Asuncion we stopped at a Guaranis Indian reservation. This is one of four tribes of indigenous people of Paraguay. We were given a royal tour and Jason was even asked to dance with the older gentlemen of the tribe.
When Jason & Lori arrived in BA on Tuesday evening (they stayed an extra day in Asuncion), we met them at their hotel which was only 4 blocks from our apartment. It was wonderful for us to be with them. Not only are they family that we love and miss but Jason speaks perfect Spanish. This certainly made our visits to the museums, taxi rides, ordering at restaurants and touring more interesting. We went to the national historical museum and a prison museum in San Telmo which is in the older part of BA.
Along with visiting the museums we did a fair amount of walking. We also did our fair share of eating at some traditional parilla type restaurants: "bring on the beef". We had dinner with another Paraguayan friend of Jason's and his wife whom Paul and I had met early on in Buenos Aires. Needless to say Jason and friends had a wonderful time reminiscing about old times, all in Spanish, with some translation for Lori, Paul and me. It was real treat for Paul and I to have the "kids" spend time with us in SA.
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