Advice on Visiting Paraguay
Hi Microcat,
May I suggest that the very fact that you would ask these questions here says that you probably shouldn't even visit Paraguay.
Aside from the fact that these are basic travel preparation questions that may already have been discussed here(many by me) incidentally, their answer is best discovered by the traveller, since much depends on your personal situation.
For the general interest of all readers, I will say this: If you don't have the wherewithal and willingness to answer these questions AND MORE THOROUGHLY on your own, Paraguay is not the country for you.
Paraguay is not a tourist friendly country, and has no tourist infrastructure. They are not trying to create a tourist industry, and if anything are retreating from tourism. They don't have the money. They are not even officially that friendly toward Americans, which is why they have had a visa requirement for Americans since August of 2002.
If you do not speak spanish quite well(to hold a basic CONVERSATION with a hotel clerk or bus ticket salesperson or girl on the street or in an apartment), or are not willing to RTFF THOROUGHLY and understand the situation, or are not willing to study and plan THOROUGHLY for your trip, ¨Paraguay is not for you. You may be able to visit and get by for a few days, going to a particular hotel in Asunción and then leaving, but that is about it. And you probably won't enjoy it all that much. When you plan, a good part of your plan needs to be preparing to be flexible, especially for a trip of more than a few days.
I studied spanish for 3 years(with 700 hours of classes) and travelled in Latin America 2 years before I first went. Happygolucky speaks spanish and is guided by the family of his girlfriend, and so on.
Most of the "tourists" in Paraguay are Peace Corps, backpacker guided tour, Morman missionaries, and experienced business traveller types. They are not casually travelling alone.
NOBODY speaks english. Even people who should, like hotel desk clerks, generally don't or very little. Many people don't even speak spanish all that well, their native language is Guarani(pronounced war-ah-NEE).
So there is a reason that there are very few posts in this section. And Ciudad del Este and the other cities of Paraguay are much less supportive of tourists than Asuncion, which is why almost NOONE has gone to them and reported.
So maybe another country is better for you. Costa Rica, where I spent 7 months in Spanish school 5 days a week, is very nice and tourist friendly. And a great deal of fun.
Best of luck in whatever you do.
Travelling with Copies of Your Passport
Hi HappyGoLucky,
Actually, you are lucky you got off so easily. And this is not just in Paraguay. The EDITOR of an English Language newspaper in San Juan, Costa Rica was put in jail for a few days for travelling without proper papers in another city of Costa Rica, because he had only COPIES of the passport and entrance stamp. He wrote an article in the paper.
Normally, copies of the passport, visa page, and entrance stamp are sufficient for day to day use in a given area, where you could produce the passport easily. For travel to another area, the original passport is normally required. In Argentina, there are police checkpoints at many crossings between provinces, where they check your passport. I haven't even asked because I assume copies would not be acceptable. I saw a group of 5 removed from the bus entering Corrientes from Misiones because of a problem with their papers.
The bus I was riding was stopped at a control checkpoint between Ciudad del Este and Asunciòn at least one trip. Even the natives need documentation at these checkpoints, I understand.
I would basically expect this to be the requirement in every country. As a by the way, this is not a stupid or silly requirement now. One problem of the digital age is that it is extremely difficult/impossible to prove that a laser image is a photocopy of an original and not modified by Photoshop or another editor and then printed. Legal copies must be authenticated when produced.
Regarding Bush buying land and the economy
I have seen references to this in various places. I have no idea if it's true, but may be. Why else would his daughter come to Paraguay, especially near the summer? It sure wasn't for the weather, or the city night life, etc.
What is true: Since the advent of the WTO, Paraguay has increased its exports dramatically, especially of beef. The big landowners are making a lot of money. So there is a sort of rush to become a big owner of agricultural land.
The income gap between rich and poor is obviously growing, with the rich getting richer. The price of beef has increased to world market prices, and is up 50%-100% in the last year or so. The common people are having trouble buying it, and other products for export. The money earned from exports has very low "velocity" for the economy, because beef production uses little labor, much land. It goes right back out of the country in imports of oil products, cars, and other imported items for the rich. What little is put in the local economy goes right out to China, India, etc. for imported products for the common people. The infrastructure in terms of roads, water, electricity, etc. is generally going to hell. There is currently a big issue with the negotiation of new contracts for the hydroelectric dams, with some papers talking of Paraguay getting a bad result.
The US is reportedly building a base in the Chaco, although officially the US denies this. But the US has clearly been trying to increase it's military presence here. Conventional wisdom is that the US wants to be able to protect the interests of the oil companies in Bolivia. So Bush may know something that we officially don't regarding more US presence at high levels.
I am somewhat worried about all this. The Guarani is obviously being manipulated. The country had 10% inflation last year, but the Guarani gained 16%, from $1=6200 to 5100 now. I saw a projection in Sundays paper talking about $1=Gs4250 by the end of 2007. That should not be happening with their inflation. But obviously, things will be getting more expensive here for tourists. It could be the manipulation of the Guarani is trying to offset the effect of world market prices, since the beef prices are set in dollars and euros, which have declined equally in value relatively. That would tend to help hold the line on further price increases on export items in the local market priced in Guarani.
In the Argentina forum, they are beating up on Kirchner for suppressing exports of beef, etc. Obviously, he is trying to prevent this same thing from happening in Argentina. And the Peso has declined to the dollar. So Argentina is getting cheaper or staying equal, while Paraguay is getting more expensive for tourists.
Another trend I hate to see: There is something of an evangelical movement afoot, it seems. They closed the bars early in Asuncion starting in 2005 and many closed or moved. There appears to be more harrassment of the working women on the street this year. I notice that the ads in ABC have changed from "departmento privado" and "acompañante" to "casa de masaje" and "masajista" and there are less of them. That really annoys me because I was going to try a newspaper ad again, but haven't been able to figure out a way to word it that would be accepted. That had to be government influence. Since this kind of crap is going on in the US as well due to Bush and friends, there may be more influence than we suspect. They certainly know more than we do.
This is the Marianne of Subaculture
One of his favorites according to his report on a paraguayan web she has this info:
"Soy tierna, agradable y cariñosa. Me gusta de todo! Megusta sentir el extasis y el placer y si es con vos mejor! LlamameServicios especiales a Hoteles y Domicilios!
Edad 20 años
Altura 1.70 metros
Medidas 90-60-90
Tipo Trigueña
Idioma Español
Horario De 11:00 a 21:00 Hs.
Zona Petirossi
Agencia Claus Prod. II (Tte. Farina)
Teléfonos 208392 0971-615960 0971-613877
