Multi-pitch rock climbing in Los Arenales, Mendoza, Argentina
Changing from the snow and cold on Aconcagua to the granite rocks and the nicer temperatures of Los Arenales, a valley south-west of Mendoza near the border with Chile, that was the plan when I met up again with Martina in Mendoza. After having traveled bits and pieces with her in Ecuador, Peru and Chile, we are thinking now to explore Paraguay together... but first a few days of relaxed climbing in Los Arenales!
Since it is a rather remote valley -hence a hassle to get there by public transport- and since I sold my climbing rope and quickdraws after my last climbing in Argentina, we decided to go climbing with Juan, a guide we met in Mendoza. Juan knows the valley very well and proposes a couple of tracks (all about 150m long) which will keep us busy for a couple of days for sure :-)
Excellent rock, nice variety of climbing and a relax atmosphere made Los Arenales a perfect trip to recharge the batteries before hitting the road to Paraguay!
Los Arenales valley, view from halfway up our first track.
A good diner, excellent Malbec wine and chatting away after a day of climbing... Life is good!
The approach to 'Muralla de la Mitria', our playground in Los Arenales.
Third pitch: chimney-time again!!
Trying to avoid the 'spaghetti-monster'...
Biking in Buenos Aires
The beauty of traveling Argentina by bus: boarding a cama-bus (very comfortable bus with seats which incline almost 180 degrees) in the late afternoon in Mendoza, watching a movie, having a three-course diner (including wine), sleeping for some 8 hours and arriving in Buenos Aires - fresh and ready for a new day! At least, that is the theory... it worked well for us until after the diner... when they came around for the second time to refill our glasses of wine, we started to become a bit suspicious (the more since we were not moving at all for the last 30 minutes). One more glass of wine and a coffee later the bus driver announced that the engine broke down and it would take at least a couple of hours to have spare parts and repair it. Luckily for the people heading to Buenos Aires they managed to arrange a couple of seats on another bus which would leave almost immediately! Happy to be able to continue our travel, we change bus... Not so happy, because it is only a semi-cama and there will be no way for me to sleep in the small seats of this bus... Luckily I can find a nice spot on the ground in the corridor in front of the bus and manage to have some good sleep until the first sun rays wake me up in Buenos Aires!
Martina and I decided it will be only a quick one-day visit (I will come back later anyway, and she is not so much into big cities) prior to hopping on the next overnight bus to Paraguay. In order to make the most out of it, we decided to get some wheels... Buenos Aires by bike: easy, fun and for free!!
En route through Paraguay
Why Paraguay?
Well, why not?
It is one of these under-explored countries of South-America, which has an air of mystery hanging over it. Both of us don't know much about it and the mere 30 pages dedicated to Paraguay in my guidebook don't learn me much more... Looks like the ideal place to do again some backpacking in the true sense of the verb -traveling Chile and Argentina was sometimes really too easy with all the excellent tourist infrastructure- and to let the country surprise us!
Encarnacion and the Jesuit settlements Trinidad and Jesus
We are entering Paraguay early in the morning by crossing a bridge over the Alto Parana -the river-border with Argentina- arriving in Encarnacion. The migration procedure here is very simple and easy: everybody gives passports or IDs to the bus driver and a few minutes later he comes back with our passports nicely stamped, without the migration officer having even seen us... welcome to Paraguay!!
Two overnight buses in a row leave their traces... so, after breakfast I literally pass out on the bed in our hostel. Half an hour (?) later I wake up with my first words being: 'yep, I am ready to go!', leaving Martina first in consternation and then laughing her ass off.
But well, when I say 'I am ready to go', I also mean that I am ready to go... And thus some minutes later we find ourselves on the road again, on our way to visit the ruins of the Jesuit mission settlements of Trinidad and Jesus near Encarnacion. These two settlements are part of a big amount of settlements built by the Jesuit missionaries who came in the 17th-18th century to what is now the border region of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay to convert the Guaranies to Christianity. The ruins are Paraguay's most important cultural heritage sites.
During our visit we meet Christian, a Paraguayan guy who lives in Encarnacion, who is happy to give us a lift back to Encarnacion. He introduces us with a lot of enthusiasm into the Guarani language, the officially recognised indigenous language in Paraguay, which features a lot of funny combinations of words in order to make a new word.
Making sure we're heading the right way... :-)
Carnival in Encarnacion... we just saw the end of the parade arriving in the Sambadrome.
The Alto Parana river with the bridge to Encarnacion and the skyline at the other side is Argentina!
People carry their thermos (to keep the water ice-cold) and tea-cup everywhere they go.
Asuncion
Time to visit Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay!
Lot's of different impressions: from the colourful, nice, little Barrio San Jeronimo, doing a siesta on one of the many squares, to the Palacio Gobierno and the 'favela of Asuncion' right next to it. In the latter we experience a robbery attempt: a young boy gets into the pocket of my pants and tries to steal my camera... Luckily I have the right reaction and can get hold of my camera. In the commotion following on this the boy runs away and a police car passing by brings us out of this area. Later that evening, Marina and I discussed -over a cold beer and some delicious empanadas- what happened before. It was for sure naive from us to walk in this area and think nothing would happen, even though a lady from there was accompanying us to get us through to the city centre. Was it the last couple of months traveling without experiencing any problems making us this naive?!? Luckily nothing happened and I see it as a wake-up call to keep vigilant while traveling!
Old-school buses in Asuncion, with a old-school terere-drinking driver :-)
In hot and humid Paraguay they know how to serve beer: cooled glasses and a bucket of ice!
Palacio de Gobierno in Asuncion.
Statue of the former dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who ruled for 35 years (the longest dictatorship in S-America). After his deposition, the original statue was crushed and placed inside a block of concrete, only his hands and face protruding... An artistic way to never forget this black episode in history!
Farm stay in the Chaco
The northern part of Paraguay is the so-called Chaco. An area featured by wild nature, the Rio Paraguay which runs through it and large cattle estancias. It is on one of these farms that we stay for a couple of days... enjoying the tropical heat, the refreshing swims in the Rio Paraguay, the amazing food we have together with the family, and of course the afternoon-long siestas :-) The locals for sure must have thought that Martina and I were crazy, seeing us hiking and biking around in the Chaco under melting temperatures! But the swim in the river, the beer at the lake-side and the siestas feel so much better after having been sweating like never before, haha!!
Sunset at the farm...
Coming back from our walk to Belen, we learnt there is also a collectivo going...
Enjoying another sunset at the farm.
Trans-Chaco to Bolivia
The Trans-Chaco, described as 'one of the great road adventures in South America' in my guidebook... and an adventure it was! This road which goes from Asuncion all the way to Santa Cruz in Bolivia has been completed only a few years ago and traverses the scarcely populated Chaco area. Being already on the farm somewhere in the middle of the Chaco, I decide to take a bus to Filadelfia hoping that I can catch there the bus coming from Asuncion. It somehow all works out... but you need to have some time, because these buses only go (maximum) once per day. Furthermore I need to go via another small village -Mariscal- in order to get my exit stamp from Paraguay. Two days and three buses later (the last one an 18-hour drive over the most deteriorated part of the Trans-Chaco, the paved road is almost not existing anymore and we are just driving a dirt road) I happily arrive again in Bolivia!
Even on holiday I still have to deal with NASA... :-) Nuestra Señora de Asuncion brings you through all Paraguay.
Arriving at the migration office in Mariscal around 4pm, the next bus is at 4am...
