Today we went to the compact colonial city of Luque, known for its Paraguayan harp music (??) and silversmiths. With its almost gaudy, colorful buildings set around the town green, and horse-drawn carriages, it was more what you’d expect (or want) to see in your ‘Lonely Planet’ travel guide ... Here we visited a shop where Marie had to inspect some work she’d dropped off, and the very animated clerk insisted on cleaning my silver pendant from Sue -- so we left it there while we strolled the streets.
Our busy day continued (having already had the biweekly flat fixed and tire changed, all for $1US) with a drive-by of the one and only jet owned by the Paraguayan Air Force; lunch at the Yacht Club in Asuncion (where we met the local soccer team)(and also checked the depth of the river, in preparation for the future arrival of DOMINO); a visit with Marilu and her family; and stop to see the Capitan; and we laughed … a lot!
Although we started making plans for Thanksgiving dinner at the casa, we received an invitation to celebrate at Marilu’s sprawling home (in a gated community in Asuncion) where they have a garden heady with jasmine and crazy with butterflies, a pool, and huge outdoor parrilla. Marilu’s son has just returned from his post in Washington, and his entire family speaks English -- a great bonus for me as my Castellano is slow in improving and I am entirely lost at Guarani … However, a smile and gestures can go a long way, so we had many great visits and more laughter. Marie has truly embraced her life here in Paraguay, and the people; with many amigos among the workers, locals and ex-pats, and I am getting to enjoy the benefits of her warm friendships.
The internet has been down for two days now, so we are going to hit the internet café in ‘town’ – I am typing this hastily and instead of writing any more, I’ll let my photos speak of the sights of Paraguay for now. Ciao!! XXOO
2 comments:
George W. Bush recently bought 42,000 hectares (over 100,000 acres) of land in Paraguay's northern "Chaco" region.
The land, near the town of Chaco, sits atop huge natural gas reserves, according to sources in Asuncion. Moreover, the land deal was consummated in a dinner meeting between Bush's daughter Jenna and Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte. Although Jenna, who was in Paraguay under the cover of a 10-day UNICEF trip to visit child welfare projects, put the Bush family seal of approval on the land deal, the actual legal papers were worked out by Bush family lawyers and business representatives. Jenna Bush is supposedly working for UNICEF in Panama City. The Bush land is close to a new U.S. military installation, the Mariscal Estigarribia Air Base. It is also nearby a huge tract of land purchased by Sun Myung Moon that sits astride Latin America's largest water aquifer, the Guarani aquifer. According to earlier Madsen reports, Bush and the Carlyle Group are also the owners of major tracts of land along the proposed US super-highway linking Mexico and Canada, land that will be worth hundreds of millions more when the highway is completed.
Well ... i´m not sure who posted that, but i wouldn´t be surprised ... however the new Pres here is in bed with Chavez so ... who knows what will happen next!!! - Betsy
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