Friends from Denver, Elizabeth, Collin, and Stacey, came to visit us in Paraguay at the end of June. It was an incredible visit, and we feel really fucking blessed they wanted to visit us. We spent 5 whirlwind days seeing the Paraguayan countryside, before taking off for the total eclipse in Argentina. We asked them to reflect on their experience in Paraguay, so without further ado….. (Stacey echoes their thoughts, but left the descriptive writing of Elizabeth and Collin do the talking)
From Collin:
I don’t blame you if you weren’t able to go down to Paraguay to visit Alli and Dylan. Paraguay is not a place may people visit.
This was clear when we stepped off the plane and were asked to present pristine US dollars in order to enter. The bills required for a Paraguayan visitor VISA must have no bends, no folds, and certainly no wrinkles. In that line we witnessed the few other visitors ahead of us have many of their bills turned away. And with no way to get any bills anywhere, that resulted in much despair and stress immediately upon landing. Like I said: Paraguay is not a place many people visit.
The first thing we saw when we breathed the Paraguayan air was the moon. I knew we were going to see different stars in the sky (being in the Southern hemisphere), but I always thought the moon was the moon. But in Paraguay that night the moon certainly wasn’t the moon. It was jarringly upside-down. It looked like a bowl. Like a cup that was half full. It was actually upside-down. Looking back it seems like pretty obvious foreshadowing that everything I “knew” about Paraguay would soon be turned on its head as well.
I never had a desire to go anywhere in South America. And before going I probably couldn’t pick out Paraguay on a map. (Shouldn’t it be touching Uruguay? Wait, do I even know where Uruguay is? Probably not as spell-check just told me it’s spelled Uruguay not Uraguay). But there are certain people who draw you to them like magnets. Alli and Dylan are those people. So there I was, in Paraguay, and the moon was upside down.
But what was not upside down was Alli and Dylan. Everything was right about those two. Everything felt more welcoming immediately upon seeing them: from the moment we pulled up to them waiting outside the hostel for us, dancing in excitement with music blaring from their phones ready to disperse warm, aggressively friendly hugs.
Those hugs felt great after a very long day of travel (featuring an incredibly hot a humid, albeit wonderful layover in Panama City, which, if they knew how much I sweated there they certainly wouldn’t be hugging me so tightly). That we were getting those exuberant hugs from two people who took an overnight bus (and several more busses totalling over 14+ hours of sub-par bus travel) to get there to give them to us was a feeling of overwhelming gratitude and thanks I don’t often experience.
The next week in Paraguay was spent being whisked around by our seemingly Paraguayan friends. From familiar-feeling, little known hipster-like cafes in the Capital (Asunción) to wonderful smelling mate tours to unexpectedly good brewery tours outside another city in the south (Encarnación) to the least visited World Heritage site in the world to their home in Yatytay. It’s hard to explain all of it to you and how amazing every moment was because they came in such rapid succession. So indulge me while I try to explain just a couple to you.
Striking a pose at the World’s Least Visited World Heritage Site
What will stick with me forever is Alli and Dylan showing us their home in Yatytay. I don’t just mean the place they lived, which they turned from an abandoned-looking structure into a thriving house with a lush yard full of amazing fruits and vegetables and a wonderful cat-entry-system. I mean the way they turned that whole place into their home. Smiling and greeting everyone in Guarani. Knowing all the shop-keepers and stories about everyone we passed. Showing us the eco-brick projects and recycled tire projects the community had completed; it was abundantly clear they made a lasting mark on the community, and the community on them, in the short time they’d been there.
This was no more apparent than in the people they introduced us to. People who I can now call friends because of them. Like I said: these two are like magnets. Their contagious positivity radiates out of them and I can tell you this wonderful life-force is even contagious to Paraguayan people. When we talked to people and it was clear how deeply these friendships were rooted. Here are two people, far away from home, everything is different, everything is new, everything is foreign, and they find a way to craft a loving, supportive community: sharing new ways to cook with all that’s around them; revealing nature and way to experience it by back-breakingly building paths in the forest; bringing new ideas and thoughts and ways of thinking; showing people what’s possible. We witnessed avocados and lemons and papaya trees where the fruit just falls and rots. And where many people would see despair and apathy, Alli and Dylan saw potential.
There are many moments from this trip I will hold onto dearly, but there was one very specific moment that I will never forget. One was a banal seeming walk to visit to a shop that was owned by one of their friend’s parents. After a short walk (every walk in Yatytay is short) we arrived at a modest shop was really two shops: one side was a car oil shop, the other a compact grocery store. (We would soon find out this shop was also their home.) Alli and Dylan were greeted warmly (as always by all everyone we met in Yatytay) and we were embraced simply because we knew them. The mother of their friend Santi grabbed us chairs and we sat on the front stoop of the shop and shared mate (as you do) while she told stories (lovingly translated by Alli and Dylan) and everyone talked and shared (also translated by Alli and Dylan, as always. If you do visit, learn Spanish and make their lives easier. We did not.) We were then invited to see their garden and backyard. The garden was a vegetable oasis! It had fresh vegetables, like beautiful looking green lettuce. It was the first time I’d seen a leafy green thing in a long while. Then on to their backyard, which was meticulously cared for and featured a stump that was wired to a living tree. This odd-seeming feature turned out to be the home to some native South American bees that was rescued by her son. He saw it being cut down and knew how good bees were and saved the section of tree. This was one of the many moments that showed me that while most people existed with very modest means, they are always willing to give and share.As shown when we were next invited in to see her kitchen, at which point she almost immediately started cooking us traditional Paraguayan food. It was delicious, albeit all very beige. As we sat around that table, eating, laughing drinking, and playing games, you didn’t need to understand the language to know how much loving kindness existed there. You could feel the warmth. It was palpable. When we left it was dark and we were full and I’m quite sure all of us were very happy.
Spending time with the wonderful Pérez family
Every other moment there wasn’t so much a moment as it was an experience. Seeing the projects completed and relationships forged. They were clearly surrounded by amazing, engaged, smart, kind, wonderful caring, passionate people. They lived by example and helped show what was possible. I know sometimes they felt frustrated and like they weren’t doing enough. But I saw it. They accomplished so much.
Like I said: I don’t blame you if you weren’t able to go down to Paraguay to visit Alli and Dylan. Paraguay is not a place may people visit.It may not have the nicest restaurants or the tallest mountains but the people I met and experiences that I had are like no other. It is also a place that helped expose how amazingly lucky I am to have these two in my life. Thank you for being so kind, so selfless, and such wonderfully inspiring hosts. Paraguay is a place I’m truly glad I got to see with you two. It truly is the people that make a place.
From Elizabeth:
The moon is upside down in Paraguay.
We were the last people to clear customs in Asuncion with the most mangled Spanish they’ve ever heard, and as we waited outside for our Uber (yes, Uber), we spied this glowing boat in the sky.
Highly accurate artist’s interpretation of the half moon in Paraguay.
I expected to see the Southern Cross in South America. I expected to eat a ton of meat and cheese. I expected Yatytay to be a village. I expected the transportation to be packed buses without AC.
But Paraguay wasn’t all as expected.
The Unexpected
First, the “hostel” where we stayed in had an outdoor breakfast area with not 1, but 2 pools. Then we found a hipster coffee shop that had kombucha and espresso and easily could have been in RiNo. Then our bus out of Asunción to Encarnación was probably the most luxurious mode of transportation I have ever experienced, with fully reclining seats, pillow, blanket, and snacks. I’m about to research how we can bring full cama buses to America, because I need a $20, plush way to get to Santa Fe on the regular.
The BEST bus in the world
Comidas tipicas (typical food) was shockingly a lot more flour-heavy than meat-heavy. Chipa guasu should be consumed outside of Paraguay, and so should cocido (hot drink made with mate + charcoal + sugar and strained to be perfectly sweet and smoky). We had probably 10 different types of chipa in the 4 days. We sampled a stew without any liquid, and yerba mate ice cream. Paraguay also has gems like a German brewery that serves fantastic Mexican food. Mandioca is the same as cassava is the same as yuca. (And Whole Foods is lying to you about yucca. It’s yuca). Alli and Dylan have lemon, mandarin, loquat, peach, pomelo, and papaya trees in their backyard, and avocado trees down the road. But unless harvested by these gringos, they often just rot.
Gringo who handharvested a prized avocado
The Expected
What was not at all unexpected was how much of a community Alli and Dylan have created in Paraguay. From their Peace Corps peers, to people of all ages in Yatytay, they have carved out a very important space there. They have surrounded themselves with other people who have hearts of pure gold.
Alli and Dylan have the best friends, amirite?
From Santi’s family opening their home up to us, completely unannounced for an entire afternoon, with lots of food and mate, to Oscar serenading us at their home, to Santi, Andy, Gustavo, Barby, Andrés and Oscar coming over to try weird dishes like green papaya salad (FROM THE PAPAYA TREE OUTSIDE. mind.blown).
They opened their homes, and accepted us with open arms. Even though our Spanish was horrendous, and we just parroted back 2 Guarani phrases. Tereré, mate, wine, or fernet + coke, were all passed communally in one glass, and mostly we used body language to communicate.
Throughout our time in Paraguay AND in Argentina, Alli and Dylan worked overtime as full time translators, swapping easily between Spanish, English, and a little Guaraní.
Coming back to the United States, it’s easy to encapsulate the experience and put it in it’s tidy memory shelf. (And with my failing memory, that’s mostly just easily referrable photos and notes). What I hope to keep and carry from this experience is the sharing culture that is just the norm in Paraguay, and using it to stay present with friends and gatherings here.
That and, as Alli and Dylan have always inspired me, watching my consumerism and consumption. Reusing and reusing, especially plastics, because recycling is a farce, and though we might not see the millions of tires and plastic bags we consume yearly, they go somewhere. And though we might not smell burning trash here in Denver, it’s burning somewhere.
So let’s end with this adorable reuse of a tire! A snail planter!