Chips at Random: Paraguay

Where are we going?

Paraguay. Landlocked in South America. Capitol city of Asuncion was founded in 1537 by Spanish explorer Juan de Salazar. Of course it wasn't the capitol then because native tribes were already here and probably had no sense of a grand government and capitol nonsense.

Population: 6.6 milion (U.S. has 318.9 milion)

Area: 157 square miles (U.S. is 3.8 milion sq. miles.)

Why are we going?

My awesome dad manages the insurance for a shoe company in San Luis Obispo who had a warehouse full of shoes that weren't going to be sold. The company wanted to avoid sending them to the landfill so my dad, Jeff, helped coordinate the large task of donating them to needy people in Paraguay. A colleague of his, Jim, has a daughter working with the Peace Corps in Maracana, Paraguay which helped spark the process. It was almost a year long process with many hurtles with customs and other legal issues, but it worked out. Not it was time to see the shoes get delivered to those who need them.

We took a shuttle van from Santa Maria airport to LAX. It was an early start, so of course Dad sleeps through much of it. Our driver thought he was driving the new Tesla. Dad probably had it better sleeping through this guys crazy driving. He also thought another kid on the bus was military and wouldn't let up. The kid kept quiet and let the driver keep rambling. The kid finally said he's a student and was never in the military, but crazy-driver-guy kept up the military bit. Driver also made announcements like he was the captain of a plane. Crazy guy.

First leg: Depart LAX at 1:45 am ➞ El Salvador. What the f* is this? I've never seen this before.

That's Jim. He's a colleague of Dad's at Rotary San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. His daughter, Kelsey, is working with the Peace Corps in a small town in Paraguay called Maracana and will be meeting us at the airport in Asuncion.

Leg 2: El Salvador ➞ Lima, Peru. This was our view in El Salvador for eight hours.

I tried to sleep but couldn't. I did get a good portion of my book read: The Bourne Imperative (book # 12 in series.) Airports are full of alcohol for sale along with cigarettes and GoPros. Why is that? This is a surf destination. We saw a lot of board bags being unloaded, and if any of them forgot their GoPro the airport terminal had plenty to choose from.

Leg 3: Lima, Peru ➞ Asuncion, Paraguay arriving at 2:55 am.

Our contact in Asuncion, Frederico, was gracious enough to meet us at the airport with his wife, Lorena, to drive us to our host's house where we would stay for the next few days. Kelsey was there too to greet us. Since Dad, Jim, and I don't speak Spanish, Kelsey was extremely helpful in translating. She's become fluent in Spanish and even some Guarani.

We were all super hazy at this point after many hours of travel and were so stoke to be headed for a real bed. We had no idea what to expect. While Frederico was our main contact in Paraguay, another Rotarian named Jose would be hosting us at his house. We drove along some some normal roads, some really bad ones, past nice buildings and also some really run-down ones. Although I had no sense of direction, it felt like we were headed out of town when we pulled up a road that felt like it was paved with boulders and arrived at Jose's.

Jose's house turned out to be amazing. So far we've seen that Asuncion has a very poor population and also a wealthy population. Luckily, Jose is at the top end of the social structure and his place is actually a compound where he lives with his four brothers surrounded by a wall. Lorena waved to the guard at the entrance and we entered the gate where Maria and Jose greeted us. Kelsey helped translate pleasantries, but Jose speaks English pretty well which was great to know. It was a quick exchange of traditional Paraguayan greetings; handshakes for the men, and a hug plus two kisses for the women.