We left Laguna Blanca on the back of a motorbike trailer and waited by
the side of the road for the bus back to Santa Rosa for over an hour in
the 38 degree heat, love South American time. Another bus ride and 3
hours later we were in Concepcion. After being told that the bus to
Belen, our destination, can take a different route through town each day
and is difficult to track down we opted for a cab. Northern Paraguay
feels a lot poorer than the south, only the main roads are paved (where
we’d have a motorway at home) and everywhere else is dirt tracks.
We arrived at Ganja El Roble, a working farm early evening in time to meet the baby tapir (Fifi), the parrot (Gotti), the monkey, toucan, tortoises and anaconda. We were the only guests at the ranch, the owner, Dirk-Peter a real life Crocodile Dundee informed us that they’d only had 3 other guests in the last 2 months as a lot of governments are warning travellers away from Paraguay because of the political situation. We played with the tapir and the parrot, walked with the grounds keeper Chris while he fed the fish in the lakes, ate dinner with Peter and his family (all dinner is sourced from the farm) and went to bed.
The next morning we attempted the 5km walk to the river, took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end. Having walked enough in the heat we turned around and went fishing with Peter’s oldest son in one of the lakes on the farm instead. The first time Rhys has ever fished. We caught 23 fish between us. Then the storms started and carried on until lunchtime the following day. We sat in the gardens reading (Ceri, you’d be proud, Rhys has read 3 books here already!) and learning about Paraguay’s history – very turbulent and bloody, the War of the Triple Alliance from 1864 to 1870 ended the lives of 80% of the population that mixed with the influx of Europeans seeking El Dorado and the Chaco War of the 1930’s means that Paraguayan people have a real mixed heritage and look far more European than in other South American countries I’ve been to.
Another 2 couples turned up at the ranch over the next day and on our 3rd day, when we were due to leave, the weather was nice enough for Peter to take us all out in his boat tubing on the River Ypane. It was so serene and peaceful, you can’t see any buildings at all from the river, just toucans and monkeys. A stop for lunch and a camp fire later, after 6 hours we were out of the river and heading back to the farm on the back of Peter’s pick up truck.
We stayed one more day at the ranch, partly because we’d fallen in love with the tapir, partly because the home cooked food was so good and partly because it worked out cheaper as we could get a lift in to Concepcion on the Monday when Peter did the school run. The last day we borrowed the boys bikes and rode into Belen, the closest town – absolutely nothing there but was a nice ride along the dirt track.
Monday was spent on a bus back to Asuncion where we spent the night back at El Jardin debating our next move. Having looked at the maps and the bus timetables going back to Brazil seemed out of the way so we continued south to Encarnacion for a night. The following day we booked our bus tickets to Buenos Aires then caught the slowest bus you have ever seen to the nearby Jesuit Missions at Trinidad. We were the only people at the Missions when we got there and is was really tranquil wondering around the cloisters and the church, no info in English was a shame as neither of us know that much about the Jesuits but all the same, the ruins seem to be the only attraction Paraguay has set up for Tourists so it seemed rude to miss it!
Wednesday night we boarded the bus to Buenos Aires.
We arrived at Ganja El Roble, a working farm early evening in time to meet the baby tapir (Fifi), the parrot (Gotti), the monkey, toucan, tortoises and anaconda. We were the only guests at the ranch, the owner, Dirk-Peter a real life Crocodile Dundee informed us that they’d only had 3 other guests in the last 2 months as a lot of governments are warning travellers away from Paraguay because of the political situation. We played with the tapir and the parrot, walked with the grounds keeper Chris while he fed the fish in the lakes, ate dinner with Peter and his family (all dinner is sourced from the farm) and went to bed.
The next morning we attempted the 5km walk to the river, took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end. Having walked enough in the heat we turned around and went fishing with Peter’s oldest son in one of the lakes on the farm instead. The first time Rhys has ever fished. We caught 23 fish between us. Then the storms started and carried on until lunchtime the following day. We sat in the gardens reading (Ceri, you’d be proud, Rhys has read 3 books here already!) and learning about Paraguay’s history – very turbulent and bloody, the War of the Triple Alliance from 1864 to 1870 ended the lives of 80% of the population that mixed with the influx of Europeans seeking El Dorado and the Chaco War of the 1930’s means that Paraguayan people have a real mixed heritage and look far more European than in other South American countries I’ve been to.
Another 2 couples turned up at the ranch over the next day and on our 3rd day, when we were due to leave, the weather was nice enough for Peter to take us all out in his boat tubing on the River Ypane. It was so serene and peaceful, you can’t see any buildings at all from the river, just toucans and monkeys. A stop for lunch and a camp fire later, after 6 hours we were out of the river and heading back to the farm on the back of Peter’s pick up truck.
We stayed one more day at the ranch, partly because we’d fallen in love with the tapir, partly because the home cooked food was so good and partly because it worked out cheaper as we could get a lift in to Concepcion on the Monday when Peter did the school run. The last day we borrowed the boys bikes and rode into Belen, the closest town – absolutely nothing there but was a nice ride along the dirt track.
Monday was spent on a bus back to Asuncion where we spent the night back at El Jardin debating our next move. Having looked at the maps and the bus timetables going back to Brazil seemed out of the way so we continued south to Encarnacion for a night. The following day we booked our bus tickets to Buenos Aires then caught the slowest bus you have ever seen to the nearby Jesuit Missions at Trinidad. We were the only people at the Missions when we got there and is was really tranquil wondering around the cloisters and the church, no info in English was a shame as neither of us know that much about the Jesuits but all the same, the ruins seem to be the only attraction Paraguay has set up for Tourists so it seemed rude to miss it!
Wednesday night we boarded the bus to Buenos Aires.
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| Rhys and Gotti, El Roble. |
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| Rhys fishing, El Roble. |
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| Rhys and Fifi, El Roble. |
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| Tubing, El Roble. |
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| Bike Ride, El Roble. |
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| Jesuit ruins, Encarnacion. |
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