My first trip to see the countryside of Paraguay

So Wednesday October 16 was my friend Guillermo’s birthday. His family lives about 2 hours away and he invited a bunch of people to spend the day at this parent’s house in a city called La Colmena. My trip to Colmena started at 5am, can’t say I was super excited about that. LOL But we had to round up 2 other cars of people and stop for breakfast, so we had to get started early.

Cultural note – people really don’t eat much for breakfast here. If they do, it is usually just coffee and then maybe some bread, or a roll. They don’t even have restaurants for breakfast here. (oh how I miss Waffle House! LOL) . You can buy cereal in the stores. But I am not sure when people eat it here. You cannot buy syrup though. The place we stopped at had snacky things for people to eat. A bunch of us ate a “mixto” (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) with coffee or juice.

The first photo is of Guille, Liz and Tere – the bday boy is very excited, as you can tell! ;)

Once we got out of Asuncion, the land really flattened out. I do miss seeing the wide open sky like Arizona has, so it was nice to see it again here in Paraguay! Every once in awhile though, a hill would pop up or a bunch of lush vegetation, or even a grove of palm trees.

Once we got to his parent’s house, we just hung out and had a very nice day. His parents have a ton of land. They have a huge garden, and tons of chickens and ducks all with babies! I had to include a photo of the baby ducks, because they were just too adorable!



Out back was this huge oven thing cooking a dish for us called “Sopa Paraguaya.” To get the oven hot, they first put wood in. Then once it is hot, they pull the wood out and put the food in. Sopa Paraguaya is basically corn bread but with cheese. I am not a huge fan of it, but fresh out of the oven like this it was actually quite tasty! (vs. the store bought stuff people usually buy here!)




This is a picture of the stove inside the house. The house did have electricity and plumbing, but I am guessing this is cheaper and/or easier to use for them.


While we waited for the meat to cook for lunch, a bunch of us took a walk. There were beautiful flowers everywhere and some were just so tiny and delicate! I loved them! This is a group photo of all the girls.




For lunch we had grilled ribs, beef and sausage. It is is called asado here and is usally cooked with A LOT of salt. It can be pretty yummy though! We also had rice and salad, more sopa paraguaya, and mandiaoca (yucca). After lunch and the birthday cake was eaten. Everyone just snoozed or sat and chatted and enjoyed the afternoon.
Guille’s aunt started making a drink called “cocido” for everyone and gave me a quick lesson in it. You brew herbs and sugar in water. Then to get the “burned” taste that cocido has, they add pieces of charcoal to it. Strain it and there you go! Again, not a big fan, but people love it here!



We got back into town early in the evening - just in time to watch Paraguay play Colombia in soccer. Unfortunately, we lost, but since Paraguay is already qualified to go to the World Cup, no one was really upset. (Yes, the US did qualify as well, just in case your were wondering! haha)
After that it was b-day party #2 for Guille! We ate more asado, danced, and just had a very fun evening with a ton of people from church. It was a long day, but definitely a super fun one!

I am hoping I can get out and see more of Paraguay soon!
Love and miss you all!
S