ASU

Hotel Chaco, Lido-Bar, Railway Museum are the highlights visiting this city and the exception, where the staff are nice, friendly, and helpful.

There is a reason why Asuncion is the lowest cost of living city in the world survey. The country is very poor, corrupt and violent - it hasn't learned from its past history and is therefore doomed to keep repeating it, there's no respect for one's property, the politic is unstable, the country has not advanced economically as its neighbors, inflation is ridiculous on its pricing.

The very poor youth of today are honing their skills learning how to take advantage of a situation for their own benefit of how to separate you from your valuables. I had a compact camera with me too large to put in my pocket, I heard "camera, camera" being yelled out by a small young child who apparently had spotted my camera and alerting others older who appeared and was trying to figure out how to separate me from my camera. There were two of us which made it slightly more difficult and we also changed our walking direction, reversing course. We were fortunate, for whatever reason, they did not try.

The country is so poor, that old, torn paper currency bills are taped back up and used, hardly any new bills in circulation.

Quick Tips:

Visiting this country will require a visa, either single entry or for multiple entries. We sure that you get your passport entry stamped when entering the country, otherwise it's a fine of at least and a very big hassle when exiting the country. Bring something small and pocketable for your photography needs. Carry only cash you can afford to loose in a day. Be on your guard of strangers coming up to you. Be alert keeping an eye on your baggage and put a lock on your luggage. Get rid of any leftover currency as it'll be almost worthless.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxi by night but frequently the driver wants more than what the meter indicates, or walking in daylight, unless you know and speak Spanish to take their buses for PYG2,000. We've been warned to stay out of certain areas, downtown was filled with police but they all disappeared by 3am when we were walking back to our hotel.

If you're fluent in Spanish, there are local buses to get around by.

Hotel Chaco, established April 1, 1975 in downtown is one of the nicer and somewhat higher priced-hotels to stay at, has complimentary Wi-Fi from the room with their provided login and password, two personal computers in the lobby for free Internet use, rooftop unheated swimming pool, mini-fridge with mini bar, air conditioning/heating, clock radio, TV, hair dryer, complimentary breakfast from 6:30am to 10:30am, free emergency medical attention, laundry/dry cleaning (recommend passing on this service as the prices are steep and add up quickly), two conference rooms, offices equipped with computers/fax, parking. Ring for late night entry. Check out time 11am, credit cards accepted.

Email: info@hotelchaco.com.py

La Preferida, established in 1946 and next to Hotel Cecilia, serves fine dining on the second floor with white tablecloth service. English is spoken. We ordered a petite steak in a smothered mushroom sauce with french fries and a grilled fillet river fish with mixed vegetables. Our meal came with a basket of bread and spreads. We were disappointed with our food. The beef tasted mundane, the fish was much too vinegary for my personal choice, even the french fries tasted subpar. The service was good, but there was a radio music in the background that was too loud and with distortion. Lunch is served daily from 11:30am to 2:30pm. On Sunday they serve brunch. From Monday  to Saturday they serve dinner  from 7pm to 11:30pm, Sunday dinner is from 6pm to 10pm. Credit cards are accepted.

email: cecilhotel@hotelcecilia.com.py

Lido-Bar, established in 1954, is a local hot spot for some good local cuisine at very reasonable prices. Inside counter seating and no smoking or sit outside on the corner sidewalk. We walked by and noticed the place packed with customers (a good sign,) the workers smiling, enjoying their work and interacting with the customers with a positive attitude. The waitresses have on pink uniforms complete with a little pink hat, the kitchen help have white colored uniforms with a little white hat. This place feels warm and welcoming and we enjoyed our visits and interacting with the waitresses.

We observed another customer having a soup and inquired what it is, order the "Caldo de Pescado" for PYG15,000 (fish soup) and it's delicious. The spinach pie was alright, nothing special. The custard flan was the other dish I really liked, not overly sweet, cooked just right to move easily when shaken - not overcooked and still has that delicate bounce to it and was very tasty. This is the first place I found a good flan in South America with this high quality. We tried a local yerba mate (a green tea) very good here, and a diet soda, Pulp Diet, an orange flavored soda and was pretty good. Beer and wine are also available here. A placed not to be missed if you're downtown Asuncion and highlighted my visit to this country. I enjoyed visiting this place and interacting with the waitresses here. I shall truly miss coming to this place. Monday-Saturday 6am-3am, Sunday 7am-3am, cash only.

E-mail: lidobar@rieder.net.py

Britannia Pub is a place for ex-pats to congregate here for drinks, snack food, and conversation with acquaintances, old or new friends. Two floors with no smoking on the first floor, semi-open air on two floors, noisy, video monitor and music. It is open from Monday to Thursday from 6:30pm to 1:45am, Friday from 6:30pm to 3:30am, Saturday from 8pm to 3:30am, and on Sunday from 8pm to 1:45am. The telephone is +595 (21) 443990.

Super El Pais is a neighborhood supermarket is located adjacent to Uruguayan Square for buying your grocery needs. We found Niko pomelo dietética 2 litros for only PYG3,000. Telephone 490421.

Menstetic is a men's sauna, is a small place with a friendly staff. The admission is PYG15,000. It is poorly maintained and unclean, it has a steam room, video, no toilet paper; the shower temperature is marked on the wall; there's small soap bar, slippers and towels are provided on the way in.

It opens daily from 2pm to 10pm; on Sunday from 12pm to 7am.

Cyberking is a 24 hour Internet access for your consideration to avail yourself of their service. They have decent fast connection at a low cost to use.

Taxis here are quite a different experience here, better know some Spanish to communicate easier, either negotiate a fare if you know how much it should be by asking the staff at your hotel if starting from there, or others were you're starting from, or be on the meter.

When we first crossed the border by bus into Paraguay, the bus doesn't wait and took off. After having our passports' entry stamped, we hooked up with two others to share a taxi to the bus terminal to share the costs.

We arrived at the bus terminal bought our tickets for ASU - Asuncion for PYG30,000. We didn't find an ATM for the local currency. There are Cambios -currency exchangers but they'll give a poorer exchange rate. We came across another couple from the earlier bus to the border, after they got the passport entry stamped, they returned to the area where the bus let us off earlier and got on board the next bus going by/to the bus terminal and waived the bus ticket receipt and didn't have to pay again.

We again split the cost of another cab fare with another tourist visitor whom we met towards our hotel we selected from the Lonely Planet Guide. We went on speculation as we didn't have any reservations. Fortunately for us, they had room for us.

We were going to walk about and explore the city a bit but was warned by a hotel security person not to walk the way we were headed as it's not safe to walk in the parks at night and not to have valuables like cameras displayed. So we taxi to our destination by meter, but the driver couldn't read or understand the written destination and ran to someone else at the taxi stand to find out where we wanted to go, the meter indicated something like PYG8,000, but asked for considerably more than what the meter showed.

We taxi another time splitting the costs with some others we had been talking with at the Britannia Pub to go to Africa Disco for a negotiated PYG20,000 but when we arrived, the taxi driver wanted more but we only gave him the agreed to price.