This was one of the best weeks I’ve had so far in Paraguay.
With my mom and brother, we went to visit her family in Pedro Juan Caballero.
Pedro Juan is way up north of Paraguay and literally borders Brazil. Early Monday morning my dad drove us to
Asuncion, 6 hours, and then we got on a
bus to Pedro Juan, 8 hours. We finally arrived late Monday night and were
exhausted.
The next morning I looked out the window and saw a hotel
that was in Brazil. I didn’t believe that we were truly on the border until I
went and walked across the street and I was in Brazil. I had never seen
anything like it. It was truly an experience. One side of the street with
traffic going one way was Paraguay, and the other side of the street with the
traffic going the opposite direction was Brazil. It was funny because you can
actually tell the difference between the two countries even when they’re that
close to each other. Paraguay only accepts Guaranies for the money and Brazil
real. The driving is also different; in Paraguay it’s crazy with no seatbelts
and as soon as you cross the street it’s less calm and everyone’s wearing a
seatbelt. There was no control or anything to cross.
Semana Santa here is a very typical and religious holiday.
It’s different because the main Easter celebration is on Friday, not Sunday. No
one has work or school from Wednesday through Sunday. The shops are open
Wednesday and Saturday but Thurs., Fri., and Sun. they are all closed. Here they also believe in not cooking this
week or only eating traditional food. One of the most traditional foods here is
called Chipa. It’s basically a little cheese bread roll made with Paraguayan
cheese. It’s sold everywhere on the streets and a lot of people make it
themselves too although it is very time consuming and hard. It’s my favorite food here in Paraguay and I
got to make it myself during Semana Santa.
My mom and I stayed at the house that she grew up in with
her mom, in Pedro Juan, and my brother stayed down the street at my cousins house.
On Tuesday morning, my mom, grandma, and uncle got up early to make Chipa for
the week. It’s all done with your hands
and takes a long time. We made a lot of
it and had it for the week. Personally, I only like it the first and second
day, but they ate it the whole week.
One of my cousins there is around the same age as my brother
and I so we had a lot of fun going out and such. It was also a good week because it was a week
of 5 different languages. My cousin speaks English, German, Portuguese, and
Spanish. My aunt and uncle to her sons only speak in Portuguese. My brother is
going to Germany in January with AFS so he was learning German from my cousin.
My other aunt is from Germany and her daughter too, so they only speak in
German to each other. My grandma speaks Guarani to my mom and my brother, so it
was a week of different languages and crazy conversations haha.
Pedro Juan is a commercial city with pretty much just
shopping and restaurants. It wasn’t like that before when my Mom was little, but
it’s changed drastically over the years.
Luckily my aunt likes to shop and I’m the only teenage girl in the
family, because we went shopping like crazy. Wednesday and Saturday were girl
shopping days, it was very fun! Thursday and Friday are family days. Friday is the main day, Holy Friday and that
day you don’t eat meat which is a big deal for Paraguayan’s considering they
eat meat at least two times a day. My
uncle made a delicious fish that we ate for the couple of days. Saturday night we left for home and by lunch
time the next day we got there!
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