Colonia Yguazu

It was very warm and muggy night and we didn't turn the temperature down as much as we should have.

The temperatures cooled in overcast morning and storm clouds loomed. The weather predicted thunderstorms all afternoon. We filled water and dumped and Christine took a rare morning shower at the campground showers to clean off the night sweat.

We headed out of town and on the way the rain drops started falling and continued most of the day until evening. It was the most rain we have had on this trip and possibly the heaviest. 

I asked ChatGPT, my new best friend, Christine says, what interesting things we should see along the way and was suggested to stop at Eusebio Ayala, a small town that sells fresh chipa at road side stands. Chipa is a bread made with cheese and tapioca flour. We had some in the town of Concordia a couple weeks ago and have bought some at a few places since. They are best when fresh out of the oven but turn hard after a day. We bought some bagel size chipa and a few cornbread rolls with ground beef inside.

They were great. We also tried the Paraguayan mate called cocido negro. It was delicious. They added a lot sugar to it. We also made ramen for the kids for lunch. Ramen has been a regular staple for the kids and has cost as little as 25 cents in Ecuador and as much as $3 in Argentina. I haven't bought the $3 ramen but have paid 80 cents in Argentina. In Paraguay they are back down to 30 cents. There are cheaper brands but I learned that the cheaper brands don't taste as good for the kids. 

ChatGPT also suggested the town of Colonia Yguazu which was 45 minutes from Cuidad del Este, town bordering Argentina and Brazil. Colonia Yguazu is one of the towns that Japanese colonized. Paraguay had up to a third of its population killed during the Triple Alliance war against Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina in the late 19th century and then some more killed in the Chaco war in the early 20th century and possibly lost 90% of its male population. Paraguay actively promoted immigration to their land to repopulate and Argentina, Poland, and Japan historically have been some of the largest numbers. The Japanese immigrants brought farming to the Paraguayan economy which was previously ranch and livestock based. Soybean production in Paraguay is now the fourth largest in the world.

We arrived during siesta hour and it was still raining. We went to the supermarket and was happy to see that it was filled with Japanese and Asian groceries as well as local stuff.

We were all so happy. There were thin cuts of meat for shabu shabu or gyudon or Korean BBQ.

We spent $100 there and were the last customers to leave. There were Japanese-looking customers and I heard Japanese being spoken. There was even Japanese signage. 

We then went to a Japanese restaurant and had some excellent Japanese food. It came to $20.

Amazing. I had a conversation with. Taiwanese person visiting the family that ran the restaurant and he told me that Cuidad del Este was going to be very busy for the weekend because next week was Independence Day in Paraguay. I asked him about shopping but he said a lot of things would be cheaper in Brazil. 

We headed to the town square to camp for the night. The town is pretty desolate and properties are spread out on large lots. The kids played on the playground equipment.

I tried to heat up water for showers but a series of error codes kept showing up and I tried to troubleshoot it for a couple hours but was unable to finish because it was getting late. I heated up water on the stove while drying to bleed propane out of the gas lines. 

The weather was much cooler today because of the rain. It started off at 85F before the rain and went as low as 63 F during the drive and will get down to 61F. Yesterday the low was 76F. 

We have been in Paraguay for five days and have had five meals in Asian restaurants. We haven't eaten out this much since Colombia.