Ascusion - Paraguay

Ascusion is the capital. With only a few high rises it has a river setting (although some shanty houses are there), it has a feeling of both modern, but slightly dodgy. We had a mix of responses to us, initially not particularly friendly, and Ian wouldn´t be served in the change shop; to one really friendly taxi driver who was teaching Ian some Guarani words. I was surprised by the music being entirely European. We didn´t some across any other tourists, even when we went to a Brittanua pub for dinner. We spent 3 nights here. We went to the Museo Etnografico ¨Dr. Andes Barbero¨, of which the feather head dresses were very interesting. We also took a day tour of 200kms to 9 outer towns. There was only the two of us and our driver, who was very patient with us and talked slowly and repeated himself many times when we did not understand his Spanish. It´s not unusual that all throughout South America, if we ask someone to repeat themselves they will reply in English. We actually find this frustrating, as its important for us to understand what they are saying in Spanish for our Spanish to improve. We would have missed out on loads of information, which in one way is alittle disappointing because we felt we didn´t know as much about Paraguay as we would have liked to, especially the historical and more recent political situation. We wondered whether because the country was under a dictator until 1989, and maybe not having too many foreign visitors, was this the reason why some locals were stand offish with us??? The tour included a lot of driving, which put me to sleep, but it was interesting, particularly the 18th century wooden painted church, the shrine and the local weaving called ´nanduti´, which looks like spider weblace.