July 17, 2016
Asuncion to Trinidad
Downtown Asuncion on Sundays is indeed a ghost town, but not particularly dangerous. There are people and policy around the tourist areas. Most buildings are closed and can only be seen from outside. Exceptions are the cathedral and Manzana de la Rivera (free entrance).
Bus to Encarnacion took 6 hours and cost G$70,000. The bus was quite comfortable with A/C and bathroom. At Encarnacion, I immediately changed to another bus heading for Trinidad (1 hour). The owner of Posada Don Paraguay I booked in advance drove to the intersection to meet me. It was quite cold in the evening of this winter time. After a short rest, I began the night walk at the ruins starting at 7:30pm.
The ticket to the ruins (G$25,000) is valid for 3 days and includes the “night walk”. There are some lightnings around the ruins, with ancient music and a film against a huge wall in the ruins. It lasted for less than 1 hour.
A newly opened restaurant at the entrance of the ruins serves good and very reasonably priced food, including Paraguayan beef.
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| Palacio de López, Asunción |
July 18, 2016
Trinidad – Foz do Iguacu
In the morning, I got up early and took some photos of the ruins in day light (the park opens at 7:00am). The area is huge and remote. After checking out the posada, I walked to the intersection and waited about half an hour to get a bus heading for Ciudad del Este (5 hours). At Ciudad del Este Bus Terminal, it’s possible to use the toilet there for a small fee. A taxi crossing the border to Foz do Iguacu costs about US$15. The taxi driver will stop on both sides for passport stamps.
In Foz do Iguacu, not too far from TTU, there is a supermarket called Super Muffato Hipermercado where you can exchange Brazilian reals at good rates. Since there is a time difference between Paraguay and Foz do Iguacu, I decided to take a taxi near the supermarket to Iguacu Falls (around 50 BRL).
There are lockers around the entrance to the falls and all the tourists need to take the park vehicle to get in. There are several stops and most people get off at the stop opposite a hotel and walk along the river. The falls are not very high (around 80m) but very wide, with different sections. At the end, you can get very close to the falls and get wet. It’s also possible to take an elevator to view the falls from the top.
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| Iguaçu Falls |
July 19, 2016
Southwild Pantanal Lodge
I booked a 3-day tour to the Pantanal with Southwild. They picked me up at the hotel near Cuiaba Airport at 9:00am. We headed directly to the Pantanal, stopping at Pocone to buy some water (not included in the package). There are actually not a lot of easily viewable animals along the transpantaneira, apart from birds, sometimes caimans and occasional capybaras.
We arrived at Southwild Pantanal Lodge around noon. Buffet lunch was fine and the lodge area is a nice place to relax. I joined a boat tour at 3:00pm. The tour took 2 hours and many birds could be seen. There were occasional capybaras but not a lot. Near the end of the tour, we saw a giant otter in the river looking for food. Not bad at all.
Around dusk, I joined another tour to see ocelots. This is a special program by Southwild and ocelots are almost guaranteed to see during this time. We actually saw two ocelots coming out for food.
Dinner at the lodge was also good, with some different food than lunch. After dark, there are lots of capybaras resting around the lodge – amazing.
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| A Giant Otter |
July 20, 2016
Porto Jofre
After breakfast (lots of fruits), the journey continued to Porto Jofre. The road is not too much different from the earlier part, with mostly birds (occasionally big ones) around. We arrived in about two hours. To save cost, Southwild put me in Neco’s lodge (instead of the flotel) and the place is acceptable.
I took a 6 hour boat trip in search of jaguars and actually saw a few during the day. Boats there are equipped with radio so if one finds a jaguar, other boats can be notified. I saw one within one hour of the tour and some others shortly after lunch (on the boat). However, due to the distance and short time, I couldn’t really take any decent photos. There are also numerous caimans in the smaller rivers and lots of birds, with occasional capybaras. I also saw a tapir but didn’t have a chance to capture good photos as it moved away quickly.
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| A Capybara |
July 21, 2016
Porto Jofre to Cuiaba
I had a half-day boat tour again before finishing the Pantanal tour. It turned out to be very fruitful. After hours on the river without seeing good stuff, the driver started to speed and we arrived at an area with lots of boats 30 minutes later. A jaguar just disappeared into the bushes. We waited patiently. Finally, the jaguar swam to the other side of the river and walked along the bank for a couple of minutes. It finally stopped at an open area on the bank, providing an excellent photo opportunity for tourists. Almost all the boats that morning were there, I guess. That marked a happy finish of the tour.
On the way back to Cuiaba, I felt tired and rested in the car mostly. Interestingly, I saw an anteater crossing the road outside the transpantaneira (near Pocone) but again didn’t have a chance to take a photo before it disappeared to the bushes.
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| A Jaguar |
July 22, 2016
Brasilia
Brasilia is not of too much interest to most tourists but it’s kind of attractive to me, as I learned from a very young age that the city is a model of man-made city in the world. As it’s close to both Cuiaba and Rio by air, I decided to stop over here for a half-day tour of the city.
I arrived at Terminal 2 of Brasilia Airport (mostly for Azul) and took the free airport shuttle bus to Terminal 1 (other airlines). There I checked into my bag for my evening flight and jumped on an airport bus (10 BRL, every 30 minutes) to the city.
I asked the airport bus to drop me near Brasilia Shopping where Catedral Turismo offers 2-hour city tours 3 times a day. I could only catch the 4:30pm tour. Before that, I had some food in the shopping mall and checked out the nearby TV Tower (free).
The tour went through some of the main buildings of the city and stopped for photos 3 times (10 minutes each) – at the Catedral, Congresso Nacional and Palacio da Alvorada (president's residence) respectively. Not bad for people in a rush.
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| Catedral Metropolitana, Brasília |
July 23, 2016
Rio de Janeiro
Full day for Rio. I booked the 10:40am tram to Christ the Redeemer in advance to avoid the queue to buy the tickets. I arrived around 25 minutes before to claim my tickets and it worked like a charm. The tram takes about 20 minutes and there is a short elevator and stairs to the top. Christ the Redeemer is really fantastic – more fantastic are the amount of the people there (I felt like in the Great Wall of China). There are indeed good views from the top.
After checking out Christ the Redeemer, I jumped to a taxi to Brasileirinho in Ipanema where I had the national dish of Brazil – Feijoada. Good thing was they served acai for desert. After lunch, I had a walk along Ipanema Beach and Copacabana Beach before jumping to another taxi to Sugarloaf Mountain.
There were so many people waiting for the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain and I felt I didn’t have enough time as I had an evening flight to catch. I changed the plan to go to Niterói instead.
It’s not a bad idea at all. The taxi driver was kind enough to stop on the way for a perfect photo of Sugarloaf Mountain and I had a chance to take a look at Arco do Teles, near CCR Barcas in Centro. The boat departed at 5:00pm, perfect for the sunset view of Rio and still not too dark for the famous Contemporary Art Museum in Niterói.
From Niterói, I jumped to a final taxi to the international airport, passing the 14km long Rio–Niterói Bridge. That marked the end of my week-long Paraguay-Brazil trip.
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| Ipanema Beach |
Summary
Paraguay is less visited but an interesting place to check out. Prices are relatively low and places are safer. It doesn’t actually look very poor. Brazil is a great country to visit. The size of the country makes it necessary to travel by air domestically (not expensive if purchasing tickets in advance). Rio is definitely a must, while Iguacu Falls and the Pantanal are absolute choices for nature lovers. The capital, Brasilia, is a model of man-made city and can be of interest to certain tourists. Lockers are available at airports and Iguacu Falls but foreigners are difficult to get a local sim card.
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