Raphael Kessler

Paraguay has been in a state of near constant flux for hundreds of years. The people though seemed to take it in their stride, due no doubt to a feeling that they were unable to do too much about it.

The Jesuit ruins in the south of the country, near Encarnacion, are a UNESCO world heritage site. They are nice, yet there is a feeling that the people at UNESCO were stumped to come up with anything for Paraguay so they decided on these ruins.

The first ones we went to were called Jesus and are in a nice tranquil setting (photos 1-4). It seemed whilst we were there that nobody else ever visited these places, we had the entire place to ourselves. 

At the former Jesuit mission of Trinidad (photos 1-4), just up the road the site is bigger and there were more visitors.

Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay is a pleasant enough place, there are a few nice buildings in the centre. Amongst these are the former Congress building that has been the scene of numerous abuses of human rights and slaughter of protesters (photo 1), which is why there are several plaques, statues and monuments in front of it. Just across the square from it, the new Congress building is very modern, all apart from one odd bit of wall that is built into the thing (photo 2). The odd thing is that just across a small patch of green (photo 3) is a shanty town (photo 4), literally a stone's throw from the seat of government. As far as shanty towns go, it could be worse, they have a barbecue pit going all day, several shops and a well used volleyball court (photo 5). On the downside, they have next to no sanitation, homes built from pathetically flimsy material and a disturbing level of violent crime.

The Government Palace is an impressive building (photo 1), although the governments that have used it, have been far from impressive. The Pantheon is where a number of Paraguay's former presidents are interred (photos 2-4).

The Paraguayan navy is amongst the world's most useless military forces (photo), as it serves a landlocked country, defending a bit of river. It ranks along with the navies of Switzerland and Bolivia for pointlessness and a waste of resources.

The train in Asuncion is in service once a week (photo), when it takes folks for a short very slow ride accompanied by performers of various descriptions, best not described here.

The basilica at Caacupe (photo) was still being finished when I was there. The views from the top were nice.

The Maka are an indigenous people who's land is now confined to a small reservation just outside Asuncion. There the people live in extreme poverty, without most basic amenities and in homes that would not seem out of place in a shanty town (photos 1&2).

When we went there, the people seemed pleased to see us and were certainly not intimidated, nor did they put on any show for us (they apparently do not get tourists coming by). We were lucky to get there on the day of some festivities and so there was a more jovial atmosphere. The kids were running around having fun (photos 1 & 2) whilst the majority of the men were gambling (photo 3). The game involved four pieces of wood, each coloured black on one side and white on the other. They slap these together and let them fall. The combination of black and white faces converts in to points and the rod in the middle of the assembly is moved up or down to show the two competing teams comparative position. Another large male contingent were singing some songs, I have no idea what they were about, being sung in the Maka language, but they were not bad at all.

The people obviously maintain much of their traditional systems and particularly the older men can be seen to have large earrings (photo 1).  They only dress up for festivities and ceremonies (photo 2)

The women seemed to be divided between three occupations. Sitting around chatting, cooking (or assisting the cooks by chanting and dancing) or playing volleyball. The accompaniment of the group of women, chanting, singing, stamping and thumping their staffs of the ground seemed to be integral to the cooking (photos 1 & 2). The volleyball I think was less ceremonial (photos 3-7). The women seemed to really enjoy it though, despite their physiques not being particularly svelte and streamlined.

After we left the Maka reservation, Esther my travelling companion in Paraguay thought that although she had found it interesting, that the Maka were unlikely to appreciate us taking photos and invading their space so blatantly. A fair assumption, although I hadn't felt that way. The following day, walking through Asuncion, several Maka selling their handicrafts on the street, recognised and waved to us. Some even said how pleased they had been to see us the previous day and that there was a Quincena (celebration when a girl is fifteen) that day, why didn't we go along and join in the festivities? We were unable to as we were leaving that evening, it did however allay any fears we might have had of unfairly exploiting the people.