The hotel organised the tour for us and at 9am we set off on a city tour led by a plump well educated Paraguayan with a slightly German accent and his driver. It would take a book to relate all he told us about Paraguay. Basically his version of history was different to what we had read and been told. As the victor writes the history books and Paraguay seems to regularly be the loser – who knows the truth? In a nutshell, the Spanish arrived in the 16thC, their objective was to get to the Incas and relieve them of their gold. The Guarani also wanted the Incas defeated, so they pragmatically decided to ally with the Spanish. The Guarani were polygamous, so they offered the Spanish their women and food. An enlisted man was given 6 women, an officer 60! Their women were considered beautiful, and the Indians believed that the children that would be born would be strong and create a bond of friendship between them and the Indians. This was not new behaviour for the Guarani. Indeed with their tribal warfare they would try and capture alive the strongest and bravest enemy warrior, then feed him, offer him their women so that the children would have his strength, and then some months later they would kill him and eat him… They didn’t try to eat the Spanish, too much garlic perhaps. This tactic, on the whole, worked well and the Paraguayan race was born, the cross between the Guarani Indian and Spanish blood. Something the Paraguayans today are very proud of, and although Spanish is the language of officialdom, Guarani is the language of home.

The Spanish pretty much left the country when riches were found north, and when it came to independence the Paraguayans didn’t have to fight a battle. They basically told the Spanish Governor what they were doing and invited him to the event. He did try to enlist Portuguese support to quash the independence, but this was discovered.

Paraguay then had a period of development. Under their first dictator, Dr Fransisca (apologies if spelt wrong, all from memory!) he played a careful foreign policy, closed borders, avoided disputes with neighbours and built up a large treasury. A very fastidious man, he paid him self a tiny salary, lived very frugally, and was fast and very fierce with any opposition. Indeed his staff were so terrified of him that when he died they didn’t dare check on him for 3 days. His legacy was a strong set of laws and governance, a weak education system, but a very strong financial basis for the country through well managed estates and plantations.

The next dictator, who filled the void left by ‘el Supremo’ was Carlos Lopez. A very different man, he invested in education, public buildings and public works. The Paraguayans consider these their golden years where the arts and the country flourished. Then came Francisco and Eliza, as mentioned in an earlier dispatch, though our guide told us that Paraguay was manipulated into the war of the triple alliance by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay deciding they wanted Lopez out of power (because of his aspirations to become a ‘King’ and the first ‘native (ie not Spanish or French) King of South America and therefore dangerous to their positions) and drew up an agreement on removing him and how they would split the country between them. Who knows?! But the war did decimate the population, 80% being killed in the 15 years it raged, Eliza fleeing to Europe.

Today the continual apologies of the Paraguayan guide as to the state of his nation, the lack of arts, gold, jewels, the lack of funds for maintaining roads and buildings all tie back to this disastrous war. After the war, said the guide, the Argentineans and Brazilians took our people as slaves because there was nothing else to take. Only 60 years later (1935) Paraguay became involved in another war, this time the Chaco war with Bolivia over the ownership of Chaco. Our guide explained that oil was behind it, Shell supported Paraguay and Exxon Bolivia. He also explained that Paraguay won the war, but lost the diplomacy and so lost a lot of the Chaco. Bolivia went on to exploit their oil there, Paraguay was told their oil was no good, but last year they were now told it was good oil and development will start soon! This all gives one the feeling that Paraguay rightly or wrongly feels it has been tricked and cheated out of its wealth and its territories for over 100 years.

He drove us past the famous railway station, built by British contractors, the Palace built by Carlos Lopez for his son Francisco, the police station where thousands were tortured, the square where in 1999 the last dictator had protestors shot by snipers before fleeing himself….. the list goes on.

A modern government building, all in gleaming glass and concrete – at home at any major city was across the street from a shanty town where people live in poverty and pigs roll in the dust. Our guide said the politicians don’t even notice the people there. This is a good illustration of Paraguay, modern buildings or restored old buildings rub shoulders with run down shacks, and people rub shoulders in the same way. We saw no sign of unrest, conflict, crime. It must exist, but from what we heard and from what we saw people could walk freely and easily round the city. It is a small city, only 600,000 people and with a very young population.

There were street markets, museums, shopping centres, lots of car dealerships, adverts for Phillips washing machines, modern Ambulances, I saw 7 garden centres within a few miles, well tended houses and gardens….. the poorest South American country? I asked the guide why Asuncion seemed so well off (excepting the lack of maintenance on roads), he said it was largely corruption, there is a thriving black market and it is the only way the people survive, but there was very little real poverty because the soil is so fertile. Throw some seeds down and they will grow. Few go hungry here unless in the Chaco, there the very plants tear at you, the water under the ground is salty and the heat is so intense. That is why the Mennonites moved there, for the hardship – another story.

However, we reserved our judgement. Who knew what it would be like driving across the rest of Paraguay. Perhaps that would be more of what we were concerned about, real poverty and potential danger.

The tour lasted until nearly 1pm, so it was hot when we were due to leave. Luckily the day was overcast and so relatively cool. As usual the directions we got to get out of the city were far too simplistic and we ended up guessing and finally following the tour bus who came after us and showed us the way. Then we were off through Paraguay cutting across the country on Rn2 and Rn7 to the Brazilian border at Ciudad Del Este and then to Iguacu in Brazil.