The bus was pretty different from those in Brazil and Argentina, being more a local bus (full aisles, infinite stops) than a long haul bus, and it ended up taking around 10 hours instead of the 7 that we had been told. Still, it wasn't too bad. The scenery was mostly farmland and swamps, and the photos incredibly blurry. Every now and then someone would hop on the bus and sell local edibles, such as chipa (a mandioca flour bread), which we enjoyed.
We arrived around 11pm but had no trouble finding the main street and stayed in a classic wee hotel called the Hotel Victoria, which had a courtyard with a once magnificent (we assume) painted clay scene.
We spent the day wandering the sleepy town, which was even more sleepy given it was a Sunday. There are a lot of colonial style buildings, as well as horses and carts on the street, which gave the place a really nice feel.
The Rio Paraguay:
The market in Concepcion was very much a local market and not full of tourist trinkets, which was a nice change. Cat tried on a multitude of patterned tights, in the very discreet changing rooms.
Cat took a much deserved rest in the afternoon and I caught a boat across the river to one of the main islands. The few locals were really friendly and interested to see tourists, so I heard a multitude of facts about the church, but could really only decipher that it was built in 1956 (which I could also read on the front) and that it was currently being repainted inside.
Island life:
The boatman, Christian (on the right):
We caught a really spectacular sunset over the river, which made up for the one that we had missed in Porto Alegre.
We spent the evening drinking cervezas and eating pizzas on the street. The locals were hilarious, driving around with oversized speakers (either in the car boot, or even holding metre-high speakers off the side of scooters) and cranking a mix of cumbia and US pop music. Not too many tourists stay in Concepcion and the locals loved to stare, especially the guys at Cat, as they cruised past on their motorcycles. Our guess is that the young guy at the pizzeria had never seen a tourist before as he said to us, "Touristas?? En Concepcion?? En serio??"
The next morning we were off to a local farmstay, Granja El Roble, located partway between Concepcion and the nearby town of Belen. As well as being an operating farm (fish, cattle, pigs, chickens etc etc), they also house a number of rescued animals including some howler monkeys, a tapir, some parrots, and a huge range of amphibians and reptiles. There were also the owner's kids, who were great fun for a game of volley and for practicing our Spanish.
Our room was very homely and came complete with frogs in the night.
The set up was amazing and we could chill with the monkeys at will, and without supervision. Cat fell in love with one of the howler monkeys, Dodo, and I think the feelings were reciprocated:
The tapir, Fifi, enjoying lunch:
The food was amazing at El Roble, and every meal was packed full of their own produce. Some of the highlights were the fish soup with a sort of pancake, all of the cheese, and the beef casseroles (with a side of pork).
We wandered down to Belen one afternoon, population around 1720, and found pretty much what you would expect in a small town. The locals are mostly of Guarani descent, so the place felt very foreign and was an interesting visit.
They had a pretty cool monument in the centre of the town:
Sad to leave, we caught the 6am colectivo (public bus) back into Concepcion when we left, which was an experience as everything was falling apart, including broken windows, open doors, caved-in ceilings and free-moving seats, and we were amazed that it made it back along the sodden dirt road in one piece.
We then jumped on a much more relaxing, although still somewhat bumpy, long distance bus down to Asuncion, through the Chaco.
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