Housesitting in Edmonton (Throwback post)

Edmonton, Canada

Because of our hiccup with US immigration on our arrival, we flew from Chicago straight to Canada.  We had arranged a housesit in Edmonton, and arrived there with minimum fuss after a fantastically easy change at Toronto.  After some of our US airport experiences - Miami in particular - it was lovely to breeze through immigration and customs and not to have to leg it through the airport with our rucksacks to just about make the connection.

Despite being the sixth largest city in Canada, there isn't all that much to do in Edmonton, especially in April which was when we were there.  Most people that we spoke to were surprised to see visitors, and to be honest, it is not somewhere we would really recommend at this time.  We gather that there are festivals on during the summer months, but in April it is still in the second stage of winter.  It isn't freezing cold like the first part of their winter, but there was snow on the ground for the entire time we were there; we only actually saw the garden at all in the last week, when some of the snow finally melted away, revealing bare earth and barely alive shrubs.
 



Edmonton, Canada

We were there to house sit for a very nice couple while they were away in Amsterdam for five weeks.  They had a great house and a lovely, if a bit timid, cat, which we thoroughly enjoyed looking after, even if she did always try to wake us up ten minutes earlier than the alarm was set for.



Edmonton, Canada

There was a nasty surprise on our first supermarket shop though.  We were in a bit of a hurry just to pick up a few bits that we needed, and we thought we'd quickly grab a bottle of wine while we were at it.  We were somewhat disappointed to see such a tiny few shelves of beer and wine, and so hurriedly just took the one that said chardonnay.  When we drank it later, we thought it tasted like grape juice rather than wine, and looked at the bottle more carefully.  Sure enough, it was dealcoholised.  At which point we remembered that the supermarkets aren't allowed to sell alcohol in most of Canada, you have to go to the mainly government run liquor stores instead.  We didn't make that mistake again.





Edmonton, Canada

We managed to abandon the warmth and comfort of our temporary home and get out into Edmonton a few times.  We met up with some fellow couchsurfers one time and we went out with the people that we stayed with on our first night in town.  We found a lovely cupcake shop, Crave Cupcakes, and a good wine store.  We were most pleased to come across a great little cheese and wine place called Cavern that had only just opened, where I discovered a delicious nutty, caramelly Beemster XO Gouda; sadly not to be found in the UK as far as I can tell.

But in general there wasn't a lot in Edmonton at this time of the year.

A number of people have asked us why we would want to go to somewhere like that.  Well the answer is two fold.  The first reason is financial.  By doing this house sit we get five weeks of free accommodation in a great house that we only have to share with a cat. That saved money allows us a bit more to spend elsewhere, which is quite important when you are travelling in the more expensive places like North America.  After all, if someone said to you that you could work for a couple of months a year and travel the rest, wouldn't you say yes?  And this is hardly work - just simply looking after the house, shovelling a bit of snow and enjoying the company of a lovely cat.

Edmonton, Canada

The second reason is that we do want to get a feel for the countries we visit.  We don't regard what we are doing as being on holiday, so we don't have to be doing big ticket, touristy things all of the time.  And staying in somewhere like Edmonton out of season is a great insight into what it is to live in Canada, and how the country differs from the UK.  Edmonton is the 6th largest city in Canada with a population of around 1.16 million.  In the  best equivalent the  6th largest primary urban areas in the UK is Sheffield, which only has a population of 0.55 million, in a smaller area, but still has somewhat more to offer than Edmonton. Personally, when considering aspects like sights, attractions, culture, restaurants and entertainment, I would compare Edmonton more to somewhere like Wakefield, which incidentally is 46th on the UK list.

Still, we enjoyed our five weeks of relaxation and it did wonders for our budget.

Couchsurfing in Dallas (Throwback post)

I mentioned couchsurfing in our Daytona Beach posting, where we had our first go at it, but it was here in Dallas that we had our first 'proper' Couchsurfing experience.

Couchsurfing is a global community of around six million people that started up in 2004.  As the name suggests, members of the community surf each others couches.  Although in fact, it is a lot more than that. Our first experience in Daytona was a soft entry into the world, as Georgy was actually offering a private bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, so it was little different to our Airbnb stays in that way.  But we paid nothing for it.  Obviously we took along a bottle of wine, and we bought a few beers to share with him one night, but the stay itself cost us nothing and he cooked a meal for us on the one evening that we were all in.  

In Dallas, our experience was a little different, and we were actually on a couple of couches in the living room.  We initially had applied to a couple of people who offered beds in spare rooms, but they were not available.  Ruiz and Maya saw our request and offered to host us on their couches.  And so we ended up doing our first proper Couchsurfing on couches.  Mind you, they were big comfy couches and it was a lovely home.

At this point, many people adding this are probably thinking the same things that we thought when we first heard of this scheme: a) why would you go and stay with a complete stranger like this; and b) why on earth would they let a complete stranger stay with them for free?

Well in the first place, Couchsurfing suggests we should think of people not as complete strangers, but rather as 'friends we haven't met yet'.  And you don't just stay with an entirely random person.  When you sign up to the scheme you fill out a profile which tells people a bit about who you are and what you're like. and hosts and guests leave reviews on each other so that any bad experiences can be flagged and warn off others.  We have certainly found that you can get a reasonable idea about the people this way, and so we decide who we might like to stay with based on that - and hosts do the same when deciding who to accept.

There are potential risks in the scheme, especially when people just stay with anyone, even if there is nothing on their profile, but we choose to be more careful than that, and would recommend the same to anyone else starting out in it.  Reading the profiles and references, seeing who they have hosted before (ie a lone female who doesn't want to get hit on may not want to stay with some guy who only ever seems to host attractive young women), and having the wherewithal to abandon the Couchsurfing and find somewhere else to stay if you feel uncomfortable when you arrive and all good things to think about.

As to the money, well people's reasons for doing it vary.  To a degree the scheme is aiming to be reciprocal, in that it is hoped that if you stay with people, you will also host people.  We can't host at present and we don't live anywhere permanently, but we will do so when we have an opportunity in the future.

But in fact many of the people who host rarely, if ever, travel themselves.  Hosting people who do travel, from all over the world, is their way of meeting new people, and of hearing about new places and travel experiences.  One couple we met in Dallas actually bought a bigger home so that they could host more people, just because they find it such a rewarding thing to do.

And it isn't just about staying with people.  The aim is to create a real community, so the site has conversation threads where people arrange just simply to meet someone for coffee and show them around their home town, or where a lone traveller can hook up with other travellers for a road trip or to go hiking etc.

They also arrange events.  The regular meeting is normally in a bar, where hosts, other locals and travellers meet up, whether they are currently surfing or not.  But they also have pot luck dinners, where everyone takes a dish of food to someone's home, they organize groups to go along to local events, and all sorts of things.  It just depends on how involved and imaginative the local couchsurfers are.

So in Dallas, our hosts took us along to the regular meetup.  Actually we arrived before them, so for the first time we had that slightly strange experience of walking up to a likely looking group of people and asking 'are you the Couchsurfing group?' On this occasion we were right, but it doesnt always work, and we got a few strange looks when we picked the wrong group one time in Canada. There may be a need for a Couchsurfers' lapel pin I think!

The Dallas group was great, with lots of really friendly people, some of whom are now Facebook friends and we may one day catch up with on our respective travels.  We also met with one couple who we had applied to stay with but who already had a family member staying at the time.  They picked us up from our hosts, took us out to lunch,  and then drove us across town to where we wanted to be next.

We also joined our hosts at a bloc party at a nearby art gallery, and for St Patrick's Day.

So that is Couchsurfing in a nutshell.  It is a great idea.  It gives us a chance to both save a bit of money if we are staying just a few days, and to meet new people who are genuinely interested in getting to know you a bit.  Hosts and locals make the effort to help travellers get to know their town, sometimes with a few insider tips about places that are not in the guide books, and you may just make a new friend for life.

Arriving in Kyoto and visiting the Nishiki Market

We took the incredibly cheap local train from Osaka to Kyoto, and then promptly walked off in the wrong direction - again - although this time because our hostel was shown in the wrong place on Google maps. In common with much of Asia, Japan has lots of little lanes, that aren't properly marked on maps and often don't have street names on them, so they can make it tricky to find your way around. Anyway, we spotted a postman, which I always think is the best person to ask for an address, and with no shared language, but a lot of pointing and gesturing, he was able to set us in the right direction.

Of course by the time that we got to the hostel, we had missed our opportunity to check in, so headed out in search of some food. Having already walked around unnecessarily, we didn't feel like lugging the packs too far, so we're happy to settle for whatever was nearby. We drew the line at McDonalds, but found a little Japanese fast food place instead.

It took us a moment to work out what to do. There is a machine near the door where you order and pay for your food, and it spits you out two little tickets for each item. You give one of each these to the staff, and sit down, and they bring everything to you. This is where I first discovered a liking for tonkatsu, which is really just pork in breadcrumbs, but somehow tastes so much better. Perhaps it's the panko crumbs, or how they cook it, I don't know, but I like it.

Now this place wasn't the best for tonkatsu, we had some really excellent ones in some proper restaurants, but for a fast food place, the quality was actually very good. And you can certainly fill up, especially if you like the extras. Most things come as a set meal, with the usual shredded cabbage and unlimited rice accompaniments, but also a bowl of miso soup, pickles and something a bit like a not so tasty panacotta. I never worked out exactly what that was, but except for one place in Nara, where it was very nice, I wasn't keen.

Hunger satisfied, and the hostel now open, we went to check in. Our hostel - more of a guesthouse really - was run by a lovely Japanese couple in what used to be their own home. It was our first, but certainly not our last, experience of sleeping on Japanese futons. They are actually far more comfortable that you'd expect - and much more so than some of the rock hard beds we had in China. It is only a thin mattress on the floor, but the floor is covered in tatami mats which are themselves quite cushioned, so not too bad at all. The worst thing for me, with my bad knees, was getting up and down from the floor.

We decided not to head straight out for temples on our first day, and instead went to the shopping area and the Nishiki Market. The market is quite interesting to wander through, looking at all of the different foods on offer. I tried a selection of gel like cordials, and took quite a liking to yuzu, a sort of sweeter lemon flavour. I also liked seeing, but didn't buy, the doughnuts decorated as animals.

Nic tried a few fishy things, although he passed on the tako tamago, the tiny octopus with a quail egg stuffed into its head. Neither did he choose to sample the fish eyes.

During our ten days in Kyoto, we did make a couple of souvenir purchases at the market, both of which were connected to food and drink. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice pair of chopsticks each, and spent ages in a shop with thousands of designs. We eventually agreed on some twisted wooden ones.

We also bought a nice little pottery sake set, so then of course, we had to buy a bottle of sake to christen it.

Rock'n'Roll Doomsday

While in St Pete, we were staying at an Airbnb place (will talk about Airbnb in a future post) called the Rock'n'Roll House.  It was an interesting place with eclectic decoration; as well as lots of electric guitars, some signed though we couldn't make out by whom, it had a coffin in the lounge.  We never actually plucked up the courage to check whether it was empty - we figured it was but you just never know!

When we arrived, the guy who met us told us that there was a party in the house that night, as they were previewing an episode of Doomsday Preppers that was about the owner of this place.

Now I don't know if you've heard of Doomsday Preppers, but it a show on National Geographic channel that features various people who believe that the world is going to suffer something catastrophic and follows their preparation for such a doomsday that ends the world as we know it.

Tonight's episode was all about the guy who own the place we were staying in.  He has a family history of doomsday prepping, as his father, Brenton Bruns I was worried about the Y2K, so in 1999 he bought a bomb shelter in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South Carolina.  (In case like me your geography is sufficiently bad that your knowledge of the Blue Ridge Mountains comes from a song that says they are in Virginia, then neither I nor the song is wrong; I checked and the range is huge, huge extending from Georgia up to Pennsylvania.)

Brenton Bruns II is concerned about a huge EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that will make the world - or at least the USA - go dark.  So he has involved his family in building a castle on top of the bomb shelter, to prepare for such an event.  He does say that in fact he is motivated as much by getting his family interacting better as he is by the doomsday threat, but I am sure there must be easier and cheaper ways to arrange a family get together.

Anyhow, we hadn't actually been invited to this party, so we stayed out until about midnight, then figured that if we went back we'd either be included or we could slope upstairs to our room.

We were expecting something riotous to be going on - this is the Rock'n'Roll house after all.  But in fact as we arrived we could hardly hear a thing.  We were greeted by Brenton, who invited us to join them and got us a drink (what is it with the USA and lite beers?). Apparently they were filming inside, so we stayed on the porch with a few other.

News of our arrival obviously spread, as we heard someone ask 'Where are the British people?', and we were soon joined by a few others who were interested to talk to us and hear about our travelling.  They all seemed nice people, and we enjoyed a chat with them, but this was certainly not the kind of party I was expecting for a house of this name.

When the people we were talking to said they had to go, we figured that the rest of the people around - there we only a few - were more to do with the ongoing filming etc, so we decided to leave them to it and go upstairs.  It was only when Brenton said he hoped we wouldn't be disturbed and that he would turn the music down that we realised there was actually any music on.

So not so much Rock'n'Roll, but some nice people and interesting conversations.

Havana - with no place to stay

From Santa Clara we made our final bus journey back to Havana. We had decided that for these last five nights we would treat ourselves to one of the not too pricey, but nice colonial hotels in the older part of the city.

We arrived on the bus and the driver offered to arrange a taxi to the hotel, which we agreed to. The 'taxi' turned out to be two plastic chairs strapped into the back of the mini van that was taking the post sacks from the bus to the sorting office. It looked like something out of a movie where we would be forced in at gunpoint and gagged until they found somewhere suitable to shoot us and dump our bodies! Thankfully nothing like that happened, and we arrived safely at our hotel.

Though as we were about to find out, it wasn't our hotel at all. We had booked through Hostelbookers, which we had used quite a lot in South America, and though that agency had sent us confirmation and taken our deposit, apparently the hotel itself doesn't work with them, and had no reservation for us. They also had no rooms available, so we couldn't stay there.

Of course by this time the Hostelbookers office was closed, so we couldn't contact them, and had to find somewhere to stay. That was not going to be easy, as we had reached tourist season, and places were full. With hard to find and interminably slow Internet, there was no way we were going to quickly find somewhere else, so after a few phone calls that came to nothing, we turned to the tour agent sat in the lobby.

She didn't look too optimistic either. She first found a very expensive place, which we weren't prepared to pay for. She phoned a few that we said we would be happy with but with no luck. Then she found us a place way out in the Miramar area that could do the first four nights. The price was OK, even though annoyingly we were paying for included dinners which we knew we would not use more than one night, so we agreed.

We left a message at the front desk for the friends that we were supposed to be meeting there later in case we couldn't contact them beforehand, and set off for the new hotel.

The hotel was OK, but is was definitely a resort style hotel, where many people don't really bother to leave the hotel area for the whole of their stay unless it is for an arranged tour. We have nothing against that, but it just doesn't suit us, so we never stay usually at these places.

But it was somewhere to stay, and we left the other guests to their morning poolside dancercise classes and went into town instead. We did eat there one night and the food was fine, but generally we ate in town.

Once we finally got access to Internet, we booked our last night at a hotel along the Malecon. It was quite cheap, and once we got there we knew why. The room was OK and was clean, but the lift took forever (and we were on the eleventh and top floor), the balcony door was held together with a screw and a prayer, and when we arrived the water wasn't working - though by the time we returned that evening it was fine.

The water problem in our room may have had some connection with a water problem in the lobby, where there was rather too much of it! Multiple buckets and other containers were catching the drips - or not. There was water everywhere, and it stayed like that until we left the next day. It wasn't even as if we'd had a lot of rain.

As for Hostelbookers, this is the third time that somewhere we booked through them has been a problem. You can't contact anyone at the time there is a problem and their site doesn't let you access accommodation for the same day, so when it goes wrong you're stuck and all they ever do is say sorry and refund the deposit. So we will in future be using Hostelworld instead, which we have never yet had a problem with.

Cuba's Casas

An increasingly popular alternative to Cuba's government run hotels is the Casa Particular, where you rent out a room in someone's house.  They still have to be licensed by the government, but they offer a much more personal experience.  Casas started up in the mid nineties, after Cuba found it needed to boost its income with tourism when the international decline of socialism left it lacking funds.

Initially used predominantly by hardened backpackers, they have gradually become more mainstream and are now an essential part of the Cuban experience for all independent travellers. Of course there is a question of whether this kind of private enterprise - and therefore earning power - is appropriate in a communist society, but that is a question for a different posting.

We stayed at Casas in three of the cities that we visited. The first was in Cienfuegos, run by Anay and Efrain.  The second was in Trinidad, run by Hiraida and Jose and one in Santa Clara. The first two were both lovely places with a real feeling of being in someone's home.  In Cienfuegos the house was a regular terraced building and we had an en suite bedroom and the use of a small lounge, as well as access to the roof terrace, which is where we ate.

The one in Trinidad was a beautiful large home in a lovely colonial building, and we had a large ensuite room and use of their lounges and a gorgeous patio garden. Both Anay and Efrain and Hiraida and Jose were friendly and happy to chat, although they generally left us to our own devices.  Both couples gave us small gifts when we left; we especially liked receiving a CD of some of the Cuban music that the latter had been playing.

Most Casas offer reasonably priced breakfasts and evening meals too, so in both places we took them up on this for one of our two nights there.  And they certainly feed you well.  We had a nice variety of tasty home made dishes and they were happy to cater to my food awkwardness.

The Casa in Santa Clara was a little different.  We had considered ourselves quite lucky to have managed to book into one that was highly recommended but had only two rooms available.  It was especially well known for its food, which was said to be some of the best in the town.  They now open up for dinner to non guests too.

However, sadly I think this is one of those cases where somewhere has been spoilt by its success.  When we arrived, we discovered that we had in act been farmed out to another Casa a couple of blocks away.  While that place was fine, it was not nearly as nice. We could go to the original one for meals, but the new Casa weren't happy that we weren't there for breakfast as that would have been extra money for them.  The meals we had didn't disappoint, but it felt like a restaurant, and not at all like being in someone's home.

Generally though, I would definitely encourage staying at a Casa and certainly would be happy to recommend either of the first two.  One bit of advice though, regardless of how you book, you will need to call ahead a day before you arrive to confirm your reservation.

It's so nice to have.....

However much you enjoy travelling, there are always likely to be some things that you miss while you are away.  For us, things being different is all part of the experience; after all, travelling is not just about seeing the sights, it is also about being part of a new culture.
The fact that there are things that you can't get is far outweighed by the new things that you find to try - even if some of them aren't that great.  Even with my awkwardness about food and the difficulty I sometimes have with finding food that I can actually eat, I would hate to just have to eat exactly what I would in the UK; it wouldn't feel like we were away.  We have made it a rule that unless we get completely desperate, we won't eat in MacDonalds or Burger King, despite them being everywhere.  Except when we go to the States - then it will be a necessary part of the trip because it is where it comes from!

But even though we know all of that, it doesn't mean that you don't miss things anyway, and when you come home it is nice to have those things again.

For one thing, it is nice to be sure of decent and clean bed to sleep in and to know that you can have a hot shower;  most of the time our beds were clean, if not always comfortable, but the showers could be unpredictable and it is always reassuring to know that at least you wont get electrocuted in it here.  And while we're in the bathroom - and those of you who travel yourselves will appreciate this - it is nice to be able to flush the toilet paper!

It is also good to be able to speak the language.  While we got by with our basic Spanish, we always knew that there were huge parts of a conversation that we would struggle with and it makes it much harder to relax when you are talking to people or if there is a problem that has to be dealt with.  This was even more noticeable when we got to Brazil where our only Portuguese came from a phrase book or google translate!  A different language is part of the fun, but it gets wearing, and it is lovely to be back in an English speaking country where we don't have to think too hard about what we wanted to say.  A least for a while.

Then there are the little things.  As classic Brits, we did miss being able to definitely get a decent cup of tea.  Sometimes we could get 'proper' tea bags and make our own, but often the tea wouldn't be right, or the only milk available was longlife, so it just wasn't good enough.

And you can't get cheddar cheese abroad.  In much of South America the cheese is mainly a white salty variety that personally I don't like at all.  They do have some goudas and a few hard cheeses like parmesan and something called Sardo, which are OK, but they are not cheddar.  And when they do have one thing that they call cheddar, it turns out to be those orangy coloured plastic slices that they put into cheeseburgers.  So good cheddar cheese was one of the first things we treated ourselves to when we got back.

Then there is the strange phenomonen of the things that you miss even though back in the UK you rarely had them.  For Nic in particular this was the ability to get proper Fish & Chips or KFC.

And then if course there is the chocolate.  Don't get me wrong, they have chocolate in South America, and some of it is very good.  Let's face it, some of the best dark chocolate comes from places like Ecuador and Venezuala.  But we missed Cadburys Dairy Milk.  You can buy it there, but it just isn't the same.  The UK is, I think, the only country that likes its Dairy Milk as sweet and creamy as we have it,  everywhere else it is made slightly differently, more bitter and with a slightly grainy texture.  So we had some of that when we got back too!

I did miss Marmite too, but I bought a big jar on the Falklands and took it with me, so that lasted me until we came back.  There are other things of course, but even with our stint in the Falklands where we could get a quick fix of tea, cheese and chocolate, these were the ones we most noticed.

Would missing these things stop us travelling? Absolutely not; as I said, it is all part of the experience and like seeing friends and family, it gives you something to look forward to when you're back.  And, an odd jar of marmite aside, I could also never be one of those people that carries a huge supply of tea bags and other stuff with them when they go away.  Not only would it be just too much effort to carry and in some cases to get across borders, it just wouldn't feel right.  Far too Karl Pilkington!

Rio

From Paraty we set off for Rio de Janeiro on a five hour bus journey.  This was OK except for the fact that we were at the back near to the toilet.  Half way through the trip, we noticed a bad smell.  A very bad smell.  Some time later, we heard repeated flushing of the toilet.  Some time after that some guy emerged, avoiding an eye contact.  I don't know what he'd eaten, but clearly he shouldn't have.  The smell took a long time to go away and was only partly masked by the eating of mints.

We got to Rio, with our noses just about surviving, and the sun was shining brightly as you would expect it to be.  Little did we know then that this was the only real sun we could expect during our six days here.

Our hostel was nice, although I think calling the room a deluxe double would be considered a breach of the trades descriptions act.  The first room we were offered was a good size, but had no windows and had three sets of bunk beds in it.  We changed it for a room that had a window and a double bed, but was so small that you couldn't open the door fully as the bed was in the way.  The communal areas were decent though, which is just as well as we ended up spending rather more time there than we had anticipated.

As well as the normal hostel facilities, there was the added bonus of a dog to help keep us amused.  Charlie, the very large two year old golden retriever, was friendly but could be a little overpowering.  Nic was held captive by him for a while when Charlie got hold of his arm or his trouser leg and wouldn't let him go.

A couple of days into our stay, the owners brought along a friend for Charlie, a two month old golden retriever puppy called Chanel, which made for some amusing interaction between the two of them as well as some very cute mishaps by her.

We went out the first evening, looking for somewhere to eat.  With the reputation that Rio has, I was a bit dubious about wandering around at night until we had got a better feel for the area we were in, but in fact it seems the area directly around us in Botafogo was reasonably OK.  We didn't find anywhere very exciting though, so after a quick bite we went back to the hostel.

Iguassu -a tale of two cities: part 2

From Puerto Iguazu, we made the very easy border crossing over to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil.

From this side, you don't get up close with the Devil's Throat, but you do get a good overview of the main drops. It isn't as breathtaking, but we think it is worth the trip if you can fit it in.

We are frequently amused by some of the dubious english translations that we see while travelling.  While we don't wish to laugh at the people who did them, because their eglish is probably still better than my spanish, they can be funny.  This idea of not going faster than the fence was one example here.

Our wildlife experiences here thankfully didn't include any large eight legged things, but we did see more coatis and, a first for me, an armadillo.

We have seen frequent images of and wooden carved armadillos since we've been here, so it was good to see a real one actually does exist too.

We did consider doing a helicopter trip over the falls, but eventually decided against it.  In part, budget was a factor, but also we had seen that the trips apparently bother the resident toucans and other tropical birds, so are not ecologically sound.

Back in Foz, we had our first two experiences of eating budget style in Brazil. Our first lunch was in a tiny place near to our hostel and was a basic buffet. I asked if they had a menu too and was told no, but they could do some beef and eggs. I thought they meant they were bringing out some extra stuff for the buffet, so while Nic got his first plateful, I waited.

I was soon brought out a whole plateful of minute steaks, with a couple of fried eggs on top, just for me. When I had finished, they asked me if I wanted more, but I really couldn't have eaten anything else. I was charged no different to Nic, and that was very little.

The next day we were looking for somewhere else to eat and again found most places closed at lunchtime. After a while, we found our first per kilo restaurant, where you help yourself to a buffet and then they charge you by the kilo. Excellent value once again.

But still, neither was as good value as our hostel.  It was already surprisingly well priced for such a tourist area, but we were happy to discover that as well a hearty breakfast where you could make yourself unlimited eggs and toasties,  we also got a free dinner each night.

Added to this a free Caipirinha or two, and we were well away.  For anyone who hasn't tried a Caipirinha, this is the key drink in Brazil, made from Cachaca (a spirit distilled from sugar cane), lime and sugar.

Our room was not exactly normal hostel standards either.  As well as the TV, ensuite bathroom, with towels and soap, there were picture on the walls, a rug on the floor and a couple of vases of artificial flowers.

When we got back to our room the first night, we also found a bottle of red wine, corkscrew and two glasses.  We assumed we would have had to pay for that, so we left it, but still, not your normal hostel behaviour.

San Ignacio Mini - the trouble with doors and pizzas

From Posadas we made the relatively short hop over to San Ignacio Mini.  There is a town called San Ignacio nearby, but the aptly named small community of San Ignacio Mini is where the jesuit ruins are.  It is a tiny place, probably about twenty blocks by twenty, with the ruins in its centre. Of course the bus drops you a little distance away, so it is as well that my back had finally improved enough for me to don the rucksack.

It was incredibly hot when we arrived, so we took the walk slowly. We arrived at the hostel during the siesta time, with no one there, so we were let in by a couple of other guests, before Nic followed the directions to the local shop to find someone.  The host, Yrma was very friendly and the place was quite nice, but there was an odd set up with our door.

For some reason, although you could bolt it from inside, there was no lock on the door to the room.  That was fine when you were in the room, but not when you went out.   The solution was that you had to come and go by another door direct to the garden.  However this was a double door, with one side being the stable style of two half doors top and bottom, and it was padlocked from outside.  So to get out, you had to open the top doors using a handle, lean over and unlock the lower door, but then you had to close the two top doors with the handle, wriggle out through the narrow opening of the single lower door, and then padlock that up.  It was quite a palaver, especially as one of the upper windows was rather loose on its one hinge, and you had to battle to make sure it was in the right place and didn't fall off completely!

On our second evening here, we went to a pizza place that was recommended.  I like pizza, but as  I don't eat any tomato, I have to ask for it without the tomato sauce base.  Nic and I decided to share a large pizza, which at 62 pesos was only 2 pesos more than a small one - never have understood why they do that.  I was very clear that there should be no tomato, no tomato sauce etc, and the waitress definitely understood me.

When it arrived, though, it had tomato sauce on the base.  We called her over and said we asked for without tomato and she said agreed, implying that it was.  So I showed her the sauce and she said 'but it's only a little bit'.  Having established that I couldn't eat this and she couldn't provide a replacement with absolutely no tomato, we agreed that Nic would eat half, and would have one thing else. We also said, before we went ahead, that we would only be prepared to pay for half of the pizza.

This all seemed OK until we went to pay and they charged us for the lot. After some while arguing in Spanish, during which at some point the owner seemed to hand us his keys as if to suggest we were bankrupting him, he asked us where we were from.  When we said England he initially made some comments about being English at heart, and then said 'well pay what you want to, like you do what you want to in the world'.

So we paid for my meal and half of the pizza, but still left a generous tip, because in fact it isn't a large amount of money and we don't want them to lose out. If it had looked like it would genuinely have been a problem for him, we wouldn't have even argued, but he seemed like he was just trying it on.

It was all done with reasonably good nature, but it was actually the first time we had seen any kind of negative opinion about the fact that we were English.  Shame really.

Asuncion, a tower of beer and a broken bed

On our first evening, we decided to try out a bar close to our hostel, which we had read brewed its own beer.  It is called the Britannia Pub and was clearly very popular.  We found a seat and as they strangely didn't have their own beer(?) we decided we couldn't resist trying their Torres de Cerveza, or tower of beer. This was three litres of beer in a cylindrical container with a tap so that you poured your own beers at the table.  With the bargain of half price food, we only spent £8 in total.

We didn't actually get to bed that night until about 3am, so we were looking forward to a good sleep and a nice lie in the next day.  We were slightly concerned when we spotted that the bed on Nic's side had a rather dodgy looking nailed in bit of wood supporting the base board.  It was looking quite precarious, but there was nothing we could do tonight, so we went to bed, taking care to move only very slowly and gently.  It seemed to be OK so we relaxed and went to sleep.

Until around 7am that is, when the bit of wood obviously gave way and Nic's side of the bed went crashing to the floor.  We extricated ourselves from the wreckage, established that there were no broken bones, and then had a bit of a laugh.  However it did mean that we weren't going back to sleep, so we got up and waited for the owners to appear at breakfast. We told them what had happened and they were excellent.

They initially said they would fix it, but the jolt had affected my back again, so I was loathe to get back in a bed that wasn't definitely secure.  They understood this and replaced the bed entirely for us within just a few hours.  They also didn't charge us for that night. We were very impressed with how quickly and apologetically they dealt with it.  It also meant that we could catch up on some sleep before we went back into town and tried out the nice restaurant that we had seen.

Asuncion, and finally doing some sightseeing again

Having dragged ourselves kicking and screaming from the lovely hotel in Asuncion, we arrived at our hostel and settled in there. It was actually quite a nice hostel, with a lovely courtyard garden and the odd hummingbird visitor.

This time though we did make it out into the city, and with my back feeling quite a lot better, we wandered around the main squares, albeit in search of football again.

Nic wanted to watch the Liverpool -v- Chelsea league match, but the only place that we could find it on was a taxi rank in the street, and we couldn't stand there for the whole match so he had to do without.

Plaza Uruguay is a huge square with the old railway station in it.  Paraguay was the first place in South America to get trains, so the railways here were quite a big deal, but now there are very few in use.

We were a little disappointed that we weren't able to get the tourist train, which apparently is something out of the fifties, with actors doing sketches along the way.


We had read that in Asuncion we would find people keeping their animals in the streets.  We didn't see any evidence of that, and in fact it took us a while to realise it, but there weren't even any stray dogs around, which is a first for South America. But there is certainly a poorer side to Asuncion.  We spotted this before we even reached the square when we saw an obviously homeless woman squat down with her toilet paper at the side of the road.

Plaza Uruguay itself is somewhat down at heel, with some of the poor of the city living on one side of the square.  They do seem to be making some efforts to work on the square itself, but I have no idea whether they will do anything to house the people living there.

But we did spot one really quite simple thing that they could do in Asuncion to make the city seem more cared for and look better - learn to paint within the lines.  As we walked around, we saw the kerbs were painted white, which can look quite nice if done neatly.  But this looked like they had just walked along sloshing the paint out of the tin.  It was a complete mess, with paint splatters across the path, and made the place look slapdash.

A rather more impressive square was the Plaza Los Heroes, with it's very fancy bank building, and mausoleum for some of Paraguay's bigwigs.  The latter is an impressive building, and at night the dome is lit up in changing colours.  Nearby were the many market stalks selling the various souvenirs including the ñanduti, which is their intricate lacework.

I also like the buses, which like some other cities are old style and brightly coloured.