Simon.Speaks.Paraguay

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Moved home

May 28, 2020

I have transfered my blog over to my new website. Please head there for all my latest news and on going up dates simonsparaguay.com I look forward to seeing you there Simon

Once I had done the teaching of English in Paraguay, returned to England and then decided I could make a life for myself in Paraguay the next thing I needed was somewhere to live. You cannot spend you whole life in other peoples spare rooms. Having spend 18 months living outside Piribebuy teaching English it made sense to find somewhere in the area that I had got to know and amongst people who had become friends. After many local enquiries it became clear that the best option was that of buying land and then having the house I wanted built upon it. To this end I discovered that a small sugar cane plantation no more than half a mile from the English school was bringing it's owner nothing but losses and that as such he was keen to sell. The plot of land was rather more than I wanted but the price was very affordable. I will leave for another day how the excess land was eventualy dealt with. The main draw of the plot was not its size but the view it offered. The land decende...

Big spider, little spider

April 30, 2020

Paraguay is home to a great variety of wildlife much of which appeals to everyone. However it is probably fair to say that it might not be a comfortable place for those with concerns about eight legged creatures. Almost everywhere one looks in Paraguay spiders are to be seen. These range from the very smallest right up to large tarantulas, and from the harmless to the deadly. There are web building orb spiders, spiders that string lines between trees like fishing lines, funnel spiders with their dense webs leading down into their lairs and many others that build no webs at all. Orb spiders build their large webs amongst the trees and vegetation and then settle down to await the arrival of their prey. As with all orb spiders these are intricate pieces of art which glisten in the morning dew and are replaced and rebuilt as often as necessary. The sticky stands of silk produced by those spiders who use it cast a line and move from place to place is also quickly rebuilt. The silk...

Under a warm sky

April 22, 2020

Like everywhere else Paraguay does have it's day when the rains fall for hours or hours or when a cold wind blows unceasingly chilling everything to the bone. However these days are in the minority for most of the year it is warmed with bright sunlight. On the whole the weather is quite settled. What it is doing this morning is what it will be doing this afternoon is what it will be doing tommorow and probably the day after that. The normal state of affairs is a clear blue sky from which the sun shines down without interuption. Seemingly endless cloudless days are far from uncommon. With this being a land full of open spaces and tree filled countryside there is away from Asunción very little in the way of pollution. Without the haze that puts up in the air the blues of the sky are deeper and bluer than those in many other parts of the world. With the Tropic of Capricorn passing through northern Paraguay the suns rays have more strength than those arriving at higher latitu...

My local enviroment

April 16, 2020

These times of global lockdown are times for seeing and enjoying what is near to hand rather than what is far away out of sight. I am fortunate in having open space and fine views extending away in every direction from my house. The house itself is towards the top of a gently sloping hillside which in front runs down to the dirt track at the bottom of the valley, and behind up to a plateau that runs away behind the house. Looking out from the back of the house the first objects are tree immediatly behind the house beyond which grassland extend. These run off into the distance before about half a mile from the house meeting a steep rugged rocky outcrop, after which the land drops away into the next valley. This lush grass is fine cattle pasture and cows are often to be seen working their way across it. In addition to the grass the view is filled with dozens of palm trees which mostly form rows between areas which have from time to time been planted with crops. To one side of...

Asunción Bay

April 10, 2020

Juan de Salazar y Espinosa could never have suspected that the sheltered bay he was about to turn his ship into on 15th August 1537 would become the site of one of the oldest continuely occupied cites in South America and the future capital of a nation as yet unborn. Asunción bay is a large bay off the River Paraguay and has always formed the heart of the city of Asunción. Despite being 1000km from the open ocean it is little more than 40 metres above sea level. The river is still large enough at this point to accomodate ocean going vessels and so within the bay a port grew up giving Asunción it's vital link with the outside world. The large bay is heavily indented along it's north shore but to the south the shoreline is much smoother. It is here that the settlement that became the city of Asunción grew up. With the port being of such importance to the growing settlement it is not surprising that around it are to be found the oldest and most historic streets of Asunci...

Ants abound

April 06, 2020

Paraguay may appear at first glance to be a land of cattle, but look a little closer and you will see there is another far more abundant creature filling every nook and cranny of the land, ants. If there is one thing in which Paraguay can claim to lead the world it is in the production of varieties of ants. There is something about the Paraná basin in which Paraguay sits that causes it to have a greater collection of ant species than almost anywhere else in the world. Many of which are still undocumented. It is not however the case that Paraguay keeps all those ants to itself. Many of the worlds worst pest species including both the fire ant and the Argentine ant are native to the area. Ants in Paraguay come in a myriad of colours and sizes. Many are black but there are to golden, red and even multicoloured ants also. Their sizes are equally varied from no bigger than grains of dust up to the size of a small beetle. One thing many of these ants do have in common is their aggr...

The art of the mimic

April 03, 2020

In nature there are many things which have learnt to improve their chances of survival by pretending to be something they are not. This deception may take the form of camouflage. An insect disguised as a leaf or a caterpillar that looks like a bird dropping. This may be enough to keep predators at bay, but such a passive deception can only be effective as long as the creature remains motionless. A hungry bird will soon spot a leaf that appears to be walking across a tree. Others have taken to mimicing the appearence of larger or more dangerous creatures in order to keep would be predators at bay. Black and yellow stripes announce that the insect in question has no need for concealment for it is armed with a sting painful enough to see off any would be attacker. The significance of this colouring has not gone unnoticed by other insects that lack the armoury of bees and wasps. Hoverflies for example use the same colouration so that they may go about their daily lives unmolested...

Hornero the Paraguayans friend

March 31, 2020

Rufous Hornero, or as he is more usually know is not much to look at. Just another nondescript small brown bird. However his habits make him one of the most conspicuous in Paraguay. Firstly the hornero is not a shy retiring woodland bird, but instead one that actively seeks man. Few gardens can be without a pair going about their business all day long. This boldness and habit of choosing habitated places to live have earned the hornero a human name. In England the wren which lives equally close to man has aquired the name Jenny and here it is the hornero that is accepted as part of society under the name Alonso. The hornero being a bird of South America is know by it's Spanish name Hornero rather than the English translation Ovenbird. This also helps distinguish from the North American bird also named Ovenbird. What really makes this small brown bird noticable is not how common it is in the garden but rather the nest it builds for itself. This is not a collection of twi...

Spring follows winter

March 28, 2020

Once June arrives and the shortest day approaches autumn slowly gives way to winter. Darkness descends late afternoon at this time of year and children head home from school after the sun has fallen from the sky. Winter is a time without evenings as day gives way to night too swiftly to allow for there to be one. The long dark nights find the population huddled up indoors away from the darkness and away from the chill of the night time winds. This is the time for the land to sleep. Leaves fall in great numbers from the trees carpeting the ground and in that ground most growth grinds to a halt. The grass that grew so lushly during the summer gets no higher and even the weeds and wild flowers cease to multiply. Winter is also the time of dryness. The sky remains blue most days, but a paler, more watery blue than that of summer and without the heat there is no evaporation from the land to drive thunder storms. As a result it may be several weeks between downpours and the groun...

Summer turns to autumn

March 26, 2020

Looking from outside it is easy to think that Paraguay does not really have seasons but it instead varying degrees of hot all year round. That though is not quite the case as the year is broken down into four quite distinct seasons. The truly hot part of the year, summer has just come to an end. Summer which starts building in mid November and then runs though until mid February is almost from start to finish very hot. The temperature hovers in the high 30s centigrade with spells in excess of 40 far from uncommon. It is not time of year for rushing around. A time when shade and ice cold drinks are necessities. Schools take their long summer break and the pace of life slows as the land adjusts to the heat. It is not all blue skies and buring sun however. For summer is also the time of intense tropical downpours as the weight of water evaporated from the land becomes too much for the sky to bare and great electrical storms tear across the land bringing with them damaging winds ...

A small country waterfall

March 24, 2020

One afternoon across Paraguay the bright blue sky fades into the gathering gloom and the sun concealed as black clouds build. A hot and sunny land is Paraguay for most of the year but to retain it's lush green covering rain must come and when it does it arrives with force washing all away before it for hours on end flooding streets and overflowing streams. Some of this much needed rain will fall upon higher ground. There following the contours of the ground as the droplets flow together over rock and earth into streams and then torrents until they fall into the headwaters of a high land stream. This stream now filled with water cascading down from all across the hillside swells to fill a channel that for most of the year seems far to grand for the small stream of water winding it's way down it's center. The swollen stream rips at it's banks as it rushes away from it's hilltop spring but no sooner has momentum built than the storm passes and the clouds melt...

A land defined by great rivers

March 21, 2020

For all but it's northern border waterways shape the Paraguayan frontiers. These great rivers are all part of the Paraná system and mark the size and shape of Paraguay as clearly as the seas do an island. The Paraná river system is second only in South America to the Amazon draining a great part of the continent to the south of the Amazon basin. The rivers that hold Paraguay within themselves are the River Pilcomayo, the River Paraguay and the River Paraná itself. Within their grasp the frontiers of Paraguay are as natural and clear as any in the world. The first of these great rivers is the Pilcomayo which rises far away in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes. From there it flows south east meeting with Paraguay at the point in the county of Boquerón where the border turns to the north to cross the dry Chaco. From there on the river snakes it way down Western Paraguay marking the border between it and Argentina. In doing so it marks the edges of the counties of Boquerón ...

The Paraguayan Ox Cart

March 19, 2020

The ox cart is a familiar sight throughout the Paraguayan countryside. It exsists not as a tradition preserved by enthusiats or as cultural heritage for tourists to enjoy but as working part of farm and countryside life. A basic description of an ox cart is a wooden box with a large wooden wheel attached to either side. These large wheels can be as high as the cart itself. In front of the cart there is a long wooden plank to which at it's far end the yoke is attached. With the yoke the cart is tied up to the two oxen who will draw it. These oxen are large beasts and also very calm ones. Long before they are placed with a cart they receive an extended training, walking up and down attached just to reigns learning their drivers commands and what is expected of them. Once fully trained an oxen can be hooked up to a cart and controled by the words of the driver and a few pulls on the reigns alone. An ox cart is not the quickest way to get from place to place but it is one of ...

The sound of silence

March 17, 2020

In Paraguay as with much of the world an uneasy quite has fallen across the land. Here at my home in the Paraguayan countryside that silence has been even more noticable than the lack of people. For the past few days now traffic has all but ceased along my road as people have avoided going out more than necessary. Along with the absense of vehicle noise has been the silencing of the radios which are normally playing for the whole world to hear but now have no guests to entertain. There is now little reason to go out as if the constant offical proclamations for all to say at home all but the essencials such as supermarkets and chemists are closed so there is little to do if one does head out. The incentives to stay at home and away from everyone else were increased still further yesterday with the announcment of a nationwide curfew from 8pm until 4am everyday, with heavy penalties for anyone who should break it. Not everything though is suffering from this enforced reduction i...

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