Spendthrift Shoestring

A Mysterious Country: Visiting Paraguay

Paraguay is not one of South America's more popular countries for travelers. It's rare that the country's sights make it into contemporary newspaper/magazine travel journalism, although a number of fascinating books about the country—including John Gimlette's engaging At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, which I'm currently reading—have been published. That longer monographs on the country have been written can be attributed to Paraguay's many dramatically interesting characteristics. Paraguay generates lots of fascinating stories—about the severe yet variously fecund land, the terrible dictatorship of Stroessner, the idealism of the country's many "colonies," the desolation of the Chaco, and the soupy heat of Asunción, among other subjects.

But for tourists, it's hard to find good information about the country. Most South America guidebooks have very thin Paraguay chapters. Add to that the narrative of danger and personal threat attached to so many stories about Paraguay, and the country seems to vaporize into a vacuum. I eagerly anticipate the publication of Bradt's first guide to Paraguay, authored by Mergaret Hebblethwaite, later this year, which should rectify the situation to some degree. 

In the absence of good, reliable information, what did I do? I searched online for interesting sources. I found a great blog, Defringing Latin America. Written by anthropologist Christine Folch, it is full of interesting coverage of contemporary Paraguay as well as various Asunción tips. (Travelers to Paraguay should pay special attention to Folch's wonderfully detailed description of how to visit the Jesuit missions of Trinidad and Jesús on a budget, which is of great value). While in Asunción I spent an afternoon with Folch, riding a bus to the sadly closed Museo del Barro, and enjoying a long chat at a swank shopping mall cafe while a near-monsoon raged outside. I learned exciting and strange things about Paraguay during our long afternoon chat. Other advance research assistance was provided by Carlos, a Paraguayan friend of a friend, and the dynamic traveling duo Uncornered Market, who'd just executed an ambitious overland journey across Paraguay. (I made the acquaintance of Uncornered Market via the suggestion of another hardcore traveler, Jodi Ettenberg.)

The upshot, I suppose, is that friends of friends, interesting bloggers, and social media contacts made Asunción far more interesting and exciting than it otherwise would have been. The city itself was a dripping sauna of lush parks, cheap grub, red dirt, and huge skies. The center of town is crowded with colonial architecture and modernist outposts. Two nights was good for a ridiculously short introduction to the city, though there's nothing like knowing you haven't really scratched the surface to inspire the desire to return.

Gol V. Pluna: the Short-Haul Stakes

I flew two local carriers airlines on my recent South American trip: the Brazilian low-cost airline Gol from Buenos Aires to Asunción and the Uruguayan flagship Pluna from Asunción to Montevideo. I knew what to expect from Gol after having flown it from Salvador to Rio in 2006, but Pluna was a new experience altogether.

My fare on Gol was R$279 (US$162 at the time of purchase), purchased through the airline's site. Gol feels more or less like the low-cost carrier that it is. Seats are relatively cramped and the boarding procedure felt vaguely like a cattle-call—though, I should clarify, it had nothing on the frustrating European LCC practice of selling "priority boarding" to passengers and then snaking queues of priority and cheapskate passengers alongside one another for interminable periods of time. Though completely packed—and mostly with passengers flying on to Curitiba and São Paulo—the flight itself was quite pleasant. A snack was offered free of charge, and passengers were encouraged to ask for two drinks. The in-flight magazine is entirely in Portuguese and full of interesting features, like "Em Trânsito," which offers mini-profiles of passengers, and good destination features (one on the Costa do Descubrimento, anchored by Porto Seguro; another on Asunción). 

Pluna, on the other hand, disappointed somewhat. My flight ran $185, priced in dollars and purchased through Pluna's site. Before take-off I picked up the in-flight magazine only to discover the absence of a route map within. The route map is the most important part of the in-flight magazine, as far as I'm concerned. No route map means no idle fantasizing about future jaunts on the airline. The snacks trolley operates on a US/low-cost carrier model, with everything from sandwiches to water available for a charge. I found this disappointing. Every flight I've ever taken in South America has offered drinks gratis. Though I hate buying food and drink on planes, I was thirsty and tried to buy a water with my remaining Paraguayan guaraní, only to be told that Pluna did not accept guaraní. I remained thirsty. Pluses? The plane type (Bombardier CRJ900) is one I like, and the airplane itself was clean and bright and new. Flight attendants were perfectly nice as well.

I walked off the plane into possibly the most pleasing immigration control room I've ever seen, a well-designed space. Modern useability is the key here: A digital display tells passengers which booth to approach. The solitary hue in the space is orange, and it is deployed sparingly. The brand-new terminal, by architect Rafael Viñoly, is beautiful and ambitious throughout. As such, it stands somewhat in contrast to Pluna, an airline that could so easily and with very few modifications provide its passengers with a better experience.

An Afternoon in Punta del Este

Punta del Este, as my new Uruguayan friend Gabriel pointed out, is either loved or detested. But I was surprised by how unemotional I felt about the place. It's glitzy, sure, but it hardly resembled the cultureless, high-rise landscape I expected to find. There are bookstores, for crying out loud, not to mention quirky single-family houses, modest and villa-like both, in between the apartment blocks. I found myself really enjoying the place, the scale of which was perfect for an afternoon exploration. At the same time, I was glad that we were staying on a bucolic little stretch of beach 15-plus kilometers away.

Fishing shop. 

Ramshackle old bus.

A named abode. 

Concrete shoreline.

Slivers of a Summer Day in Asuncion

Asunción was hot, wet, and fascinating. I spent a day and a half exploring the old town's grid, at first quite vigilant for the threat of violence that nearly every guidebook and travelogue promised. So much for warnings. The central city definitely feels gritty and in some places intense, though I did not feel unsafe once. More on Asunción and Paraguay to follow; for now, some more images.

Graffiti and faded posters.

The remarkably lush Plaza de los Héroes in late morning.

Government Palace from the Manzana de la Rivera complex.

Central city corner in the evening, after the torrential rains.

Buenos Aires: Palermo to Barrio Norte

Some photos snapped on a slow afternoon stroll from Palermo Soho to Barrío Norte: 

Meat wars, in stencil & graffiti form.

More modernist magic.

Fruit and vegetable stand.

Dramatic exterior tile work.

Southern Cone Hopscotch

Friday mid-day I returned from a truly satisfying Southern Cone hopscotch, which took in Buenos Aires, Asunción, Montevideo, and Chihuahua, a beach settlement near Punta del Este. It was one of the most exciting trips I've taken in a while, full of moments of reconnection with favorite cities, exploration of new places, and the discovery of good new friends and acquaintances. I've got a lot to write about here and elsewhere on the jaunt.

Here, some highlights:

• Riding Asunción's public buses with anthropologist Christine Folch and learning a lot about Paraguay's sheerly fascinating cultures, economy, and history very quickly.

• Wandering through Punta del Este during the day and discovering that the South American Hamptons has far more charm and cute corners than the sterile corner of Long Island to which it is compared. (Apologies to any readers who enjoy the Hamptons, sort of.)

• Discovering new corners of Montevideo, including Cordón, Pocitos, and the Feria Tristán de Narvaja street market. 

More to follow.

Miami: New Year's Eve Scenes

I'm in Miami with Matt. Buenos Aires, Asunción, and Montevideo are on deck. Scenes from today:

Design District with airplane.

Design District facade.

Haulover Beach, mid-afternoon.

Some Reflections on NYC's Budget-Friendly Hotel Scene

This fall, I visited scores of budget and midrange hotels in New York City for EuroCheapo. Though I never set out to become an expert on hotels of whatever type, I realize that I have become just that along the way. My ability to distinguish between the good and the bad in the generally maligned budget and midrange hotel categories has emerged as a subspecialization.

I have reviewed hotels for EuroCheapo in Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Bratislava, Dublin, Krakow, London, Munich, Rome, Stockholm, and now New York. For Rough Guides and koucou, among others, I have reviewed hotels in a range of Caribbean territories. In every location, there are interesting things to be learned about the social and cultural dynamics of places in addition to the more direct objective of assessing hotels. The hotel reviewing process, in other words, yields all sorts of other observations on local culture, migration patterns, and hotel management styles at a cultural level.

My benchmark for proprietor friendliness (and general hotel reviewer bliss) is Athens, where a typical day on the job would bring with it perhaps a dozen invitations to a coffee and long conversations about properties. Owners are usually on-site or easily accessible in Athens, or there are long-term sales managers in the office who are empowered to speak knowledgeably about rooms, clientele base, renovation dates, and other defining hallmarks.

New York is not Athens. On most occasions, showing up at a hotel and asking for a manager or someone in sales engenders panic among desk staff and a complete unwillingness to field even the simplest questions thereafter. New York hotels are top-down affairs, places where sales managers and PR teams filter access in a careful and measured manner. (I finally began to get better results when I stopped asking at reception desks for someone in management and simply introduced myself and explained that I was updating a hotel guide.) Most receptionists in New York, it would appear, have been given strict instructions not to communicate with anyone but guests about their places of employ. This is unfortunate, as it implies insecurity. As a hotel reviewer, I want to visit bold properties staffed by people who are proud of their rooms and services, no matter how modest they may be. The simplest and most basic hotel can be wonderful, after all.

There are some very good budget and midrange hotels in New York, though not as many as there should be. I closed my reviewing gig thinking that someone could make an absolute killing by setting up a hotel in New York that charges a simple, transparent nightly rate of $125 or $150 a night for simple but beautifully decorated double rooms. Said hotel would need to fight against the aesthetic objective of hotel chain standardization with simple, attractive, and durable decor and fixtures. There could be as few as two perks on tap: free wi-fi and a well-trained barista at an espresso machine in the lobby. By selling rooms at a rate divorced from the market pricing imperative and by maintaining a standard that is beautiful and not anonymous, this fantasy budget hotel would always be completely full.

The market is wide-open. Hotels in New York are too expensive and all too often terribly bland and cookie-cutter in look. Some investors need to look at the budget tourist market as a potentially sophisticated one, not simply a lowest-common-denominator/anything-goes demographic of tourists who will accept any bone thrown their way.

Dominica's Election Season Redux

Yesterday Dominica voted in a general parliamentary election. According to this report, the ruling Labour Party took 17 of 21 seats, an increase of five seats over the results of the most recent general election in 2005.  (For a look at the pageantry surrounding the election, see my Intelligent Travel blog post from earlier this week.)

Here are some images of the campaign, which I snapped the first week of December.

Labour Party poster for Roseau Central candidate.

United Workers Party campaign posters, Roseau. 

Competing campaign signage. The question-mark on a blue background is a UWP hallmark. Beneath are some Labour Party posters and flags. Roseau.

Intelligent Travel: Election Season on Dominica

My post on the hubbub accompanying Dominica's upcoming election went up today on National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel blog. I'll post some more election scene photos shortly.