Why I like Paraguay

[Westy]

These photos are from a few years ago, but I doubt if the Ex-Bishop has changed Paraguayan culture all that much. A quiet weeknight at the Arena Café - three buddies on vacation - and a trio of frisky paraguayitas.

What's not to like?

[Exon123]

I think thats every reason in the world to like Paraguay pictured below.

Exon

[El Alamo]

It appears but I am not positive, that the bureaucratic bullshit that is the hallmark of living in Argentina or the United States is less in Paraguay. For example,

1) to buy our bar we needed a piece of paper from the Ministerio de Haciendas.

Had to go to a huge building about the size of the Migaciones or Immigrationes in Buenos Aires. It was filled with people. To my amazement, from the moment I entered the building to the moment I left with paper in hand totalled 5 minutes, without any fees.

2) Sent some letters to the United States from the main Post Office. Total elapsed time of 1 minute and a predicted arrival time in the United States of less than 1 week. The one week has not been confirmed yet.

3) And the one I like best, Instructions on opening a business in Paraguay. Go ahead and open and deal with the paperwork later. Again, sounds too good to be true.

[Iamzonzon]

I read a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that said the same thing about URUGUAY? I think the writers may have missed by one country.

Please keep us advised. It seems that you are on to something that is special and hard to find these days.

[New York12]

This is my first post, but I have been soaking up all the great information on this forum for the past few months.

After reading about Asuncion on here, I have to check it out for myself. My buddy and I have the month of February free and want to rent a house. What would be the best way to go about doing this? Thanks.

[El Alamo]

NewYork 12

Planning to stay a month in Asuncion for a first time visit might be a little risky. You may like Asuncion or you may not. It is not for everyone.

Also, February can be pretty hot. I don't find it any hotter than South Florida but it will get your attention.

Then there is the choice of where to stay. Downtown is filled with privados, many open 24 hours, small shops and small restaurants but is a little run down. If you are looking for Miami Beach or even Buenos Aires this is not for you.

The other choice is to stay in a suburb such as Villa Morra or Carmelita which is similar to staying in an affluent Southern California suburb.

The drawback to the affluent suburb is that it is an affluent suburb. Forget privados, forget wandering the streets of an old Spanish town. You have malls and you take a bus (quick and cheap) or a taxi (quick and expensive) everytime you need to go downtown.

Asuncion has something for everyone if you know where to look. Soon Asuncion will have what it misses most - El Alamo Asuncion.

A real estate agency that may be able to help you is inmueblesonline.com.py

Their English skills are not their strong point.

Also, Tequila Tim and Argento just come back from a trip to Asuncion and they may have better advice.

[El Alamo]

More information on living in Paraguay.

Needed to get money into the country. You can use ATM machines but there is a daily limit and a service charge which gives you a bad rate of exchange.

In addition, you want to exchange dollars. They screw the other curriencies with bad exchange rates. Having a bunch of pesos or reales isn't going to do you much good.

Talked to my lawyer. He took me to a Financiera which is one of the 3 types of financial institutions here. The others are banks and Co-ops. Nobody seems to know the differences between them.

In about 15 minutes I had a bank account with my initial dollar deposit. Wired some money to the Financieras account in New York and it will be available Monday in Asuncion. Cost for wiring money is $40 plus 10% IVA for a total of $44 dollars. You wouldn't want to wire small amounts but you can get big amounts into the country for a small expense.

The best part. You can have an account either in guarani or an account in dollars. If your account is in dollars you make withdrawls in dollars. You earn 6% interest on dollar accounts and 8% on guarani accounts.

I am not sure these accounts are open to everyone. It may be only for people who own property in Paraguay. I am not sure about that.

Next, the really best part about Paraguay. Went to privado and met a drop dead gorgeous babe. On the local forums she is always mentioned as one of the prettiest girls. She jumped at the chance to visit Florianopolis for a stipend of 2 million guarani a week ($400 dollars) How long can she stay in florianopolis? Her answer, as long as you like.

[Westy]

Asuncion has something for everyone if you know where to look. Soon Asuncion will have what it misses most - El Alamo Asuncion.Didn't you say the name "El Alamo" was already taken by some other joint in Asuncion?




P. S. I just bought a bar here. It is on Mcal Lopez across the street from the Brazalian embassy. Mcal Lopez would remind you of Greenwich Connecticut with mansion after mansion, embassy after embassy (including the USA embassy) and the palace of the President of Paraguay.

The name El Alamo is already taken in Asuncion. We could call our bar Viva Zapata's but that might be politically incorrect. I think we will call it Pepe's Bar and Cantina. You could almost-certainly translate "Alamo" into English - and call it the "Cottonwood Cafe".


Also, Tequila Tim and Argento just come back from a trip to Asuncion and they may have better advice.And back around 20 November, a few of us posted in favor of calling your bar "Tequila Tim".

I will be eager to hear anything from Tequila Tim and Argento regarding the "State of the Sexual Union" in Asuncion. Wish I were there now.

[Westy]

I met two CAN guys in Sosua ... Both have spent much time in Asuncion. Both liked it. But were bored at night. They prefer Sosua. It ain't boring here!I'm a bit surprised, because I wasn't "bored at night" the times I visited Asuncion. I was more bored during the days.

My problem with Asuncion is that it's such a long way from home - an afternoon connection to Miami, overnight to Sao Paulo, and then another long flight to ASU. I find this a pain in the butt, the legs, and the wallet. For this alone, I'm interested in trying a visit to DomRep - maybe after Easter.

Sounds as though Blackbeard's in Puerto Plata would be a very good bet for me. ISG has a lot of good reviews of BB's, and I'm attracted to the utter simplicity of staying there - a short walk to the beach, or to restaurants and the like; by all accounts, a decent restaurant and bar right there; and "hot & cold running chicas" right on site.

For now, I can't spend weeks away from home; and I am not ready to fly to Southern Cone for what would amount to a long weekend. So - a few days in DomRep sound like Doctor Detroit's prescription for me!

[HappyGoLucky]

I doubt if the Ex-Bishop has changed Paraguayan culture all that much.That gave me a chuckle.

Lugo could show Tiger a thingy or two.

This is hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_E3M-fScjA

[HappyGoLucky]

A real estate agency that may be able to help you is inmueblesonline. Com. PyAnd here's a few of "Craig's List" type sites for Paraguay:

http://www.evisos.com.py/

http://www.olx.com.py/

http://clasipar.paraguay.com/

[Gabar]

Hi there, I just spent 2 months in Asuncion, and loved it, apart form the heat.

I stayed at the Palmas del Sol hotel, near the centre for 109K GS per night, negotiated down because of the length of stay; air conditioned, TV, fridge, pool, good german style breakfast, chica friendly.

I studied spanish for 3 hrs a day for 81K GS for private lessons at an accredited school, IDIPAR, on Manduvira near Colon, which is only 3 blocks from my one of my favourite privados, Deseos, for some after study relaxation.

I am planning on obtaining my residency visa, and renting and then purchasing a house there. There are a lot of places with signs tacked up at the front of the house and a phone number. My spanish teacher told me that a lot of people don't like dealing with agents, especially German ones, as they believe they will be ripped off, and looking in the ads and seeing some of the prices in US dollars and how inflated they are compared to the price of houses with signs out the front, I can believe it.

I never went to the clubs, but I personally visited these privados, and the info is up to date to last week. The service was consistently good, well above the couple of places I have been to in Argentina.

Deseos. 14 de Mayo 1008. Easy, clean, 120,000GS per hour. I had 5 girls there and repeated with all of them.

Valkiries Azara 905 Up the stairs, 1st door on left, clean 120K per hour, Excellent.

El Eden Azara 495 Top of the stairs, 200K per hour, poss. Gringo pice.

Claus II Tte Farina 1442 Top of the stairs, 120K per hour. Lorena was perfect for me and on a couple of occasions came to my hotel for 300K per hour.

P2K Azara 1340 walk in, 100K per hour, a bit dark and the bed was collapsing. The girl was enthusiastic.

Hot Girl Eusyabo Ayala 326. 3rd block on the right after the road becomes 6 lanes wide and changes name from Pettirossi at Mercado 4. Walk in. 120K per hour. Beautiful girls.

Ceci Productions 2 girls with the best breasts in Asuncion. I'm not supplying the address. Look her up on asunsex and ring for directions. 300K per hour, reflecting the area. I repeated a number of times, even at the price.

Paraguay is there to be enjoyed at their pace and in their manner.

[HappyGoLucky]

Hey Gabar!

Did you tell Bernardo and Lulu what you were doing for "relaxation"?

Just kidding.

I've been to IDIPAR three times. Every time I told Bernardo I prefer to be in a group class, but I've always been the only one in the school studying Spanish. All the other students were missionary types studying Guarani.

Besides the hobby, what did you do for fun? Were you working the whole time?

Nevermind; I found the more detailed version of your post here: http://www.internationalsexguide.info/forum/showthread.php?t=593

"There are a lot of places with signs tacked up at the front of the house and a phone number."

What neighborhoods were you looking at? Villa Morra, Hererra, Carmelitas??

[Gabar]

I wasn't looking in those areas. I was checking out the hobby farms around Nuevo Colombia and Villette, plus some of the better areas of Lambare and around the river. The website clasipar.paraguay.com is another good resource to use for both real estate and autos.