Second Week in Paraguay: Part 2

 Wednesday April 30, 2025

For those who don't know, Clark and I have very different sleep requirements. He gets by on an average of 6 hours a night and I sleep on average around 9 hours a night. Clark ends up with quite a bit of extra time on his hands and he dislikes sitting around the apartment, so he tasked himself with getting out on a daily basis. 

As a family, we coordinated our schedules so we could join him for a couple mornings of sight seeing a few more museums. The kids were interested in seeing the changing of the guard at the Hall of Heros and the train museum. In our two self-guided walk abouts up to now, I was led in my reading and exploring to discover more interesting places to check out. Clark did a little research as well just out of boredom to put together a list of where he could go. All in all, we had enough to keep us busy for a few mornings and return back in time for Clark's class around 1 pm.

Our first morning, Clark and I went together for the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. We hadn't figured out yet that all the museums were free and SMALL, both having their advantages. The museum was exhibiting a popular contemporary sculptor, Gustavo Beckelman. The entrance for the museum is actually through the rear of a restored home, where Beckelman's art was displayed outside.

                                                                 Middle: One of these is not like the others...

One of my favorite examples of Becklemen's work. There were many more in this style but of different things; primarily people, of which one is visible in the background of the picture below.

This is the real front of the building. I enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to view the historic home as much, if not more, than the art. 

Since the museum didn't take long, Clark did a quick search to see what, if any, other museums were near enough to walk to. He found the Museo Etnografico Andres Barbero. As we headed over, we coincidently happened into this historic house I'd seen on an Uber drive by into downtown. I had tried to look the place up unsuccessfully because I only got a glimpse of the lettering in the garden. I would love to see Asuncion establish a non-profit foundation of historic homes solely to educate people about the history of homes, edifices, and architecture around the city. Nowhere could I find a website specifically dedicated to a list of historic restored homes and definitely not anything pointing to tours of open homes that may now have other functions besides as private residences. 

This is the Casa Argentina and it is now a private event center. Nowhere could I find information about the history of the mansion. Maybe I haven't dug deep enough or maybe I'm not googling the right key words. This difficulty in research has been typical of our experience in Paraguay. Interesting enough, the space includes a racquetball court off the main front patio. There didn't appear to be anything going on and the gate was open so we took our liberties touring the main level. Other areas were locked.

     

 

The emblem to the right is the Argentinan coat of arms.

A grand ballroom with doors leading out to a massive courtyard.

More pretty architecture

Mural art

Nature's determination

Above: In the neighborhood of the museum...

                      

This museum took me by surprise. I had no idea what to expect. I could post about 100 pictures of all the interesting artifacts we saw. Basically, it a collection of artifacts from the 5 main indigenous tribes of Paraguay along with a documentation of the research done into the tribal languages and traditions. There is a timeline inside displaying the progression of study and the scientists involved.

Parrot feather adornments

Canoe

Weapons...specifically spears but there were examples of bows with arrows.

"Equipment" used to play perhaps one of the earliest versions of ground hockey.

Handwoven baskets. There were also handwoven bags. I tried find a way to read about it but unfortunately couldn't connect the QR codes through my email. My phone doesn't easily convert PDFs to English for me. I am insanely curious what fiber they produced to make the bags.

Early example of wood sculpting. In this room there were wide rolls covered in white cloth. We figured out those were either tapestries or rugs. I wish I would have asked the museum attendant to go to the trouble of unrolling just one.

Our morning adventures wouldn't be complete without some superb Paraguayan alimentos so we decided to stop in at the famous O Gaucho Churrasqueria. O Gaucho is THE premier restaurant of Paraguay. Clark and the kids went to two different churrasquerias while I was sick. It would have been wasted money on me. They were both great, but O Gaucho's is two blocks from our apartment. It didn't disappoint. The place is fabulous enough to earn its own post. Check it out. You won't want to miss this one!