Detour to Paraguay

Hey Roadstars, we are in a new country: Paraguay.

The country produces all of its electricity from renewable energies, primarily hydropower. Because of all the water, we repeatedly find beautiful parking spots by rivers. The view is dreamy, but we can’t always enjoy it because there are countless mosquitoes and biting midges here – even our five mosquito sprays hardly help anymore.

The dense vegetation makes it not always easy for us off the main roads, as low-hanging branches jut far into the narrow streets. On the main roads, however, there’s always something to see, because classic cars keep coming towards us. We drive to friends near Asunción who have been waiting for us since our arrival in South America. After the emotional reunion they show us a nearby lagoon where caimans are frolicking. Only a knee-high fence separates walkers from the reptiles, which can reach up to 1.5 metres in length. 

We also use the break with our friends to give our Axor a thorough clean – a proper spring clean, because it is spring in South America and flowering trees glow everywhere from the dense, deep-green jungle. In the south of the country we visit the ruins of the Jesuit reductions, which are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are an impressive testament to Jesuit history in South America.

Our last stop is Encarnación, one of the country's largest cities, which was rezoned a few years ago because of the reservoir. Quite unusually, we camp in the middle of the city before crossing the 1,610-metre-long cable-stayed bridge over the Río Paraná the next day, which takes us back to Argentina.