I must confess that prior to our visit, I knew very little of Paraguay other than that it was a land locked country whose red and white stripes appeared every 4 years at the World Cup Finals, occasionally making it through the group stages. I would liken Paraguay to a country such as Cameroon. I've never met anyone from either nation, nothing newsworthy ever happens in either, the only city I was aware of was the capital, and they don't appear to take part in any other sports apart from football. Having spent just over a week within the country's borders I'm afraid I can add very little more!

The first thing that struck us on the drive from the airport to the countries capital, Asuncion, was the return of 'order' in the world. There were shiny new cars, which were actually driving within their designated lanes. Roads had an even surface and smart concrete houses lined the roadsides. Walking the streets of the capital with the well dressed office workers, we were only asked for money once and no one actually tried to sell us anything...After months of chaos, small things like these make a very pleasurable difference.

In essence this is because there are no sights worth visiting in Asuncion and as a result, tourists simply don't exist. There are of course a couple of things you can visit if you wish, such as the Presidential Palace and a couple of squares and churches but nothing that we haven't seen in more elaborate fashion elsewhere in South America. Even the 230 mile bus ride east on highway 1 to the Brazil border offers little in the way of scenery. Accompanied by the DVD family classic, 'Predators 2010' we once again wiled away an unnecessarily long day of frequent stops on a moderately rolling straight road, through large sections of tree & field nothingness.

One thing that was however exciting was the weather and April is a fine month to visit. While at times it was Chilly in Chile, someone sure did put the SUN in.... ASUNcion. Leaving the cooler altitude and mixed weather of Peru & Bolivia, we found a week of cloudless sky and 30 plus degrees.

So why then did we choose to visit this 'ordinary' country? The answer lies partly in the question. Normally tourists flock to certain places, naturally because there is something to see, but occasionally it is nice to escape the foreigners, tourist traps, sight-seeing and constant hassle of locals. Asuncion is also only 5 hrs bus ride (although we managed it in 6) from the Iguazzu Falls and also cheap flight away from La Paz. With all of this in mind, the exceptional weather forecast and the pure coincidence of it being US Masters week, it seemed a great place to rack up another passport stamp and stop moving for a few days.

We managed to find a cracking little hotel with pool and sun terrace area directly outside our room, free from tourists. Aside from our sun worshipping antics, the most interesting activities centred around a Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bill lookalike character and his buffet breakfast eating exploits! I've seen all you can eat greed before but 'Buffet Bill' took it to a whole new level. In what appeared to be a routine 2 hr sitting he would lay out 5 plates and slowly work his way through them. Sometime after we had finished our fruit salad and yoghurt and were nicely positioned in our prime sun spot, we would find ourself staring in disbelief at him walking past with a heavily laden plateful of rolls and a selection of fruit. He then disappeared to his room to slowly digest his feast, not to be seen again until the next morning, when we would again be subjected to watching him pile slices of ham and cheese on his plate!

Lacking the stronger features of their South American counterparts, the Paraguayan people are relatively ordinary looking. They do however have a more distinctive accessory. A large number of locals can be seen carrying a small barrel shaped leather cased water holder. It seemed a bit strange that they would all carry water around, but when we later spotted the accompanying detachable cup and metal 'strainer' straw, the 'mate' tea purpose became apparent! Although also a popular drink in Argentina we haven't seen the water carrying obsession before. 'Mate' tea is essentially a type of tea where the cup is filled with the leaves and drunk through a straw with an inbuilt strainer, and clearly in copious amounts in Paraguay.

In the shadow of it's more worldly known Brazilian and Argentinian neighbours, Paraguay appears as a very proud, insular country, happy with it's place in the world. 2011 actually signifies 200 years of Independence from Spain which is something they are celebrating loudly within their own borders with banners, flags and red,white and blue ribbons decorating most streets and houses.

Paraguay isn't the kind of place we will remember for it's sights or scenery but simply as a place of rest, recuperation and sunshine before the final leg of our trip. The nation's laid back way of life provided a perfect place to escape and as such these will be 7 days we won't forget! With only 2 weeks remaining before we go home and the Iguazzu waterfalls and Rio de Janerio left on the agenda, we can now resume our sight-seeing with refreshed eyes and a renewed bounce in our stride...