yoga, gay pride and travelplans

The last few days i have spent mostly on catching up on sleep, trying to give my feet some rest, still swollen after the flight:-( , reading scientific articles in preparation to the course and trying to sort out my travelplans.

well this last part is really a challenge here in paraguay as it is off the beaten track.I thought i will go to ":laguna blanca" national park, but when i informed they told me it was no longer possible to go there. As it is private land and the accommodation there has closed down.

So than i heard about the paraguayian side of the pantanal. which is supposed to be awesome as there are hardly any tourists. Guess what even getting there is an adventure, you need to take a bus to Concepcion and than take the cargoboat for 3 days, than they come and pick you up and bring you to the only place to stay in the pantanal. and you have to bring all your own food. The boat only leaves once a week so you will have to spent at least one week in the pantanal. flying is possible but boat and airplane are only once a week. so you really need to plan this one. just before the course it will not be possible for me. but i am still planning on doing this. either at the end of my trip or after the end of the course.

Than I read about "the chaco" and got some contact details so for the last 2 days i have been (with the help of other people) trying to get in touch with this person no luck so far. The chaco is so remote its a risk to just go out there by yourself.

so now i am thinking if i do not hear from the guy from the chaco today,  that tommorow i will start making my way over to the falls and see some things around there as by saturday i will have to be back in asuncion as on sunday the course will start.

But in between planning my travels, I found a nice crew here in the hostel (a lot of them actually live here) and yesterday I went with some of them to a yoga lesson in a park, which was really nice and there was also a little market with lots oif vegan food. That excited me a lot as in the supermarkets its not so easy to find vegan things. By the time we were back at the hostel it was so hot we all jumped in the pool. And later we went to a gay pride. That was so cool, i liked it better than amsterdam. I never expected so many people to be here. The parade was full of theatre and statements, lots of attention to the transgender issue. and the estamated amount of people was 1000!  You can see the pictures and video's for an impression.

Apparantly today (=sunday) live is on hold in paraguay, so i will read some more and prepare for leaving tommorow.

hasta luego

PS. My simcard does not work here so you cannot call or text me, whatsapp and skype of course are working when i have wifi. Also my phone does not accept a local sim card:-(