Tech Excursion

This past weekend, all the Environmental Education trainees got to experience the first, and only, overnight tech excursion during our training session. The overall goal of the excursion is to meet a few more current volunteers to hear about what they have done and are doing currently in Paraguay with EE, and to have the group experience of traveling to a new location in Paraguay for a few days. And our trainer Ricardo allowed us to have a little bit of fun along the way.

We left Friday a little before noon for Caaucupe, located about an hour northeast of Guarambare and east of Asuncion. Our group was divided into two different vehicles and for the whole weekend, I got to drive around Paraguay in the official supped-up black tinted windowed embassy plated Peace Corps SUV. This is pretty much the nicest looking car in Paraguay that no one would ever touch, but everyone stares at. On our way to Caaucupe we stopped for lunch at a roadside diner for one of the most amazing meals I have had in a long time: french fries, a fried egg and cheese sandwich, and a brownie ice cream dessert. I have never enjoyed fatty American style food so much. The rest of the group felt the same.

After our amazing lunch we met up with a volunteer named Dan in Caaucupe where he introduced us to the NGO REFOPAR. REFOPAR is currently working to reforest Paraguay, by providing thousands of trees to local area municipalities, schools, churches, and other community events for planting activities across Paraguay. We were invited by the executive director Paul to visit the vivero (tree nursery) where the employees’ plant, care for, and prepare the trees for their trips across Paraguay. The interesting thing about this NGO is that Paul, is from Belgium and decided to retire in Paraguay 6 years ago. He and his wife started the NGO themselves, and now employ 15 Paraguayans and have planted hundreds of thousands of native trees in Paraguay.

On the way to the vivero we were shockingly surprised to see a cow giving birth on the side of the road a few minutes from the vivero. As we drove by the first time only the front two legs were out and the cow was actually grazing nonchalantly! After we left the vivero we stopped and saw that the calf was already walking after only an hour. Crazy Paraguay!

After visiting the vivero, we returned to Caaucupe to visit a well known Basilica located in the center of town. The Basilica is well known for the December 8th walk that happens every year in Paraguay. Every year thousands of Paraguayans walk to the Basilica on December 8th in remembrance of the Virgin Mary.


The group was then divided in half, some stayed at Dan’s site for the night which was located about an hour north of town, and the rest of us traveled an additional 45 minutes into the country to meet Lindsay and stay at his site with host families for the night out in the campo. Brenda and I stayed together at a local school director’s house for the night where we were able to use indoor plumbing for the night! However, a 92 year old slightly senile grandma from the house kept asking us through at the night and morning what our mission was in Paraguay and if we were collecting information of the census. I never think she ever understood that we were apart of Peace Corps.

The next day we traveled to the National Park Cerro Kavaju. Where we met up with the rest of the group, Dan, and Dan’s group of 40 senior high school students from a local agro forestry high school he was taking on an excursion for the day. The day before had been so humid and warm, so of course the next day meant rain in the forecast. The rain started after we gathered all together at the entrance to the park and loaded into the back of a flat bed truck with the students. We were driven up a dirt road for 20 minutes in a crammed up top truck to the trail head. The park was absolutely gorgeous. It was great to finally see some of the untouched natural beauty within Paraguay, especially with a group of high school students of which most have never been on a hike before in their lives. We climbed up to the rock cliffs on top of a huge hill and slid down a natural rock waterslide that was created as the rain began to come down harder throughout the day. All of us got completely wet and completely dirty, but for all of us we were so happy to get outside after so long of being in cities littered with trash that we had huge smiles on our faces as we drove back to Guarambare.

Although we were busy during the two days we were gone, it was a refreshing break to training. We spent more time getting to know each other, our trainer, and other volunteers. And we all will remember to never go hiking in a skirt like Brenda did.