Caught the bus from San Pedro de Ycuamandiyú to Santa Rosa, a cost of G20,000 ($4/£2). The town is pretty non descript with a cross roads at which point sits the bus terminal. Shops, some just shacks, then line the main road in all directions for about a km, mainly selling food, financial services and plumbing equipment.
The locals continually told me that there were many hostels in the locality. I walked the streets for seeming hours and if there were they did not advertise themselves! Hotels seem to cost from G80,000-120,000 (£11/$16- £17/$25), which for Europe and the US might not sound a lot but by South Am prices is a little expensive. So finally I found a hotel down a dusty track a short way from the bus terminal for G60,000 (£8.50/$12.50). Private room with a/c, towel and soap thrown in.
The mission though was to find what the locals told me was amazing: La Laguna Blanca. So after talking to various locals, the following days plans were made.
It started earlyish. Not having a car in Paraguay can be a real pain, as had to catch the only bus the locals knew about which was at 7am. The cost, one way, is G15,000 (£2/$3).
The bus trundled down the untarmaced road shuddering from side to side as it hit lumps of dirt in the track. As asked, the bus attendant gestured for me to come forward and prepare to get off. A few minutes later he said ‘We’re here’, so I stumbled off the bus.
With a plume of dust the bus sped away leaving the view of some ploughed fields and a crumbling metal barn. The thought then crossed my mind ‘Where the hell am I?’ I then noted a sign saying ‘Laguna Blanca’ with an arrow pointing along a track that split the two agricultural fields. With no one to ask I just did as the sign indicated.
There is a 2.5km walk from the main ‘road’ to the lagoon which takes you along a dusty track, big enough for a vehicle to go over. Firstly passed fields use for crop cultivation then thick forest crowds along the path’s edge. You are joined on the walk by sunbathing lizards, butterflies of vibrant blacks and whites or with flame tipped wings, birds that chime along in melody and the rowdy woodpeckers who hammer into the trees above.
Along the way a plaque indicates that you are able to take a path into the jungle, so off I went. The route once had signs which are now crumbling columns of wood with the direction arrows so worn as to make them unrecognizable. There are even points where the path divides in two directions with no indication of which way to take. I followed one route only to end at a grassy area where horses were grazing with a large pond. Firstly I thought this was the lagoon which looked good but honestly couldn’t understand the national recognition.
I walked back along the path and noted a point where it split. There was an arrow which definitely pointed in the direction to go. But childhood fantasies of intrepid European explorers wondering through the African bush filled my mind (that or too many Ray Mears episodes). So I took the other route.
At first it was interesting as the dry sandy soils changed to red earth. Plants grew across the path suggesting it had not been walked in a while. Then I begun to see black ants the size of a person’s thumb stroll across the path, termite mounds akin to small apartment blocks, angry dark coloured wasp buzzed menacingly around my head and once I caught two spiders’ webs in my face it was game over. My well honed jungle survival skills kicked in: get out of here as fast as possible and seek medicine- preferably from a ‘pharmacy’ that sells fizzy ice cold golden liquid with that refreshing alcoholic flavour…
Determined I wondered along the main path further. Then the landscape opened out into a tropical paradise complete with palm trees, clear calm waters, gentle breeze and bags of golden sunshine, looking like something out of a holiday brochure for the Caribbean. I was mesmerized by the sand. Forget Barbados or Bahamas, in all my years of travel I had never seen it so pure white and soft. It looked and felt like walking on icing sugar.
As a lagoon it had the interesting mix of being fresh water with reeds gently swaying along the banks and shoals of small fish glistening below the water as they glide past.
I waited for half an hour for a golden tanned bikini clad girl with a flower in her hair to sidle along to me and ask me what cocktail I’d like, but soon realised I was totally alone on the beach. There are umbrellas and sun beds so I imagine this place gets a number of visitors but today it was just mine.
There is a walk round the side of the lagoon which a local informed me was fine to take. He did though warn me to be aware of the jaguars, not sure if he was joking… Tried to take a photo along my walk and wondered from the path towards the water’s edge. But on route were some reed beds, take one step into their muddy terrain and you quickly sink up to your knees in thick black soil.
Recommended- just remember to take food and water (there are no shops) and the last bus back is at 5pm (miss it and it’s a long walk back to town)
Signing off with love from South America
justindvblog 