jcsg south america travels: The dogs of Pilar

I know that Sarah will write about Paraguay, so I will not say too much here. Pilar in the SE state of Neembucu seems well described as tranquil, despite my being awakened the first night there by the loudest clap of thunder of my life. The rain was needed. The people there enjoy the tranquility and each other. They enhanced my appreciation of familia and acceptance (or at least tolerance) of the things one cannot change, including politics. I am left with an impression that President Lugo, despite his good heart and right speech, will not have the political power to achieve much.

Sarah with Patricia Paredes and 'Tian

Sarah with Mami and Felipe de Torres

Selling chipa in the Asuncion bus station

In the sanitary facilities in that bus station, there was a small clump of wet leaves in the sink I used, left over from someone's terere - una bebida muy refrescante y tipica de Paraguay.

My early BA experience with a time shift altered state of consciousness faded pretty quickly, with men's faces back to their individual and distinct
qualities within hours. Thinking about this in terms of neurobiology, different types of animals have specialized sets of neurons in their brains for rapid recognition of that which is really important: horizontally moving fly sized objects for frogs, bioluminescence for night flying gulls (which sounds beautiful and thrilling), faces and patterns for people. Some atypical patterns/connections must have been active for a while between my brain functions for pattern recognition and faces.

Anyway, the dogs of Pilar vary in appearance more than dogs in many places but there are clearly some large families. The tan and white short hairs, the shepherds, the cockeroid clan and the big brindle bitch all hold their tails up and demonstrate self confidence and good cheer.

We are now at Foz do Iguacu and happy.