Asuncion

so i've been spending some of my weekends exploring Asuncion
taking the bounding buses back and forth over El Rio Paraguay.
the AFSers in the city and i run around like sweaty white blobs,
getting lost and loving it.
last weekend we rambled all over the city looking at this and smelling that.
after a morning of investigation we made it to Lido Bar. i'd read about it in a book by a Brit who'd done some travelling in this country known as the Heart of South America.
Lido fulfilled all of my expectations: fantastic empanadas, positively stuffed and enormous; scarlet ceiling fans; waitresses' sturdy bodies are slid into orange creamsicle 50's diner-meets-willy-wonka uniforms (complete with striped fez) like lovely lady sausages; diners are packed elbow-to-elbow along the lone, long, winding orange bar that slithers its way through the entire length of the restaurant.
fabulous. i loved every minute.

the four of us gringos bus hopped, toting our tereré (iced mate that Paraguayos thrive on) thermoses, guampa, looking rather local, or so we thought, until a street musician sang to us - delightfully off-key and loudly: "Los americanos tomando tereré..."
i guess we stick out a bit.

as we wound our way through skillful entertainers and mercantes we became increasingly sunburned and sweaty.
though that's the funny thing about the Paraguayan sun: it doesn't burn me. i'm used to becoming as red as tomatoes, singed and whimpering...but not here. though they claim it's stronger, my skin is either becoming more resistant or i'm becoming more Paraguayan, because i am just burning browner and browner. my hair, too, is darker, which seems a little counter- intuitive.
but then again, this is Paraguay, and here things just don't make sense.