I arrived at the Paraguay international airport in Ascuncion yesterday around midday. There I was picked up by a driver and brought across the border to Argentina. The border crossing was extremely relaxed so much so that Richar, my driver, was able to take my passport for me to the two emmigration desks to exit Paraguay and enter Argentina while I stayed in the air conditioned car. Apparently, you can get anything through the border if you pay enough.
We drove from the border, la frontera, to Clorinda the small (200,000 residents) border town. There I was picked up by Johnny, my host for the next month. Johnny manages Estancia Salvacion for his father and the neighbouring Estancia Chinchorro for its Venezuelan owners. Estancia Salvacion has been in the family for 20 years. It is 27,800 hectares which is about 68,700 acres. Estancia Chinchorro is 15,500 hectares whic is about 38,300 acres. Between the two properties of over 100,000 acres, there are around 20,000 head of livestock including beef cattle, sheep and buffalo.
One of the first things I remarked about the land here is that it is very flat. Without the palm trees, I would feel like I was in Saskatchewan I imagine. When we drove through the property gates, the first thing I saw was four big trucks coming our way on the dirt road. These were filled with 1,350 calves that were being driven south 1,300km to the province of Buenos Aries to be fattened up.
After lunch, we drove through some of the property to see and to pick up a Paraguayan worker that was going back to town until Monday. Here, many of the workers are from Paraguay because of the proximity to the border, and the fact that Paraguay is a very poor country. I have learned that pretty much anything goes in Paraguay. There are little taxes which is good for quasi-legal importing and exporting businesses, but it also means there is no money to provide health care, welfare or infrastructure to Paraguayans. As a result, the people work very hard because they know if they don't, they won't eat. In contrast, the Argentinian government charges a lot of taxes and has huge safety nets for its citizens, which among other thigs has promoted a less productive and hard-working people. I do however like that Argentina practices the siesta, afternoon nap, and literally everything shuts down for a few hours after lunch.
On our tour to pick up the Paraguayan, who loaded all of his camping gear into the back of the truck then jumped into the back of the truck as well as we headed to the highway, we passed a number of acres that are dedicated to rice production on the property. The landscape was very powerful with the dry yellow of the rice plants being cultivated by machines, the deep blue of the levees between the rice paddy's where water was redirected and stored from the local river for the purpose of flooding the fields, and the vibrant green of the young rice fields.
At night time, there was a family gathering for Diego, the resident veterinarian. We had a asado a la parrilla, barbequed meet. After being in Argentina for only 9 hrs, I already knew that I liked my meat cuidado, tender. It will take me a few days to switch from Portguese to Spanish, which is evident by the fact that I keep saying obrigada and muito bao to everyone instead of gracias and muy bien, but I know it will come quickly.
One of the best parts of living here I think will be the massive toads that take over the walkway at night to eat the flies that are attracted to the balcony lights. They are as big as rats if not bigger! I was warned though to be careful of snakes in the dark and not to move any wood or items under which they may be hiding. In the 20 years on the farm, there have only been two seriously deadly snake bites that required anti-poison antidotes and hospitalization, and one of these was last week. I'll be careful.
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