Jon and I ready for our ride. Note the funky bike frames. |
No, no, blog fans, nothing bad happened during my maiden bike
ride in winter in Paraguay. I just thought about it a lot during the ride—how I
wished I had a helmet. I didn’t, and I rode anyway, but I am fine.
In fact, if you’re going to ride a bike in winter, I
definitely suggest a Paraguayan winter might be more relaxing than an Iowa one.
Jon had been to a meeting in Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción on
Tuesday (usually called just Asunción, it’s the capital of Paraguay) and we
stayed up late waiting for him to return. Consequently we got to bed late, and
Wednesday started kind of late.
But, we had planned that today would be our bike ride day,
and after lunch ended around 2, we decided we better get going because the
winter sun sets by 5 p.m.
It was warm, probably around 80 or so, as most winter
afternoons here are. I tried on Nalena’s helmet, which is too small for Nalena,
and it didn’t fit me either, so I decided to wear my sun cap. I filled my water
bottle, we got out the two cheap Brazilian bikes that the Peace Corps provided,
and we were ready to be on our way.
The bikes were a bit of an adventure. The frame size is too
small for a tall American, and the frame design seems to have the goal to add
as much extraneous metal as possible, so the frame can be lots heavier with no
discernable gain in comfort or strength. The derailleurs on my bike were a bit
iffy, with the both the front and the rear tending to overshift when you aimed
at the largest cog, and the rear one was frequently “chunking” in intermediate
gears.
There was one other difficulty right away—Jon lives on a
cobblestone street. In Paraguay, cobblestones are very irregular rocks imbedded
in a clay path. It made for several continuous blocks of “rumble strip” riding.
The start of the ride. Note the cobblestone street. It was a bit rough riding at first, but it only lasted a few blocks. |
But it was a fine sunny day, and even if I felt a bit like
my knees were in danger of banging into my chin, it did feel good to be out on
a bike. Jon said we would aim for the main campus of the Catholic University (Universidad Católico) that
is south of town here, although he was not sure that we would have time to
reach it.
The ride was a bit hair-raising. Paraguayan paved roads are
asphalted cobblestone, and not as smooth as North American roads—although the
paved surface was way better than the bare cobblestones. The streets are a bit
narrow, and there is all sorts of traffic, including many “motos,” small
motorcycles that keep way over to the right in the lane where bicycles are
trying to ride.
Paraguayan drivers pass very, very close, blog fans, and
they do not slow down for bikes.
We made our way through Villarrica to a country road that
went down a hill. After a couple of miles, the pavement swung left through a
gate, and there we were, at the campus.
The ride had taken us about 30 minutes or so, so reaching
the campus was no big deal. We parked our bikes (the only non-motorized bikes
there, and we had to lock them to a sign since there are no bike racks in
Paraguay) and walked around the campus.
Jon in the central student lounge at the university. He found a poster on a bulletin board advertising a class he and Nalena started back in March. |
There were no dormitories, because in Paraguay college
students live at home or in apartments and don’t usually go very far to go to a
university, and the campus is easily reach by moto or bus from Villarrica.
The Catholic University has "Holy Spirit Hospital," which has this rather cool symbol. |
In one building we passed an office where a lady called out
to Jon and invited us in. She was a “secretary” who chatted with Jon and me for
a while. I was able to speak a little Spanish, but much of the conversation eluded
me. “Secretary,” by the way, is a title for a high-ranking official, the head
of the whole university (whom we did by chance briefly meet) is the secretary
general, and the lady whose office we visited would probably be the equivalent
of an academic dean or provost in the U.S.
Anyway, after a nice chat, we had a pleasant walk through
several buildings and in a central quad area. The campus was a bit threadbare,
as all things in Paraguay seem to be, but the atmosphere was not all that
different from a U.S. college campus. There are classroom buildings, a student
lounge, a medical school with a hospital, even an “experimental” high school
where Jon and Nalena have done some programs.
Central area of campus at the university. |
After a nice walk, it was time to head back.
The ride back proved a bit more challenging than the ride
there, since the long hill we had come down we now had to climb. But we left
the campus around 3:20 and were home by 4. Jon estimates the distance is not
that different from my daily commute from my home to Mount Mercy, but I must
say I feel like I can’t complain too much about the condition of Cedar Rapids
streets anymore. Yes, I know, our CR streets do need a lot of fixing, but trust
me, there are lots of places that would envy our wide, smooth streets.
A pause at a bend in the road on the ride back. the road is a bit narrow, but luckily, once we left the city, traffic was light. There is lots of trash. Sadly, Paraguayans are terrible litterbugs. |
It was a fun ride. We’re going to do some bus traveling to
see a bit of Paraguay outside of Villarrica in the coming days, so I’m not sure
if I’ll get many more chances to ride a bike in South American. Without a
helmet, I suppose I should not overdo it. But I’m glad I did go on this ride,
although 9 miles in three weeks is not a very intense RAGBRAI training
schedule!
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