Travel Story «Ybycui and NP»

South America Trip | Paraguay | 0 Comments 24 March 2010 - Last Update 20 April 2010

Day 80 + 81 : Ybycui

Getting up early again, I can notice that the weather has changed. It is colder and the sky is covered. At 07.15 AM I am on my way back to Asuncion. This time the journey goes faster and after 6 hours I am back in the capital. It finally stopped raining but almost the whole way we had heavy rain and thunderstorms (most likely as a reaction on the hot days of before).

After a short lunchbreak and a quick internet visit, I am back in a bus to Ybycui, this time; another 3h15. There I have the bad luck that the last bus to the park will not make it as he is in reparation, so I have to stay over in this little town and try my luck tomorrow. Shortly after installing myself in the local guesthouse, the lights die out in town, so there is not much to do. Luckily this situation lasts only a big hour, so that I can work a little bit on my PC and watch television for a change.

At 09.30 I am back at the terminal, as informations concerning the exact hour of the bus to the park, change according to the person you ask. For some it is at 9.45, others 10, again others 10.30; in the end it is over 11 AM before a small bus arrives and brings a lot of passengers to the neighbouring towns. The park is the last stop. It is surprisingly that one of the most popular national parks has such a bad connection. Ybycui NP preserves one of eastern Paraguay's last stands of Brazilian subtropical rainforest. From the bus stop to the administrative center it is another 2 km walking and this is where I will stay over for the night.

It has rained a lot the last two days so the waterlevel in the rivers is high, bridges have fallen down and a lot of paths are drawn, but I am off for an afternoon of discovery. I start first by shooting the small waterfall “salto mina” and walking along the self-explaining path around it. Then it is time to cross the water (temporary no bridge), good that the river is not too deep, but the current is strong. At the other side of the river I am off for the walk to the next waterfall, called 'salto guarani'. Exactly as in Cerro Cora, I can spot a lot of flowers and insects. There are also several colorful butterflies – including the metallic blue Morpho – but they are less abundant. However what is too abundant to enjoy my walks through the dense forest are spiders. Once I had spotted very closely a tarantula, the fun was over for me, and I decided to use the bigger roads instead of the small forest paths.

From the recreative zone, I am off to the historical one,called “la rosada”. It shows one of the few iron factories in South America in the 19^th century, which was destroyed by the triple alliance during the war. During my trip back I can spot some bigger animals (although heavily hided in the forest) and a lot of birds (colorful parrots, prey birds, kolibris, king fisher, etc). Furthermore, around the pools I receive a privat concert of the many frogs around and I can assure you they are hugh (bigger than a fist).

Before dark, I am back at the administrative center, receiving my basic room for the night and a dinner.

The next morning I am up early. As it had rained the days before, the bus did not pass the rangers house so I had to walk back to the main road (over 2 km) to catch the bus at 8 AM. Luckily for me I left on time, as the bus got off too early. I was the first passenger of the morning, but soon much more passengers entered. As the bus has a speed of in average 30 km/h and it is more or less this distance to Ybycui village, you can consider this a touristic ride enjoying the landscape with a lot of birds, the farmers houses and all kinds of farmers activities. Shortly before nine I am back at the terminal where I get an immediate connection to Asuncion.