We had the pleasure of being invited to spend Sunday with our friend Elva’s family who lives in a compañía just outside Yuty. So we hopped on our bikes and rode the couple scenic miles to the home of a fun and friendly family of 10.
Two of Elva’s sisters had invited some friends too, so it was a full house. But in true Paraguayan style, we didn’t even need the house. We gathered under a big shade tree in the front lawn and drank ice-cold tereré together as the meal was being prepared by Elva’s mom.
We were even joined occasionally by a fluffy white rabbit, a pet of one of the sisters that Elva is holding below.
Despite the heat, we took a walk to some nearby houses to meet some more of Elva’s family. Along the way we passed these neighbors who were cooking up a cow’s head in a pit in the ground. It’s not something we see everyday, so of course we stopped to take a look.
They explained how they heated up the pit with coals for a few hours before putting in the cow’s head, which they then cooked for another couple of hours. We were there when they pulled it out of the pit, its huge teeth smiling back at us.
The wife of the duo was busy cooking away in the tatakua, the Guaraní word for the traditional wood-fired clay oven that is still widely used in Paraguay.
Here she is pulling out some Sopa Paraguaya, a traditional cornbread-like dish from the hot cavity of the outdoor oven.
We moved on to tour the grounds of a camp that was built for people to stay as they worked on drilling up uranium. Since the prices drastically dropped after Japan’s nuclear accident related to the tsunami in March 2011, there hasn’t been as much work at this plant as it simply isn’t worth the work hours.
But we saw their shelters, office, kitchen, and even some of the places where they drill down searching for the uranium.
After a filling and flavorful lunch back at Elva’s house we headed out to a nearby ranch, Isaiah and I on our bikes, the rest of the gang on their motorcycles. The grounds of the ranch were well-maintained and beautiful.
There was a big pavilion for resting or snacking, plenty of lawn to throw the frisbee, and even a pool to cool off in on the warm day.
We had fun sharing the day with Elva’s family and friends and we luckily made it home on our bikes just before we finally received some much needed rain.
How did you spend your weekend? Any other bike riders?
Biking in Iowa in February is a slightly different experience: http://crbiker.blogspot.com/2013/02/in-which-cr-biker-wonders-if-vikings.html
That’s right, Joe. How quickly I forget what that cold February weather of Iowa feels like. Kudos, though, for still braving it on the bike!
Spent my weekend wondering if it’d snow enough that I’d need to shovel the driveway. I got lucky. Your scenes of warm weather activities finds me longing for summer in Indiana!
Glad to hear you can save those shoveling muscles for another day, Alice! Isn’t it ironic how the sound of shoveling cold snow sounds so refreshing to me right now as I wait to see if the heat and humidity of the day will let up at all this evening?