El Chorro

"El Chorro" is Spanish for "the stream". Around Caaguazú this is what we call a certain picnic/camping area. The actual name is "El chorro canpinp". Canpinp is how a Paraguayan thought you spell camping, Spanish phonetics make spelling English words difficult and they got 5 out of 7 letters right so I still give the spelling a passing grade.

It is a nice place. A narrow stream that has at least two springs as its source, one 10 meters away and the other one a few hundred meters away, runs through soft sandstone into a wider area where a dam creates a small swimming pool before the water plunged down a waterfall.

We like to sit on a bench in the stream drinking tereré.

Rosey and I decided Monday was our day off and convinced (it didn't take much effort) the EMC missionaries in our area that they should join us for an asado. It began to pour as we were leaving home. 1/2 hour later, when we arrived at "El Chorro Canpinp" the rain had stopped but the clouds were threatening.

We sat in the stream, played volleyball and shortly after the meat was on the grill it began to rain hard. Two brave souls battled the downpour to cook the meat while the rest of us sat under a leaky quincho (a grass roof shelter that leaked because it was old).

As soon as the meat was cooked we gave up on the picnic and left for Caaguazú to eat in a dry place. The T-bone steaks and the ribs were just as good anyways