18 Stranded
in Paraguay

After 4.5 months of volunteering, the time was ripe to return to the big city. I was eager to pick up programming again and preferably in an environment with other programmers. How many times have you heard me say that I would love to meet those digital nomads? After all those months, the moment had finally arrived and I walked full of courage into the luxurious ZTColiving, located in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. Yes, you heard it right, co-living. A co-working is an office and a co-living, an apartment complex especially for digital nomads with all the facilities and where you can also stay overnight. 'Crazy!' I said to myself when I saw the brand new building. The first 3 days I was everywhere: In the gym, the swimming pool, on the roof terrace with a view of the city and also in my room with a flatscreen and balcony. This was the confirmation that this was what I was hoping for.

In euphoria I looked at the map again and thought how cool it would be to do a similar coliving in another country after this adventure here in Asuncion. If you look at the map, you will see that when you travel from Peru via Bolivia to Paraguay, you only encounter Brazil before you reach the easternmost point of the continent and the Atlantic Ocean. The expat experience now really seemed to take off and in my enthusiasm I already booked a flight to continue this digital nomad experience outside South America. Because well, I had never been there before. It would be a great plan, first on holiday to Brazil and then visit another really cool co-living with surfing opportunities and a beach.

But as the days progressed in this coliving, the hosanna mood diminished somewhat. That was because I discovered that the neighborhood where this coliving was located was not actually the authentic center of Asunción at all, but a luxury neighborhood built far outside the center, intended for wealthy people. People from Paraguay themselves were very aware of that. For example, I went to the dentist who thought I had no less than four cavities, which could be fixed for only 400 dollars. And the receptionist of the co-living had a habit of offering the guests (including me) a taxi, which he then also earned. But apart from the prices, there was also a lack of coziness. There was no local supermarket, greenery or a park. The digital nomads I finally came into contact with, mainly from Italy and Spain, were mostly really cool people, but everyone also lived very individually, partly because the coliving did not organize anything to bring people into contact with each other. It was really focused on convenience so that you hardly had to do anything yourself, so many nomads had lunch and dinner delivered 5 days a week because it was so cheap. And the staff was present in such large numbers that you sometimes had to tell 4 people how your day was before you could go outside. Well you probably guessed it: This was not really something for me. I had made a schedule together with chat GTP that said for example 'breakfast with coliving people', but all in all it did not get off the ground.

You have to try things to find out if it suits you, so all in all a good lesson. But what next? This month was a lot more expensive and I was also a bit scared of the first time that the investment markets seemed to be going down. I had been looking forward to the plans I already had for Brazil and afterwards, and yet I decided to break off the whole plan for now, a big turning point in the trip. I also suddenly realized that I have been living in a different place every month for a year now, and that is why it might be a good idea to live somewhere permanently. At the salsa parties I visited here in Asuncion, I had met nice people who gave me good courage to have a nice time in this city if I stayed a bit longer.

At the end of April I crossed the Argentinian border and immediately returned to Paraguay, which meant that my visa for Paraguay was valid for another 3 months. I ended up in the most local neighborhood, the authentic center where, apart from a lost backpacker, there really is not a tourist to be seen. I have a beautiful large room in a courtyard, so you are not bothered by the chaos on the street at all. The move was a lot of work because the room was still covered in a thick layer of dust and a lot of stuff had to be arranged. My underwear with holes and blunt razors needed replacing. The biggest challenge was probably getting used to living among the locals. I really stand out, and many people sleep on the street here and ask me all kinds of things. For example, when I put the garbage bag away, they ask if they can have a sweater from me. Entire families with babies and small children sit on the sidewalk right in front of the entrance of restaurants and ask for money, or scantily clad young girls who offer their bodies to get money. Sometimes you don't believe what you see. Starting over in a completely strange city brings back memories, because I did that before in Brisbane, where I was allowed to live for a few months. But there I started working in a bar and in no time I had made good friends. Now it is a huge challenge even for me and up to this moment I am not entirely sure how this will turn out.

The difference is big. Sometimes people giggle when I enter a shop somewhere, or they ask me how much I earn. Many people have the image that Europe is the Valhalla and where everyone is rich and happy. I have to be extra vigilant, especially when I walk home in the dark after a day at work. A slum called ‘La Chacarita’, I am really not allowed to go there, and yes then you realize that safety has a certain price. Because on the other hand, my fixed costs now amount to 300 euros, which of course is not a lot of money. I hear a horror story about a backpacker who is out and about and wakes up the next morning in an unknown room with a cut in his stomach. Later it turns out that he has been drugged and that they have stolen his kidney, which they can sell on for a lot of money. It is not that the people in Asuncion are not friendly. On the contrary. I don’t think I’ve ever met such friendly people. A recently retired couple, Enrique and Luz, who I met at salsa lessons, invited me to celebrate Independence Day with their family. Even on the street, everyone wants to chat with you and invite you to come and eat with them. But right now I mainly feel a barrier because you’re ‘different’ and that makes it a bit difficult to feel at home at the moment.

Finally, some work news, because my boss Ramon has indicated that the work for our object recognition website BOX21 will soon stop. Help, what now? Financially speaking, it is of course a good thing that I have made the decision to stay here in Asuncion a bit longer. Now I at least have the time to look for an alternative without it immediately leading to financial worries. It is a great pity that the work will stop, not only because of the income, but also because Ramon is a very nice person to work with. Too bad because it is a reminder of how we built BOX21 together, and how I was allowed to be of more and more significance there, although it remains a shame that I was not able to experience the website actually going ‘online’. BOX21 was the changes in my life that you could read about here in the blogs. Although the disappointment is great, I am also looking forward to new opportunities. Because even though BOX21 is a website that uses a lot of artificial intelligence, the assignments Ramon had me work on mainly revolved around taking care of the appearance of the website, which is of course a shame if you really want to learn more about AI. Fortunately, I did delve deeply into the code, where I was able to learn a lot of basic skills that will of course be invaluable in the search for a new programming adventure.

Even though these seem like turbulent times, I have been living in the center of Asuncion for a month now. I have a gym where I work out three times a week to clear my head and I have a nice dance school where I have finally been reunited with dancing bachata almost a year after leaving Barcelona. Last weekend, our dance school even organized a bachata performance in the city casino. With 8 couples we danced as synchronously as possible to the music Romeo Santos. Then you really come to life, while there are also moments when I feel a bit less enthusiastic and am quite done with being abroad. But Rome wasn’t built in a day and I need to give myself some time to get used to it. I made a weekly schedule that states exactly what I’m doing and when. That works because it means I don’t have to decide every day where I’m going to work or eat, for example. Some workdays I start by reading the Paraguayan newspaper, taking a yoga class or writing in my diary. If you manage to take good care of yourself as a digital nomad, you’ve already come a long way. Even after two years as a digital nomad, I continue to discover what works for me and what doesn’t in this lifestyle. This has made this challenging period a valuable part of my journey, and something I wouldn’t have missed for anything.