From ‘Panama City to Rio de Janeiro. Travels through South America’ by Jason Smart

…….Panama City…….not many countries I can think of where you can have jungle one day, mountains the next, a tropical beach the day after that, and then, to end with, a modern city full of skyscrapers………..its the fourth most popular country for US retirees, and in 2012, it was voted the happiest city on Earth…….

Interesting fact: It never rains in Lima.

Interesting fact: Apparently, dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both people are blood donors.

After visiting cities across more than ninety countries, Asuncion had to be close to the bottom.

Paraguay had been through a rough time…Despite being the first South American country to declare independence from Spain, it quickly found itself in the hands of a mad dictator called Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia…….Francia particularly distrusted marriage, to the point where anyone who wanted to be betrothed had to pay a huge tax to the government, and then had to have Francia conduct the wedding himself. These measures usually were enough to put most people off……..he ended up fathering seven illegitimate children in the process, and when one grew up to be a prostitute, Francia declared it a legitimate profession. ……he ordered his own mother killed, fearing that she wanted to usurp his presidency.

….Paraguayan War of 1864.

In that year, the country had battled not one of its neighbours, but three. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay took to arms against their landlocked neighbor over a territory dispute. ……the Paraguayans didn’t stand much of a chance, and were soon losing on every front……by the later stages…..Paraguay was sending its soldiers into battle without weapons. They were expected to take it from the enemy….More than 60% of Paraguay’s population died in the war…..in some parts of the country, the ratio of women to men was 20 to 1.

The Paraguayan police were renowned for their bribe taking and corruption.

The Paraguayan railway system was one of the first in South America…..following the disastrous …war, things went downhill……Today, the country has hardly any trains to speak of, and most of the railway lines have been covered up by vegetation.

Interesting fact: In 1892, Argentina became the first country to use fingerprints to identify criminals.

Interesting fact: Uruguay’s official name is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay.

….Montevideo (translating as: look at the mountains) was a strange name…….because Montevideo didn’t even have any mountains; it only had a small hill overlooking the bay….name originated from the 16^th century when Portugese explorers …..had noticed the hill. One man yelled that he could see a mountain and the name stuck.

……Rio de Janeiro ……..the Tijuca Forest, the largest urban rainforest in the world……….Christ the Redeemer was truly iconic…..the second largest statue of Jesus anywhere in the world (the biggest one is in Poland)……