I should mention a few things about Paraguayan street culture - the literal streets, that is:
Local streets (made of red clay and flat rocks, or sometimes paved asphalt) are about as wide as the average American residential street, which means vehicles are often squished within inches of each other.
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| (MJ and Dinko during the CPC team's visit in August - a blurry but accurate depiction of how Paraguayans roll) |
Rules of the road are taken as friendly suggestions, rather than imperatives for ensuring general safety. Instead of "Stop," red lights in Paraguay are interpreted as "Speed Up If There Is No Oncoming Traffic And No Police." And if you want to drive a van with both doors wide open and more passengers than is legally safe, no problem.
Do not make eye contact with other drivers. They will think that 1) you want to race, or 2) you want to flirt. Neither results in anything positive.
Paraguayan drivers are crazy. Like, irrationally crazy. (One time I watched in horror as an impatient truck driver ran over a motorcycle with his bumper, just because the motorcyclist refused to move aside so that the vehicle could make a right turn. Yeah. Crazy.)
After a year of witnessing some strange street behavior, it's safe to say that I've grown accustomed to the way people drive here. It's a miracle I haven't experienced any major transportation-related incidents yet, given the dangerous combination of reckless drivers and absence of law enforcement on the streets...unless you count today, when my bus driver sideswiped another bus while trying to bypass it this morning. I was too surprised to do anything but watch as the driver kept on driving, acting as if nothing had happened. He took a swig of terere from his guampa while he had a random passenger reach out and adjust the bent side-view mirror. And that was that.
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