Unexpected Opportunities

Almost a month ago I headed downtown to go pick up my race packet for a run I had registered for. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going having just been told the cross streets of where the race expo was. Street names which meant nothing to me. Even if I had spent 10 minutes pouring over a map and finding the streets (the one map I have of Asuncion doesn’t have anything resembling a street guide, and you need to realize that quite often streets change names as they cross over another major road making it that much more difficult to find a location on a map) I still wouldn’t have known anything about where we were heading besides the physical location. Well, it turns out that the expo was happening at the old train station in the middle of downtown, the train station that I have never before seen open. The train station that housed perhaps four trains (at most) although I think it was closer to two that ran on the one track that cut through Paraguay. (Interesting history this…you can read more although it is all in Spanish)

I was more excited to get to explore the old station with its custom wood line barriers than I was to pick up my race information. The station is a simple, yellow building with the high partly open roof that you would expect of a station. There are only two lines which enter the station so you wouldn’t call it big anywhere but here. However, you can touch a little bit of Paraguayan history in the building. One of the old engines is at an end of the building with very little to keep you from clambering aboard to get a feel for the iron machine. On each of the tracks two cabins sit parked where you can get a feel for the style the rich travelled in. A bar room in each, leather covered seats, the ornateness still limited by the dimensions of any railway car. Down a narrow hallway you can poke your head into some of the sleeper compartments (how far did the train go anyways? From what I can remember they were just short round trip journeys…but perhaps short isn’t ever a good description for a train journey) and check out the light fixtures, the bed and the “facilities.” It definitely makes me feel like I’m being introduced to a piece of a very different past. Touching this piece of Paraguayan history is made all the more interesting because currently there are no trains running in the country (that is right, even the bimonthly steam train trip between Asuncion and Aregua is currently stopped) making one wonder how much business the train station ever saw.