Can we rent a house in Paraguay? Why is it so hard to find in Villarrica & Independencia? [AED-S01E08]

By Paul Trausner | January 10, 2022

My offer:

Do you want to get your own #Residency in #Paraguay? Get your free #Expat Coaching now:

https://calendly.com/trausner/adventure-is-calling

In the previous episode of the “Adventure Escape Diaries”…

we finally arrived in Paraguay and were able to start our residency process. We were also able to buy a #4×4 #Toyota #Prado and are now on the search for a rental house to stay put for a few months.

In this episode…

Our life now in Paraguay was a lot more relaxed than our stressful times in Mexico. We felt like we had all the time in the world to search for a cozy place, that we can call our home.

We stayed at #HotelParaiso, close to #Villarrica and then moved on to #ColoniaIndependencia. Our search for a #rentalHouse unfortunately was not fruitful but another big surprise came our way.

Alexandra was the lucky one to win a contest organized by #ChristophHeuermann and his crew of the #SYStaatenlos Catamaran in #RioDeJaneiro, #Brazil. But officially the borders between Paraguay and Brazil were still locked. How would we be able to make it across?

Subscribe and see more about that in the next episode!

Ask us your questions about Paraguay and the residency process in the comments!

Or… If you want a 1:1 session, talk to me in your free coaching call to get more information about the residency process.

Read here what happens!

Half a year ago we escaped from Austria, had a stopover in Mexico for a few months and now we seemingly did it, however just before our residency documents for Paraguay would expire, we were able to start the process and already obtained our temporary residency.

Here in Paraguay it was just after the hot summer months. We were equipped with a functional and comfortable car and were now hoping to quiet down our adventures a bit. We felt like we had arrived at the right place. Paraguay is a country so far off other people’s radar, not even a global health scare can change the beauty of its nature and all the friendly and open people. For as long as we didn’t need to “accomplish” anything, or need anything done fast, all was great. We left cities behind and tried our luck with different hotels more in the rural areas.

Hotel Paraiso in Villarrica

Hotel Paraiso gave us some good shelter while we still had a connection to the nearby town Villarrica. (Watch Alexandra’s video in German:Ein Gruß aus Villarrica – Hotel Review – https://youtu.be/Ol3VVud1tLg).

With the best food in town, especially their Filet Mignon, and some interesting stories by the German owners, Steffen and Magali, a week there flew by and we moved further into the “wild”.

Hotel Independencia in Colonia Independencia

Next stop Hotel Independencia. (Check out Alexandra’s video in German “Unser grünes Hotel in der deutschen Kolonie Independencia – https://youtu.be/T7XB8wdzSV8).

Here we found nature’s beauty and some idyllic shelter to discover and meet some friendly people at Colonia Independencia.

What we experienced in the German colony

In the colony, we met Johannes and Lydia and gained the first ideas of how it would feel to buy land in Latin America. One can run a farm or rent out houses and apartments to others. The possibilities are endless.

We got recommendations on where to go off-roading and put our Prado to its first big test with the climb to Salto suizo, a small but cozy waterfall with some places to go hiking. (Alexandra’s video about Salto Suizo – Anreise und Wanderung zum Wasserfall – https://youtu.be/kQzJUAOEcl4)

We met the couple Claudia and Thomas who emigrated to Paraguay from Germany when they were teenagers and are now a family of four, offering different houses for short and long-term rent.

Why has renting become difficult?

With all these promising things in our surroundings we were ready to look for a longer term rental house and settle down for a few months to concentrate on our online coaching businesses. We were looking for a little furnished house with AC and good internet. Ideally a small yard and garden and if possible a pool or access to one, maybe even a gym nearby and everything would be perfect.

We already started looking at different places. (Alexandra’s video in German: Mieten in Villarrica: Was bekommt man für 3 Millionen – https://youtu.be/bZ6QK8qLTjg). It turned out to not be easy to find a place just for a few months though, and additionally most places were unfurnished. Just months earlier lots of houses were available for rent, however due to the newly found human rights violations in Europe and the United States, many people decided to leave the western world. So people made their way to places like Paraguay who make immigration easy and have handled the worldwide pressure to overreact on the flue pandemic with a lot less strict measures. Unfortunately though for us, that meant that rental properties in Paraguay became extremely scarce.

Which area should we rent in?

We wouldn’t give up but felt frustrated with the lack of options. We had to move forward and try different areas of the country. Distances here in Paraguay and all of South America are huge, so we ended up spending many hundreds of miles on road trips in the car.

That’s where we cherish our love for Audiobooks. In combination with the beautiful scenery, an exciting story or an informative non fiction book can be the best companion for long trips. For this we love Audible. Audible is an Audiobook subscription service that gets you one Audiobook per month. Even better, we teamed up with Audible and with the link in the description below you support the Escape Diaries and get your first audiobook FREE of charge. So sign up right now and tell me in the comments what’s your favorite audiobook and when do you like to listen to them?

Get your free Audiobook from Audible with this link – US: https://amzn.to/3Fc8wUm DE: https://amzn.to/3F7PVbL

Our search for a new home however wasn’t fruitful so that meant we had to move to different parts of the country. Not before a big surprise hit us though.

Staatenlos & Christoph Heuermann

Over the past months we had been following the journey of Christoph Heurmann on his Catamaran. He and his crew of the boat “SY Staatenlos” made it form Croatia in the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the coast of Brazil. Christoph is specialized in coaching people in globalized living and tax optimization. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to the small legal individualities of every country. Christoph has almost seen them all and not even worldwide lockdowns can stop him from checking some more countries off his list.

He is clearly a role model for adventurers and that’s why now him and his boat’s captain Josh created a contest on Instagram. Consequently people started posting stories about why they would wanna join the crew of the Catamaran. In the end they would draw two contestants to win one week of sailing for themselves and a partner. Surprisingly the sailing would take place at an Island close to Rio de Janeiro. Additionally included in the trip is a free consultation with Christoph, worth 1000 Euros.

A Staatenlos consultation with Christoph Heuermann

Both Alexandra and me ended up posting some creative stories about why we wanna be part of their crew. Check out both of them in our story archive of both our Instagram channels. As it so happened, the boat’s mascot chicken was gonna pick the two winners…. and Alexandra was one of the lucky ones.

We now were in contact with Josh to organize the sailing trip. He was excited to receive us. We were gonna experience some cool adventures together. It was all supposed to go down by the end of April, in Brazil. So the question was, how were we gonna be able to make it all work? What about our plans? We just had a month or so before we had to leave for Brazil and make it onto the boat.

Riots in Paraguay

We still had to finalize the car documents. However we still had to hear back from our Immigration helper to get our residency permits and ID cards and had no place to stay till leaving. Surprisingly just as we were lucky with the contest, things turned worse when riots hit the streets of Asuncion and the corrupt government was threatening the public with new stricter lockdowns and border closings. Therefore, just when we thought life was going to be better, we had to worry about not being able to leave the country or even leave the house.

We want you to check out the next episode and see how we hustled to further our dreams of freedom.

__________

MENTIONS:

Alexandra’s YouTube Channel
- Ein Gruß aus Villarrica – Hotel Review – https://youtu.be/Ol3VVud1tLg
- Unser grünes Hotel in der deutschen Kolonie Independencia – https://youtu.be/T7XB8wdzSV8
- Salto Suizo – Anreise und Wanderung zum Wasserfall – https://youtu.be/kQzJUAOEcl4
- Mieten in Villarrica: Was bekommt man für 3 Millionen – https://youtu.be/bZ6QK8qLTjg

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Steffen and Magali
- https://www.facebook.com/hotel.paraiso.villarrica
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/249098068460075
Johannes and Lydia
Claudia @claudia_mein_land_paraguay_
Thomas @thomas_mein_land_paraguay
Christoph Heuermann @christoph.today
Josh Ahote @sailstaatenlos

Hey fellow Adventurers,

I’m on a quest to get #PermanentResidency in #SouthAmerica and in my Travel Documentary I show you how to do it yourself. Experience through me the ups and downs of finding a new life #abroad and make your own life into your greatest #HeroesJourney!

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