Travel: Live Cattle Auction in Paraguay

I come from the land of beef.  Born and raised in Paraguay, beef is to me what fish is to the Japanese.  I have been back in Paraguay for 4 days and have had beef for every meal except breakfast.  It might not be healthy but it sure is tasty! On Tuesday I went to a live cattle auction for the first time.  Being the daughter of a cattle rancher it is surprising that it took me this long to get there, but I finally made it, at the ripe old age of 30.  There are apparently two types of auctions, the simple kind which is patronised by butchers for the purpose of buying livestock to turn into meat, and the more sophisticated kind which is patronised by Estancieros (cattle rancher in Spanish) to buy prize bulls, or cows for breeding purposes.  I went to the simple kind.  It was me and the butchers, at the beginning of the food processing chain. If you are a vegetarian or somebody who believes (and are happy with the belief) that food comes from a can maybe skip this blog entry.