i envy you zach zamboni. and we're out. nice end. 7 -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com i'm told you are a man who can help me. sometime in mid century, 1850s, my great, great-grandfather immigrated to south america. he was reported to have died here. might have been a seeker of utopian dreams. you know, my aunt used to tell stories he was into arms smuggling, or who knows.

no idea. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪

for most people, paraguay is an empty space on a map of latin america. ♪ a country of only 6 million, where a vast percentage of the land is steaming hot jungle or a huge scrub desert known simply as the chaco. only a few large cities offer a respite from the oppressive heat. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ] >> 1,000 miles upriver from the atlantic ocean sits paraguay's

remote capital city. known largely for being a post-war refuge for fleeing nazis and a long line of extremely unpleasant dictators, this place of all the places in the world is where my great, great, great-grandfather disappeared without explanation sometime in the 1850s. i'm told you are a man who can help me. how do you do? >> you are for the first time in the country? >> first time in paraguay, yes. >> lido bar in asuncion has always been like the switchboard. a gathering place. ladies in orange vests cook and serve old-school, working class food to people from all walks of life.

>> this place is very unique. i've been here for more than 50 years. >> all right. let's get something to eat. i'm hungry. >> okay. >> big envelopes of doe filled withen beef, onion, and hard cooked egg, deep fried to perfection. cattle is the big business of this country, it used to be cattle and smuggling. these days it's still cattle and some smuggling. you see a lot of beef is what i'm saying. mm, oh, that's good. this country is a mystery to most people. what little we know of the country generally comes from nazis and germans hiding in paraguay for war crimes. do you think that's an undeserved reputation? >> i don't think that's fair. pair guy is a nice country. it's a beautiful country. >> pedro is a private investigator. one of the people i sent out looking for the lost bourdain. >> what types of investigations are you called upon to do?

>> normally counterfeiting. >> this is sort of the counterfeiting capital of the world. in the old days it was said that much of this counterfeiting had partners in the government. not so much anymore? >> i rather don't answer that. i'm not a politician. and i live here. so -- >> general alfredo the stroessner was in charge. utilizing an outfit of ss police referred to as the hairy footed ones, he tossed dissidents over the jungle out of a helicopter and the list goes on. under him, one in four cooperated willingly or not, as paid informers on their fellow citizens.

crazy, violent -- >> let me put it this way. things are changing a lot. and now things are getting straight. >> sometime in mid 19th century, 1850s. my great great great grandfather emgrated to south america, first in argentina, but apparently came here. that's really almost all i know for sure. he died by the sword? did he die of old age? did he die of syphilis? i have no idea. i'd like to know. i'd love to find a grave site. that would be great. my father died at 57. higgs forein -- i think in his 20s, i believe. he'll be 58 in june. i think i'm the longest-living male bourdain in possibly ever. >> so you're lonely in the world? >> i am lonely in the world, yes. if i could solve the mystery of the elusive grandfather, it

would make me very happy. by the way, it would be terrific if you found out he owned a huge ranch in the chaco and they're waiting for his relatives to claim his property? [ laughter ] maybe not. i'm trying to make some sense of this country. you've lived here how long? >> i'm since 22 years, too long maybe. what a strange and nice country. >> go to paraguay, find a german to show you around. not so crazy or unrepresentative. people came to this country from everywhere, to as, emerson called it, make their own world. >> i'm tony. >> nice to meet you. >> so what's good to eat here? >> i suppose you want something paraguayan? >> yes.

bife koygua. it's a roast rice with fried beef with egg on top. >> i'm there. good. >> and there is a soup whose name is bori-bori. that's very, very old paraguayan stuff. little corn balls. >> that looks good. that looks very good. >> yeah. >> it's good, man. i'm trying to make some sense of this country. you've lived here how long? >> 22 years. >> why did you come here in the first place? >> i was born in east germany, and east germany means you will never go out. then in '89, the wall break down. and say wow, you will go! >> i haven't seen anything of this country yet, but what i read was the world's backwater filled with bombed-out banks that had been looted. institutions that didn't work. everyone carried a gun. it was like the wild west but poorer. it's not like that any more?

>> a bit of this is true. i by myself got at .45 on my head last week. that's really common for me. >> the rarely do i see the most suicidal group of dictators century after century. >> you are right. even in the strosberg times, the better part of paraguayans was behind it. paraguayans are very, very easy to influence. and this is, i believe, unchanged until a short time ago. now there is a growing middle class, better education than before, and that makes the people say no. ♪ >> how was the soup? >> i liked it, yes.

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>>mine hurt more.. >>mine stopped hurting faster! neosporin plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria neosporin plus pain relief kills the germs. fights the pain. use with band-aid brand. paraguay was a very poor country. the spaniards came because there was a lot of silver in the area. they found nothing, so they lost interest in paraguay. ♪ >> this is the only country in latin america where the indigenous language is the official language.

>> they told me automatically, i'm married to a paraguayan woman and when the fathers come in, they automatically talk in the language, and i'm more or less out. >> a proud society. >> yes. >> francia? >> el supremo. >> he will supremo. gotta love it. in 2011, a leader declared himselfel supremo for life. de franceive a insisted they become a mixed-race society. we are mestizos. they prohibit marriage between whites. >> today 95% of paraguayans are

of mixed spanish and gguarani blood. >> and we usually speak two languages. >> right. >> the central market? >> the biggest one. the most popular one. ♪ >> i'm hungry. >> what's good here? >> we opted for the sopa from the little fish. it's a catfish. and, okay. the saying is that it makes man very powerful. >> ah. >> what's he got over there. that looks good. >> gnocchi and stew. there was a good italian

influence in paraguay, so maybe this stew comes from this side. cologne is from all over the world. >> so you invite them, give them the catfish soup. make their [ muted ] hard, and eat with them. [ laughter ] >> could you pass me the soapa paragua paraguaya, >> the paraguayan soup. >> soup. >> it's very unique. >> our dictator lopez, his favorite soup was corn soup. and one day he ordered his favorite soup and the cook, when he opened the pot, ah, it was a cake. >> paraguay has not been noted for its history of kinder, gentler leaders. one dictator after the other, in the 1800s, two generations of lopez, father and son, one dak ooitd tater after another certainly left their marks on this country. >> lopez was known for putting a wrong stamp on the letter you get shot. the cook didn't want to get shot. he showed up in front of lopez

and said this is paraguayan soup. soapa paraguaya. and the dictator ate it and liked it. and a bit later, the entire country eat it. >> so cheesy cornbread. >> yes. >> awesome. good meal. ♪ >> so this was the house or one of the houses of the notorious madam lynch? >> right, exactly. >> this author has written books on paraguay's history. >> who now who exactly was madam lynch? a murky background, would you say? >> let's talk about that. somebody say he was a great woman, or she was a evil one. >> she came over on the famous trip from france? >> right.

>> in the 1840s, lopez senior reversed many of paraguay's isolationist policies. he invited foreigners to settle here and built one of south america's first railways, its steam engines taken out of service only a few years ago. and he said his son, francisco solano lopez to europe. his mission, his father send him out to get what, to get arms? >> arms and technicians. engineers. and machinery. >> junior, by most contemporary accounts, was an idiot. >> so he came back with a mistress, madam lynch. >> yes. >> which dad wasn't too happy about. >> right. ♪ >> he was very traditional, and wanted his son to marry a paraguayan woman and do everything by the book. >> right.

>> paraguay's soon to be first mistress, madam eliza lynch was the already married daughter of a irish doctor, ambitious, social climbing, fond of nice things. >> those from france say she brought to paraguay the first piano. and there were parties here. ♪ >> he showed madam lynch to his father, and his father was upset. so she was put aside. >> and kept as a mistress? >> and that was the way paraguayan society tried to treat her. and she wanted to be treated as the -- >> princess? >> yes. >> tell me about madam lynch's famous boat trip. on one of her more notorious ventures as hostess, she

organized an outing to the new french colony. at neuvo bordeaux. she wanted all of society to join her? >> right. >> magnificent steamer was engaged for the party. >> there were ladies and madam lynch. >> once on board, as the story goes, those mean bitches treated their hostess like so much trash. >> so she got upset and threw off board all of the food that was, they were supposed to eat. >> she had it all thrown in the river? >> yes. [ laughter ] >> then she ordered the captain to stop the boat and let her guests just sit there in that jungle heat for hours. >> throwing tubs of caviar, whole roasted pigs into the river in front of these starving aristocrats, somehow that pleases me. ♪ if your purse is starting to look more like a tissue box...

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going back to the very beginning, various groups with stars in their eyes came here seeking to create a utopia along ideological lines.

off mennonite paradise. we populate north america with british, italians, everybody. >> it started with the jesuit colonies. >> the new bordeaux. i had a great, great, great grandfather come over to paraguay around the 1850s. >> right. >> might have been, himself, a seeker of some kind of utopian dreams. >> they were originally from france? >> from france, yes. >> what city, do you know? >> my great, great, great-grandfather was from near bordeaux. so i'm curious about this whole episode about the settlement of new bordeaux. ♪

♪ >> the paraguay river, still as it was 150 years ago, the country's main artery, a thoroughfare for transporting people and goods. ♪ >> so who lives out there? >> all the people we see fishing on river banks, are they fishing for dinner? >> most of them are fishing for dinner. call them poor people, but what is poor? they decide for themselves to live here. they could go to the city and start working on a construction place tomorrow. >> he has organized a trip upriver to see new bordeaux, what was hoped to be a new france in the chaco.

>> fish we bought today, 14 kilo. >> right. >> that's half a month's salary, and you get with bit of good luck in one night. >> right. ♪ >> outside of the cities, paraguay is sparsely populated. indigenous groups, a few settled europeans, mennonites, germans, and every so often, a fishing lure and shotgun salesman. what are the shotguns for? bandits? varmints?

>> to hunt deer and water pig, capybara. >> that's a peacemaker. any rogue nazis we could shoot? i am tempted by the offer of a cheap shotgun for sale, but reason wins out. i don't think we are going to buy a shotgun today. me, beer, shotgun, hot sunny day, a producer? that's not a good mix. ♪ >> unlike madam lynch's guests, i'm making damn sure i'm eating on this boat trip. ah, the most important part of any meal, cold, frosty beverages. >> you already had one. >> i started early. here. cheers.

oh, here we go. thank you. little fish in a mango salsa. >> you have the two most appreciated fish on the table here of paraguay. that's the catfish. surubi. >> and that? that's the dorado. >> oh, the dorado. of course. oh, that's tasty. that's nice. so i'm curious about this whole episode of the settlement of new bordeaux. >> it came about 400 people. they were supposed to be about 1,000. they were supposed to be most of them farmers. but just 86 why farmers. >> who were the other people? >> they were tailors, shoemakers, musicians. teachers and artists, and they were put in the jungle and left

by themselves. >> why here of all the places in the world? people talk about the chaco as hell. i mean, it's hot here. it's dry. it's wet. it's fetid. if's difficult. >> mosquitoes. and you have all the ticks and vermin. >> a flatland of cactus and thorns and misery and cannibals. >> there were the indians coming down the river and killing everybody. there was the langua who if you entered the country, you are good food. >> did the paraguayans ever see this as a utopia? >> no. i'm sure not. what we have ahead is new bordeaux. >> that? >> this. >> wow. that's kind of not how i

pictured it. doesn't look like bordeaux to me. ♪ >> there's nothing much left of new bordeaux. i'm told a small museum of artifacts. the site where the colony once briefly existed is now called something else. >> there were given money for each settler. >> perhaps there was a communication break down somewhere, and he might have told the paraguayans, i'm bringing the finest farmers france has to offer and he might have told these french men, you'll get free property, you don't have to do anything, live like kings. it's a land, just reach up into the trees and fruit and gold bars are dropping? [ dogs barking ]

>> in fact, there was thrown out in the cold and say here you are. that's your land. go ahead. >> these poor french guys show up. >> right. >> lopez senior, and the government kept their side of the bargain. >> yes. >> they provided them with houses, equipment. >> tools and animals and everything. >> my aunt used to have one of these, made pressed sandwiches i think. okay, that's it. dig, grow. the settlers quickly discovered that farming is hard work and that the conditions in the chaco in new way resembled the france of their dreams. >> it broke, and they decided to leave the colony. >> how many french were left at the end of the new bordeaux experiment?

did any stay? >> some of them, but few. >> all right. any thoughts or hopes that my great, great, great-grandfather ended his life here leaving me a vast, unclaimed stake in what is now prime cattle country turns quickly to dust. ♪ oh, look. we have a bunch of...

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♪ so, you guys have some information perhaps on my elusive great, great, great-grandfather? >> mm-hm? >> yeah. i don't know what he did here. i'm hoping for something extremely glamorous, a river pirate, gun runner, drug smuggler. maybe he died in the saddle.

maybe he died happy. maybe he lived out in the bush, surrounded by adoring indigenous women. i don't know. maybe he was an masseur for madam lynch. i guess i'll be let down. >> i contacted with other historians and genealogists, and the history of your family is very interesting. >> oh, really? >> yeah. >> okay. interesting. >> your family, your grandfather, jean bourdain came to montevideo. following the son. >> the facts as i know them so far, i think are this. my great, great, great granddad, his son came to uruguay to live with his uncle. >> 1850, john bourdain moves. to asuncion. >> this is the document we have showing him arriving. >> there he is.

>> at that time he works with a -- >> with a hat maker. >> he was a hat maker. >> hat maker? i'm pretty sure he said hat maker, which i have to say disappoints me a lot. the whole elusive wing of mysterious south american bourdains were project red carpets of their day? >> madam lynch was fond of things like french couture? >> yes. and that changed the way of dress. >> madam lynch might have been good for business. i tried to put this in a light i can be enthusiastic about, like how clearly forward-thinking my relatives were. his customers were a hat maker, the very people that treated madam lynch with utter contempt, did they live in the old colonial homes, the mansions we see still?

>> yes. >> times were changing in south america too, in those days. society ladies craved the latest in french fashion. there was money to be made. ah, i'm bummed. >> after this episode with the new bordeaux group came a triple alliance war. >> he died in 1858. >> yes. it was a good time to die, because this way he didn't have to join this horrible war. >> he missed the war? >> yes. the old lopez died. the young lopez got in power. >> our man becomes president? >> yes, francisco lopez. >> absolutely the most maniacal, megalomaniacal. piss pot dictator. >> you are right. >> he was unkind to his

siblings. >> his two brothers were tortured and killed. his sisters were jailed in tiger cages. >> tiger cages. >> tiger cages. and the mother was given some beating. 50, 60 -- >> the 60 year old mother was flogged and beaten in front of him. not a nice man. >> it was believed he had a chance to be married with the daughter of the emperor of brazil. >> he was refused in very unflattering terms. thanks to lopez jr.'s expansionist ambitions he dragged paraguay into the triple alliance war. he essentially challenged all three neighbors -- >> brazil, argentina and uruguay -- >> to war. this doesn't seem like a good idea. >> yeah. >> in what would become the bloodiest war in latin america's history, hundreds of thousands of paraguayans died. when lopez ran out of adults, he sent children into the field dressed only in rags, armed with sticks painted to look like

guns. >> my great grandfather was a 10-year-old boy, and he was dressed like a girl because otherwise he was going to be enrolled in the army. >> lopez was hunted down, but madam lynch survived? >> yes, she survived. >> with her money? she was allowed to keep her possessions? >> yes. >> in history, it's hard to find a more disastrous or more cruel or pointless campaign, it would seem. >> when all was said and done, as much as 60% of the population and 90% of the men of this country were dead.

>> survivors were just like 50 or 40,000 people. so that's why you could easily understand why there was nothing here for 100 years. ♪ >> jean bourdain dies here? >> yes. before the alliance war. >> an adult natural of france by the name of juan bourdain. >> cause of death? >> not specified here. >> is there a grave site? >> we're looking. >> we are looking for. ♪

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♪

so i'm hungry. i'm really hungry. >> you know you want it. it's late, you've had a few. now you've had a lot. you want something greasy, savory, juicy, and nasty. >> this is it. the legendary lovito. >> that's right. that's what the people eat in the streets. >> an egg, a little runny, please. some kind of meat like beef patty thing. throw on your lettuce and tomato. two sauces, i don't know what they are. i frankly don't care. soy sauce, too. of course, because, yes. layer it like the ruins of ancient troy. egg on top of cheese on top of meat. now get in my stomach now!

mm. sandwich is awesome. >> awesome good? >> good awesome. all my greasy meat dreams have come true. that's good. and at the last minute, the last thing i give a steaming loaf about anymore is my long-dead relatives. i mean, i'm over it. here comes news of the big breakthrough. >> i talked with the historian, and he said it looks like your great-grandfather, what he was merchandising, it was definitely not hats. >> really? >> we have here jean bourdain. and what is he bringing? 200 boxes of fireworks. >> fireworks? >> fireworks. >> like firecrackers? >> there is not even more than 200 or 300 wealthy families who sometimes in the birthday would crack a little bit. >> uh-huh.

so are you suggesting something untoward? >> weapons. >> weapons. >> yeah. >> he was a merchant of death? awesome. my aunt always said he was a gun runner. we figured she was full of shit. she also said she was in the resistance, but everybody in france said that. >> arms. so was he ever a hat maker? was this a cover job? was he a hat maker/arms? are all these historians on the money here? was great, great, great grampy an arms dealer? what hat maker needs 200 pounds of gunpowder. i've got you now jean bourdain. i've got you now. or was he simply a party supplier selling fine french hats and little fire crackers to

school kids. i don't know what to believe anymore. >> and in 1858, unfortunately, he died. >> right. >> and he was buried here, two miles from here. the rich people's cemetery. >> yeah. >> we can pretty well say on which area. he remains. he is there. >> wow. well, i guess we'll have to go look, huh? >> definitely, yeah. ♪ yone needs protein, every day. there are more than 20,000 different proteins in the human body. they fuel our energy, support our metabolism, amplify our performance and recovery. they're essential for good health. your body's best source for protein? gnc. now get the world's best protein formulas at an astounding price.

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♪ sorry, little buddy, there's no escaping, paraguay loves their beef. perfect ratio, lot of meat, little bit of vegetables. perfect. whoa, that's good. this is a sprawling ranch bigger than some of the countries i've traveled to, and it's been in the family going all the way back to the triple alliance war. hard life? good life? >> we are pretty happy here. we have everything. >> 20 years ago, the chaco was not huge.

and the last years it's booming. >> where is the boom come from? >> we are the second biggest soybean exporter, the eighth biggest cattle exporter, we feed the world for eight days a year. >> how many acres? >> 100,000. >> 100,000 hectares. >> barbecue has to be included. >> assado. chore easo, moizo, eat this all day. and i will. >> barbecue, you are complete. ♪ ♪

>> mm. that's awesome. so were there a lot of vegetarians in this part of paraguay? [ laughter ] >> here comes the, what for the paraguayans is the highlight. >> look at that. pretty. beef short ribs are amazing. mm. so good. ♪ >> all of the books i read about paraguay are maybe 15 years old, and like the first says everybody has a gun, buy a gun. [ laughter ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> this was not the paraguay i expected. at all. >> please, we want to sing a song for you.

>> a welcome song to the foreign people. >> yeah. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ] >> it says, welcome stranger. it says welcome brother stranger. ♪ >> the jean bourdain who died here was my great, great, great-grandfather. >> yes. >> this old cemetery. >> it seems most likely that he was buried there.

♪ nobody i know. >> it's very, very likely that the tomb was just overbuilt. >> right. >> something on top. ♪ [ singing in foreign language ] ♪

breaking news from the middle east this hour. france launched air strikes against isis targets inside syria. plus, the people's pope in the city of brotherly love. pope francis challenges americans to live up to their nation's ideals. and in the pacific, a monster typhoon is churning gaining strength and stoet make landfall in the coming hours. we'll have more information on the path of the storm. from cnn in atlanta, i am george howell. this is cnn newsroom. good day to you. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the rl