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Published: October 21st 2010
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Well, hello from Saaenz Pena, a place in the middle of the Chaco desert in Argentina. Small enough to not be in the lonely planet guidebooks, but pleasantly like the size of Mount Isa!! Very nice, but's lets get here first....
We left you in Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, after having a few days at Iguassu Falls, we enjoyed the fact we were moving on. And moving into Paraguay. Now, we left at about 9am, and had to drive probably 20km max to get across the border. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as we thought. After we went down closed roads, had to bush-bash across a garden to get where we wanted, and then sit in traffic for about 20mins, we finally made it to the border. We checked out of Brazil (took about 30mins with the truck) and drove across the bridge into Paraguay. What met us was an Asian style reception. ABSOLUTE CHAOS!! there were cars, trucks, motorbikes and people everywhere!! All of them trying to sell duty-free electrical goods!! We finally found the place to be stamped in, and then had to find somewhere to exchange our money. The first place didn't have any, so we had
to walk through the mayhem to another exchange place. Luckily for us, we instantly became VERY rich. We had a few $100,000 Gurani notes, including a few $50,000 and so on!! It was unbelievable. The exchange rate was at $5,000 : $1 US, so was quite nice. But, in saying that, a bottle of coke was about $4,000!! (This is only $1 or so though!! 😊 ) We finally made it past the borders at midday!! And onto a big drive to Asuncion.
On this 4hour drive was our first truck lunch stop. And it was excellent. We had meat, and cheese and salad and coleslaw, breadrolls, fruit, was very much a fancy lunch. We all prepared it, ate, packed up and moved on in about 30mins, which was nice. This meant we got into Asuncion (the capital of Paraguay) at about 6pm. Not before going down an amazingly small back street with wires and trees scrapping over our roof and A LOT of beeping horns and near misses!! We all needed to do laundry, nice of somebody to open up one right next to the hotel we were staying at!! 😊 Got everything washed at about $8US!! 😊 We
all went out to dinner that night at a Spanish restuarant for somebody's birthday in the group which was very nice and very cheap. Had heaps and heaps to eat, and cost about $12 each! 😊 We made our way back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
The next day was a full day in Asuncion. It started off with a sleep-in and talking on Facebook to a few peeps!! (Hey Vee, Sean and Jess!!) Was nice to have a chat!! After that, we missed brekky so made our way into town to grab a quick bite from a recommended bakery and grab some money out. After that, it was on to our city tour for the afternoon. On this tour, we went to a lot of the historical places around Asuncion. Now, we learned a lot about Paraguay, and the history it's had, and it's quite an amazing story. THey have had a very good start, then a very bad period, then an even worse period, and now, they are trying to recover from about 150 years of harsh dictatorship!! It's pretty amazing country. The places we visited are mostly in the photos and i've tried to
First stop was the old train station...
First one in South America and used to be a very busy spot... give a description about them in the photo!! After the tour, we had a quick walk around the town seeing if we could get any amazingly good electronic deals, but nothing really THAT good. We got dressed up and went out for dinner at a nice restuarant with Sam and Greg (a nice young british couple we get along with). When we rocked up, there were about another 10 others from our bus, so we all joined together to enjoy a very flash, but again cheap, meal. After that it was again into bed as we had a 7am leaving time in the morning!!
Today, day 19 of our trip, began with another border crossing. Normally, it doesn't take too long, but again, we were wrong. We left at 7am on the dot, drove through some crazy roads and traffic and got to the border at about 8am. By the time we left Paraguay and had moved back into Argentina, it was now 11am!! On the road we went, stopped for lunch at a very dirty and gross lunch stop (the toilets were, outside was alright), and made our way to Saaenz Pena. No-one had been here before, not even
The main Cathedral in Asuncion
Catholicism is the main religion, and also the emblem of Paraguay. It is on every church in Paraguay!! the guides, so we didn't really know what to expect, but now we are here, everyone is pleseantly surprised. Getting in at about 6pm, we got out some cash to pay for the next few days and then headed out to find somewhere for dinner. Walking the streets was a comfortable feeling, very bright, a lot of people and probably the cleanest streets we've been to!! We found a little pizzeria and had again, probably the best pizza we've had. It was very nice, and after window shopping for a while, are now crashing as we have another big days drive ahead of us before Salta, a party central with loads to do!! 😊 Enjoy!
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Fletcher
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You have to bring one of those home, that is the coolest thing ever!