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Published: November 20th 2015
Puerto Guijarro to campo grande
The Brazilian border was a real breeze to get through. If only they were all this way. We rode toward campo grande on a largely straight well maintained road which was tinted in the terracotta colour of the clay. We rode along through the pantanal where there were plenty of wildlife signs advising to keep a watch for many different and exotic wild animals.
This area is one of the largest producers of soybeans in the world. Agriculture is huge here with thousands of acres of land cropped and countless cattle.
Campo grande to Ponta Pora, Paraguay
On arriving at Ponta Pora we didn't initially realise we had crossed into Paraguay as there's no visible border to cross. We then found that one side of the road is Brazil and the other is Paraguay. In order to legally enter Paraguay (and to avoid potential trouble at the next border) we looked for the Brazilian office to exit. This we couldn't find but Gerardo took us to the airport which stamped us out of Brazil without any problems!
Next we rode to Paraguay's immigration office to get stamped into Paraguay only to
be told we must have a visa! We didn't have one of these so our next port of call was the Paraguay consulate. Once we got there they explained that as NZ charges a large fee for a visa, Paraguay has reciprocated and so it was to cost us US$100 each for a visa. We went and had our photos taken (ugliest ever!) and dropped them back to the consulate and agreed to come back at 9am to collect our passports (complete with visa).
We spent the night as illegal immigrants in Paraguay and even went out shopping and dined!
The next morning at 9 we were at the consulate as arranged and we waited. And waited. And then finally at around midday we all had our passports (complete with horrendous visa photo) returned to us and we went back to the hotel to collect the patiently waiting Gerardo.
We then rode towards Asuncion which started off very hot. There was some cool scenery and plenty to see in the way of farming and cropping equipment along the way. I thought Trev was going to injure his neck passing some of the farms and tractor/cropping equipment sales
places.
As the day got on it started to rain with thunder and lightening so we slowed up a bit for safety. As the rain cleared we got a stunning red sunset which pictures don't do justice.
We arrived in Asuncion around 9 and Trev's GPS thankfully guided us straight (albeit the 'scenic' route) to our very nice hotel.
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