Blogs from Paraguay, South America - page 13

“I want to see the Delegado,” Miles stated, as a formal statement. “You just did. That was him.” The friendly Federalé continued to steer Miles towards the exit of The Federal Police Headquarters, Rio de Janiero, Brazil. “Remember. Don’t forget. Forty eight hours.” He waved cheerily and pushed Miles out into the esgoto of humanity that was the street. Bade him boa viagem. Dick had spent most of the day alone, in a windowless room, on a plastic chair, under a lightbulb, beside a water cooler. Infrequently the door would open and a variety of men, all obvious police officers, would look at him for longer or shorter intervals, but mainly he had just been sitting. Months, perhaps years before, Miles had overstayed his visa. Now he needed to become legal. In pursuance of such status, ... read more

Things are really heating up here, find myself sweating all the time, in fact I'm sweating right now. It is also bringing out all kinds of beasties, found two cockroaches sunbathing (or dying) in my hallway there are moths everywhere and my feet look like the Andes thanks to all the mosquito bites. For those who were interested in the football update, Libertad won 5-0 to secure the championship. Anyway now on to what I've learnt! Never, ever walk around your kitchen naked in the dark...because you won't see the cockroaches and they won't see you, you will just feel something flapping around your flappy thing. Now that's what I call Kichen Nightmares! I have antidrugsofficerphobia...after getting stopped in customs and grilled by a very red-eyed (possibly smoking his confiscations) anti-drugs officer. Didn't realise how scared ... read more

CONCEPCION DAY 1 After a rough night’s sleep, in our grimmest lodgings so far we set out with the daughting task of crossing boarders overland. Thankfully it seems this can be done with $25, a Spanish to English Dictionary and a willing taxi driver. So after a quick stamp in Brazil and a not so quick one in Paraguay, we’d made it to our second country. The difference of a few hundred meters into each country was vast. Whilst Brazil boasted nice roads, bright shops and top of the range cars, a couple meters down the road was a completely different pictures, with market stalls, horse drawn carts and bump roads. Luckily we arrived at the bus station just in time to board the bus to Concepcion. I use the term bus in the loosest way, ... read more

October 20, 2010 Montevideo If you see a car parked with a bottle on top, it means the car is for sale. Not only in Montevideo, but throughout South America. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay, a country of green, lush meadows seemingly stretching to the end of the world, now and again alternating with gently rolling hills where hundreds of animals, with a surprising number of horses, graze peacefully. Montevideo itself is a sprawling city of only about one-and-a-half million people. For a while we’ve been “holed up” in a curious hostel, “art hostel” is the name with only a ground floor and 1st floor, each 1,5 times the height in more conventional buildings. A beautiful wooden, winding staircase gets you to the first floor with 4 or 5 rooms, some double rooms, some ... read more

Finally, after two weeks of failed plans, Jose and I went camping. We went to Ybicui (or Ybycui) National Park, about 3 hours by car, outside Asunción, if your car survives the amazing obstacle course of random cows in the road, horses and carts trotting along the wrong side of the motorway, moon-crator-sized pot holes and extremely precarious, make-shift, wooden bridges... Such a fun journey! No, seriously, it was a great journey. The scenery is so beautiful on along the road. There are huge expanses of untouched fields and marshland amongst tall hills covered in lush, green vegetation and palm trees. Every now and then there is a small village of maybe fifty or one hundred people living in tiny, but really pretty, little houses. It made me wonder about the life of these people, what ... read more