Aspen Apart Hotel Asuncion

... into a 7+ hour drive in the rain but I didn´t really mind. I got a fabulous seat in the very front upstairs of the bus with a panoramic view of the surroundings. Arriving in Asunción around sunset is spectacular and makes the colonial buildings glow in the last golden rays of the late afternoon.<br><br>The city vas very alive and it seemed like every Paraguayan is headed for the football stadium to watch their team play against Brazil in Copa Americana. Did I mention that the ...

... quid for a nail file, which I would later lose and then find the one it had initially replaced). Shopping over for the day I went to help clean the truck out on the QT as a row was about to develop over no eejit volunteering. Having sweated buckets, I greased up for a tan on the roof only to realise my timings were all wrong and in fact the bloody great big building in front was going to my blocking our hotel for the rest of the day, so off&#8217;s I go to my room to ...

... we had a prayer-walk on the land of a future church site. Then they took us to their current location where Tina gave her testimony as it was translated into three different languages. We helped them with arts and crafts and spent the evening fellowshipping with them. Ray told us he really thought this was important because it showed the people that we thought enough of them to travel across the world to just come spend time with them.

... to take the keys of her house and take a bus there. Considering my previous bus experience I decided to wait until she was finished. After class went to have a Paraguayan hamburger and went to bed early. The next day Shirley was teaching again, so I decided to go to visit the city centre. I got into a similar bus challenge as the last day, but I managed to arrive in the city where I spent the day walking around. There was not that much to ...

... square but due to it being Good Friday the place was totally deserted. There was not a single person in sight, except, (and this was the second even bigger shock for us) the people living in the Plaza. There were camps set up with people living under sheets of plastic and washing and drying their clothes in the main square. We knew Paraguay was meant to be poor but this really did come as a surprise. Seeing as nothing was open and still digesting what we had managed to see, we ...

... days have not been too terribly exciting. Wednesday was another girl in my training group's birthday and we went out after class here in town. I got home back out in the country at about 9 and found my host dad sitting up in the living room with his pistol. Two well known thieves had apparently been spotted in the neighborhood that night, and everyone was on the alert. Everyone knows who the thieves are around our area, or rather who are the ...

Knowing I would be in Asuncion for the BCS National Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma. The one thing I made sure of was to stay in a nice hotel with cable TV. I arrived the evening before the game and immediately checked the TV upon entering the room for the sports channels. I felt a bit of relief knowing they had ESPN, ESPN Plus, and FOX Sports and that one of them should be showing the game. Since the game wouldn't start until ...

... was ok. Just outside the cinema there was a burger place where a kids party was in full swing. One of the staff memebers had all the kids gathered round and counted down to zero before lobbing a bucket of sweets on the floor. The kids were all over the floor of the shopping centre (not the cleanest) scrambling like crazy as if their lives depended on how many sweets they gathered. It was all over in seconds and not one sweety survived ...

... tensions in Bolivia, the PC volunteers there have been consolidated. There is no word yet what will happen, but they are ready to evacuate if necessary. Rumor has it some of them would be evacuated into Paraguay. I feel really bad for them. I can't imagine what it would be like to have my service ended because of circumstances completely out of my control. It would be really hard to have to suddenly pack up and leave my community with out being ...

We are leaving Brazil this afternoon for a brief excursion into Paraguay. According to our guide, Alvaro, Asuncion the capital is boring! I´m sure it is not. We are only there for a day anyway! Another 6 hour bus trip looms. I am wondering about the seating arrangements. We have an ...