Granados Park Asuncion

... Yum!!!!<br><br>One of the reasons I wanted to come here was that my grandparents moved from Buenos Aires to Asuncion in the 1940´s. So in-between the markets and colonial buildings I found Sanatorio Americano; the hospital where my dad was born almost 60 years ago to the date (Dec 10 1949). Quite incredible....<br><br>Tonight I will take a bus down south to Encarnacíon and cross the border to Posadas in Argentina, more adventures are waiting!!<br><br>Besitos de Paraguay<br><br><br><br>

... and at the end of this week we'll be on our way to the States. I'm really thankful that it wasn't my first travel experience, or else I might not have gone anywhere else aftewards. <br><br>There are certain things in Paraguay that remind me of Costa Rica. Old cars, imported from the first world, are prevalent here just as they were there. In the bathrooms, the faucets only have one handle, for cold water, and in cities the showers have ...

... morning we crossed the border back into argentina to visit iguacu falls, where surprise surprise it was ******* it down and donna fell down the steps off Jack as we were getting off. We had to take this guide Alex, who looked like yuri geller to show us around the place and we bumped into some racoons. As it was very wet, it was very slippy and as donna was recounting her fall story to me I went **** over tit down 6 metal stairs. It was very sore, so sore I forgot to be ...

... We decided to move away from the river/swamp and walked back toward the white building when the guards started blowing their whistles at us so I suggested walking toward a newish building I could just see. We came across some pigs, horses, stray dogs and then I realised we had inadvertently walked into a slum. About which time a man with -no exaggeration- a foot long rusty knife started walking towards us. We sort of walked-sort of bolted up the ...

... see them play. There is some bad news in the league though, as one of the coaches of the other team was recently shot on a bus near Asuncion. He got on the bus carrying 45 million Guaranis (about $9,000!) in a sack and two guys robbed him and shot him. I don't care who you are or where you are, you do not get on any public bus carrying $9,000 in cash in a sack. That is foolish. He had been exchanging Argentine pesos from his "business" at a ...

... the world) back to PY via Chile to raise money for an organization that builds schools in PY. Their web-site: www.bikingtobuildschools.com. It's pretty amazing to me that they are doing these things, as I personally, would never want to ride a bike that far. Anyway, thats the only interesting things going on. I hope you all had great holidays!

... A proper coach then picked us up and took us the rest of the way to Asuncion. It seems the rickety bus is only needed on the dirt road but a normal bus is fine once we returned to tarmac! Thank goodness for that! It was still mega uncomfortable for a whole night's trip though. We arrived in Asuncion at 5am and so had a coffee in the bus station before heading to town to find a hostel. We then spent the morning wandering around looking at ...

... and Finally, there is a big Football match on the horizon (Argentina v Paraguay in a World Cup Qualifier) as it's mentioned all the time on the television (Yes I do have a TV for the first time) and the Paraguay flag can be seen everywhere. Also from now on I'll be in a Spanish speaking countries and I need to loose some of the Portuguese words that I picked up in Brazil e.g. I keep ...

... names on the mission Paraguay list for volunteers. They invited us to join them at the English speaking church service in Asucnion the next day, which we gladly accepted as we knew no one. We arrived at the church and were introduced to everyone, including Ed Brice who we were supposed to contact, but couldnt as our phone ´still wouldnt work. After the ...

... place. (The Srta had instructed the bus driver!) I was met at the Pension by a very nice elderly lady, and I was give a huge bedroom by myself, again. Two double beds in the room, and a nice fan. I found a mezanine in a grocery store that serves food; they weigh the food and sell it by the gram. And sell nice cold beer; the room with the tables has a TV, always tuned to soccer games. Me and the muchachos ...