Slimming Down
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
67
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Asunciòn,
Paraguay
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
Back in the Capital
Asunciòn is a whole lot better the second time around with Fergal and Gary and our new Peace Corps friends. After a very long and sweaty bus ride from Concepción I was back in Asunción and showing the boys around.
We called our new Peace Corps buddies and ended up meeting Brendan, his girlfriend Ryan, Chris and Dave for dinner and then heading off to the Britanico Pub after that. Whilst the boys talked sport for an interminably long time, Ryan and I had a really good chat about living away from home and other things
01 Onward!
. It was great to have girlie talks again!I Just Wanna Eat!
It was fantastic, as Brendan and Ryan knew all the places to go and eat, so I spent a lot of time in their company munching on kebabs (first time since New Years Eve!), burgers, Chinese, milanesas and the creme de la creme, a churrascaria all you can eat barbeque!!!
I spent a lot of time meeting other Peace Corps volunteers, getting all the goss, hanging out in nice airconditioned hotel rooms and drinking terrére (kind of cold tea drunk through a teastrainer like straw and passed around the group) in the plaza. It was great to hang out with them while in Asunción and we are already making plans to catch up in Buenos Aires for New Year. I also learned a lot about American politics and watched the election on TV - although not the result they all wanted.
Chau White Elephants!
Since postage is so cheap I went the hack and shopped, shopped, shopped. Everything from shoes to doilies, clothes to water bottles, I got it all. I then decided to post home things like my sleeping bag which was very useful in the Andes but probably unnecessary from now on, and some clothes I won´t need till home. At the post office it came up as being a shade under 12kg!!!! I almost passed out!!! I had to buy paper and packing tape for them to wrap it up after checking that I wasn´t sending anything naughty, and after it was almost all wrapped up they told me I´d have to pay for 13kg as with packaging it was 12.050kg! Arrgh!! If I had known that before they started on the sticky tape, I would have taken out something like an earring or gloves or something
02 Foto Time
. Deceiving bastards!! Taking advantage of me and my "no entiendo, mas despacio por favor"Anyway, it all got sent home to frighten the life out of my Mum when it gets home, making the grand total about 25kg that I´ve posted home on my trip. I then managed to find very good homes with Brendan and Ryan for my big fat white elephants, first aid kit, book, duct tape, sink plug, door stopper and other assorted things. This also lightened the load about 2kg and now I can even zip away the 10L expansion pocket of my bag and when I hoist it onto my shoulder it almost flies straight over, it is so light!!! More room for shopping in Buenos Aires.....
Things I Learned
* Things are more fun with new friends
* There is now serious damage to my bank account
* It´s a game person who takes a leap of faith onto a moving bus with all their backpacks strapped on and without making eyecontact with the driver and hoping there´s space in the stairwell
