Paraguay

Asuncion
It’s funny how things work out, Paraguay was on the bottom of the list but here we are. The border crossing into Paraguay was the same old, nothing new or difficult about it despite all the warnings. Asuncion lies about 50kms from the border on the east shore of the Rio Paraguay. It’s a huge city, with rich and poor living side by side, mansions and shanty towns in the same neighbourhoods, and Mercedes and horse drawn carts sharing the same streets. About 5kms from the centre is the botanical gardens where they have camping, so needless to say that is where we stayed. It’s a beautiful park and was only four dollars a night. Although every local seemed to think we were crazy for staying in the “dangerous gardens”. From the gardens we took the bus into town to meet the Swiss guys. They were working in one of the most upscale neighbourhoods in Asuncion at a very western shopping mall. We had only been in contact with Patrick so we were surprised to meet Lukas his friend and work mate. For some reason we both thought we were selling the van to a couple. Our hearts sank knowing we were actually getting rid of our van and Karen was upset that it was going to be a “dude” van. We all went back to the campground and showed the boys the van. After showing her off and telling them every little detail about our baby, we went for a short test drive and then back to the mall to make an internet money transfer. They loved her!! Wow, it all happened so quickly and now we just had to wait for the money to come through. We kept the van while waiting for the money and stayed at the botanical gardens relishing our last nights in Patience. The first two nights and days we hid out in the van because it was pouring rain. Then on our third night we got fellow campers in the gardens!! Two Argentinean families moved in and kept us entertained with stories and taught us how to prepare mate the “official” way. They also insisted on feeding us and including us in one of the son’s 13th birthday party. We spent a few days wandering the city of Asuncion and it’s “zona roja” which is a strange area on the Rio Paraguay where the city’s slums back onto giant palaces and people permanently live in the plazas where giant office buildings are located. What a bizarre contrast! Since the transaction was done on Friday evening we ended up waiting until Tuesday before the cash was in Pete’s account. We then had to deal with the paper work and vehicle transfer forms. The guys had a contact for a public notary who said he could do it but when we paid him a visit, it was a different story. He sent us down the street to see a friend of his, who could only write a letter saying that Pete allowed the guys to drive the van but not transferring the ownership. The notary told us that they would have to visit the consulate of every country they would be visiting to cross the borders without any problems. They decided to at least get the letter stating they had Pete’s permission to drive the van in Paraguay and then since there was no legal way of doing the paper work we decided to fake them. Using the computer they changed names and licence numbers on the registration papers and then printed them out. They looked great, no South American police or border officials will know the difference, hahaha. We spent the night at a four star hotel and the boys took off for the border. We wished them luck and told them to call us if they had any problems checking the van out of Paraguay or importing it into Argentina. We almost died when we heard the phone ring, maybe the paperwork didn’t work. But when Karen answered we found out that everything was cool except that they needed insurance to enter Argentina. So we told them to try our insurance with Pete’s name on it and after they showed every piece of paperwork to the border official, he told them to move on and not to come back. Yeah!!!!! It’s all done. So we celebrated with two ice cold litres of Stella Artois and chilled in our two bedroom, two bath pad. The following morning after an amazing breakfast buffet we were off to Iguazu Falls. After a six hour bus ride we arrived in Ciudad del Este, where we changed buses. From here we waited for the last bus to Puerto Iguazu. Back to Argentina!!!

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