Villarrica to Asunción – Bus Ride to Asunción

March 26.
My day started with a questionable stomach, I developed a crush on a sweetheart waitress, and we decided to get out of town.  So, we went to check on Gustavo, a rocker who we met last night who was going to try to get his hands on a Paraguay licence plate for me, but his buddy did not come through.  I thought Gustavo was a super cool guy, but Irmante told me that she got a bad vibe from him. I was incapable of communicating with him, and she had to do all of the talking so I am going with her word on this one.

Paraguay is the girl next door.  She is really cute and sweet and as nice as can be, but there is nothing flashy about her.  She would make a good girlfriend, but you will probably get bored of her before long…  And that is also a generalization of all of the girls here.  They are super cute and the gentle way that they talk is heart-warming, but there seems to be a lack of fire in all that sweetness.

We strolled to the park in town to have a look at the capybaras.  They are the largest rodent on the planet and they are basically gerbils the size of wild boars.  Three of them are best buds, just hanging out all day in the park and in the water.  When they get anxious they make a noise similar to the sound of an old fashioned retracting dial phone.  They are wild, but the park capybaras are pretty much pets.

On the $28,000 (Paraguayan guaranie) bus ride to Asunción, our driver would stop to pick up hawkers on the road, who would get on the bus to try to sell chipas or drinks.  They would ride for about a kilometre, and then the bus would drop them back off on the side of the road again.  Our bus driver nearly hit a bull crossing the highway, and at one point he stopped the loaded bus on the side of the road, got out, had a pee in front of the bus, got back on, and we were off again.

Once we arrived in Asunción, we waited for about an hour for a bus to come to take us to the center of town.  When I lost patience our taxi driver told us that there is a strike taking place, and the bus we were waiting for would not run.  It would have been nice to have had some information on that somehow.  We went to a hostel, checked into an 8-bed dorm for $10 U.S. each, and headed out for a proper steak.  We have not eaten like we are anything but street rats for a while, so we splurged.  Beef Wellington is amazing.

We came home at about midnight.  I am sick and a lot of liquid leaks from my nose and eyes and I have sneezing bouts.  I sneezed 10 times in a row.  Irmante told me that seven sneezes is the equivalent of an orgasm.  I told her that made sense because I was exhausted and sweaty.  It was the equivalent of an orgasm and a half.

Asunción is a funny city or beautiful abandoned buildings against the backdrop of the ugliest and most run-down buildings imaginable.  City ‘Ying-Yang.’