Encarnación to Villarrica: The Hell Bus and Being Hookers

Encarnación to Villarrica: The Hell Bus and Being Hookers.
March 25.

We were up at 7:30am to catch a bus to Villarrica.  It was a seven hour ride on the oldest roughest bus in all of Paraguay.  We were off the asphalt for most of the journey, driving down a red dirt road of washouts, dust, semi trucks hauling cattle liners, ruts, buses and people standing on the side of the road everywhere to flag down the bus.  It was so rough that the bus was un-sleepable, even on 5 hours of sleep the night before, and bags fell from the overhead storage down onto the passengers below.  It was the roughest ride I have been on since Mike and I went from Kunming, China to the Vietnamese border.  It was terrible.  As we would stop in towns, locals would come onto the bus to try to sell us things, like food and drinks.  Some of those locals were pregnant 13 year olds.  At a stop on the way, I got off the bus for a breather.  The bus driver attendant made me get back on the bus, telling me in Spanish that it was not my stop and that I had gotten off in the wrong town.  I could not respond, so as I climbed back on the bus full of Paraguayans, they were all laughing at me, and smiling at the dumb gringo who almost got off in the wrong time.  Oh, how the whole bus liked that….  It was the most entertaining thing that had happened to most of those people in weeks!

When we hit the asphalt again after about 4 hours of straight dirt, it felt like we had arrived at the road to paradise.  There was an actually layer or red dust on the tops of my shoes.  What a ride…

Paraguayans are not used to tourists, and we are not used to locals who do not try to cheat and scam us at every chance they get.  Irmante and I are not hassled any more than anyone else by hawkers.  When we were at the bus station this morning, I felt bad for the ticket salesman who was just trying to help us find our bus as Irmante and I were not following him of giving him an ounce of respect as he tried to lead us.  It is difficult to not be on your guard all of the time.

Villarrica is a nice colonial town, but it is just a town like Encarnación, and I think I am bored here.  Paraguayans are super nice people, but there does not seem to be a spark here.  We found a homestay hostal, Hostal Colonial, with an old lady who might be crazy, but it is cheap at $60,000 Paraguayan Guaranies, or $15,000/arm as the lady described it.  That is about $3.50 U.S./arm.

We walked around the town, went for dinner at a street bbq, and then we headed to the main square for more beer.  People here love to drive around with their music blasting and make a square and a half around the square.  There was a Metallica concert in Asunción last night so the cars were ether playing cumbia music or else Metallica.  Irmante and I would wave at cars that were playing music that we liked.  Finally, we decided to find our own little street bench to drink beer, away from the crowd where we could interact with cars better in our isolation.  We were essentially being hookers sitting there waiting, in hopes of being picked up.  We wanted locals to get us in their cars and drive us around to show us their town.  Being hookers was an interesting psychological test and it was clear that we were foreigners.  Men in cars would make a circle, and when Irmante and I would make eye contact and wave, they would get shy and would usually not be brave enough to drive past us again.  The only car that stopped and wanted us to get in was with two Paraguayan men, and the driver was so drunk that his eyes were half closed.  I grew up on drinking and driving in my culture at home when I was young, but there was no way we were getting in a car with drunk Paraguayans driving.  But, at least I know the psychological game of being hookers from a distance.  Being hookers was silly fun.  However, I am now not sure if hookers are the predators or the prey…

Mosquitoes have been loving me, very very much.  The itch is nearly unbearable.  Irmants says that I am like a dog full of fleas…