Christina Goes to Paraguay! Amazing Race Back? (Part 4)

Amazing Race Part 2 of Christina coming to Paraguay Part 4 ( I know getting complicated, forgive me)

Thought you were done? Think again.

Your challenge (By the way we're not telling you about it): Cross back into Paraguay and make it back to Asuncion by midnight)
So the original plan was to spend one full early morning to late afternoon in the part. Such a day would give us plenty of time to cover the entire part. However, after arriving so late the first night after a relatively epic journey, we did not really want to wake up so early. So instead we planned for 2 days in the park, a lazy afternoon and an early morning the next day to head back to Paraguay to celebrate the New Year the night of the 31st of December and into the 1st.

The following is what occurred the day of the 31st and into the early morning hours of the first.

10ish AM:
Wake up at and head to the park. Consider eating lunch at a restaurant but decide against it because of possible time constraint. (A very important choice...)

1:30ish:
Have a wonderful day getting soaked on a boat (reference last vacation article for pictures)

2:40ish:
Leave park to hit up the hotel and return to Paraguay. Assuming we take a good bus, trip should take 5-6 hours with supposedly last buses crossing the boarder in Paraguay at 5. Plenty of time to cross the border and get on a bus to arrive in Asuncion around 10 PM.

Felt like this guy.

3:10ish:
Hotel tell us that the bus station should have buses crossing the border every hour on the half hour. Cutting it close but should be fine.

3:30ish:
Arrive at the bus terminal and get told the next bus to the border leaves at 4:45.

 Okay... that's late but the bus should cross into Paraguay at about 5:20 and there should be plenty of buses until night time.

3:35ish:
Get told that its New Year's eve and the bus terminal in Ciudad De Este will close like every other bus station at 5.

3:36ish: Realize we might get stuck in Argentina after booking a 5 star hotel in the center of Asuncion to celebrate New Years...

3:37ish:

3:39:
Try to bribe the bus dude to run an extra bus across the border earlier... fail.

3:42:
Jump in a taxi and race to the docks to see if the last ferry to cross the border has already left.

3:50:
Arrive at the dock to find that the ferry shut down at noon for the holiday... fail.

4:00:
Arrive back at the terminal without any idea what to do.

4:05:
Talk to the bus company to call the terminal in Paraguay and ask if they are still open.

4:08:
Stare at the dude with hopeful eyes as he finally reaches someone at the terminal. He explains that the last bus at the terminal in CDE is scheduled to leave at 5:00.


4:10:
Sweaty, exhausted, resigned, sadness.

When there is nothing left to try.

4:30:
Ask bus dude to call Paraguay and see what are the chances that there might be a bus left. Bus dude talks for a bit and says there is a chance that there will be a bus or two waiting for the last passengers to Asuncion and the bus will be fast to try to make it into Asuncion before the new year.

Maybe!

4:40:
Decide to go for it and board the bus to cross the border. Our conversation went something like this:

RiSo "I want to try, we have come so far, we made it last time. I want to be at our awesome hotel on New Years. Lets do it. I know you might not want to do it and we have already rushed around so much. It would be easier to stay and I know you have already been through a lot so..."

Christina "I'm down."

RiSo "Wow that was easier than I thought. You are so cool babe."

5:20:

 Cross the border with nothing but hope and determination in our souls.

5:50:
Arrive at the CDE terminal to find 1 solitary bus that was apparently waiting for us because someone called ahead. The bus is going to Asuncion direct. With the goal of getting there before midnight.

7:00:

Current progress way too slow dropping off people to get into Asuncion by midnight... oh well at least we will get there.

8:00:

SO $%^&#$% HOT!!! DEATH BUS.

11:00:

Blazing down the highway with no more stops... I realize we are getting really close. Maybe...

In one of these.

11:49:

Get off the bus. The terminal is practically abandoned. We grab the one taxi waiting (really lucky) and tell him to try to get us to our hotel before midnight. 

11:57:

Arrive in front of the Guarani pay the man his fare and a new years tip.

11:59:

Collapse on the floor in the middle of the lobby of the Guarani Hotel.

12:07:

Arrive in our room with a great view of the city skyline with fireworks going off (to be fair the skyline of Asuncion is not that impressive and all the fireworks are private but we did it. We were there before midnight. Got to kiss at midnight in the comfort of the hotel lobby and to us, watching the fireworks in the night sky from our fancy hotel room was was epic reward for our trip. 

Thanks for sticking with it all Christina. I really didn't know if we would make it. There was a good chance we wouldn't. You are such a great trooper and girlfriend!

How I tell this story...

21st Birthday Party - Paraguayan

In America you might expect a girl's 21st birthday party to follow a basic timeline:

8:00 Get pretty.

9:00 Go to a bar, tiara optional.

10:00 Accidentally drink shots

11:30 Club.

\

4:00 Sleep.

In Paraguay...

8:00 Invite guests start drinking

10:00  Still drinking

10:30 Invite guests to eat.

11:00 Mariachi

And cake.

11:30 to 4:00 cake. beer and mariachi

4:00 Sleep.

Good plans bro.

The Power of Paraguayan Bureaucracy

Every country has bureaucracy so I'm not singling out Paraguay here. The pedido system of asking for help from the local government for small community projects is actually pretty straight forward. You create a commission, use a special notebook and write your group's purpose, who is in it and what you plan to do. Then you get a copy of everyone's identification and go and get the "Acta" approved and your commission officially recognized. After that you write up another document asking for the money for your project. This document must justify the project and lay out the costs. Your president, secretary and treasurer also need to sign the document. Then you turn that document in. Eventually you get the money or some portion of it. All in all not so bad.


TODAY, however, was obnoxiously horrendous. It was the culmination of...

 You see it is the new year which means that I was probably going to need to renew the documentation of the commissions.  I knew this, so when I went to the gobernacion to see if I could formally turn in the requests for funding for various projects, I made sure to ask about the need renew my documents. The secretary downstairs said that it might not be necessary. Upon meeting with the governor himself he said it was necessary. I would have to go back to my municipality, renew the commission there, then return to the gobernacion where the commission would be renewed for the gobernacion request and then we could ask for money. At this point I asked whether I would have to regather all my documents, get new copies of things or remake new documents. I was pretty sure I would need to. He assured me that all I needed to do was bring the old documents to the municipality and they would renew them.

You gotta love it when the gobernacion reassures you that you don't need new documents to renew your commission status for the new year. You don't believe them and ask them again. The governor himself tells you its all good. You then ride your bike to the ruta take a bus to the muni town and get told you need all new documents.... I ____ this country.

Christina Goes to Paraguay! Iguasu Falls (Part 3)

 Iguasu Falls

We crossed into Argentina to visit Iguasu Falls, one of the natural wonders of the world and among the largest water falls on the planet. Iguasu is the widest high falling water fall and has a record of 452,000 cubic feet of water falling over its edge per second. That is like 3,380,960 gallon milk jugs being poured out every second.

Or 5.12 Olympic swimming pools emptied per second. (50m by 25m by 2m holding 660,430 gallons each). 

5 of these.

Hella water per second.

To be fair, the average for a year is only 461,217 gallons falling per second or 70% of 1 Olympic pool per second. 

Still a lot of water.

Iguasu was featured on the Planet Earth program and it was indeed truly impressive. The falls are high enough to create a mist cloud that rises as high as 150 meters and allows for the creation of many rainbows.

Double rainbow guy.

Double rainbow Iguasu

We spent 2 days at the park, exploring the water falls, the nature. Here are some of many photos. 

And, thanks to Christina's suggestion, we got to get soaked under some of the smaller falls. (You can pay to be taken in a boat to get closer to the falls and experience some of its wetness. It was awesome and totally worth it.

On boat

Looks like in nervous but really just biting skin off dry lips

Excitement face?

Yup, going under that.

YAY!!

Soaked after boat ride.

Then there were these guys.

My own picture

The park was also teeming with these Coati. Unafraid of humans after decades of tourism, they boldly loiter around the food vendors and walking tourists, clawing at bags and snatching up anything edible.

Kinda like huge cute Meerkats... that can maim you.

The park warns tourists not to feed or play with the Coati because of sharp teeth and claws but people feed them all the time.

GIVE US YOUR FOOD FILTHY HUMANS.

Its only a matter of time...

Look cute. When he opens the window, bite his head off. 

We passed our nights at touristy nice restaurants where great food, especially beef, was sooo cheap. Meat plates that would have cost us 40 dollars in the US were usually under 20. We took advantage. 

To pass the time we also played the Whose Line is it Anyway game,“film dub” except with other table's conversations. There were couples on dates, beautiful young women with unattractive older men, a peculiar business man who ate alone.

Now role play "I'm old, ugly and rich, you're hot, young and poor."

 It was fun. After a dip in the Iguasu waters it was back to Paraguay to finish off the vacation in the capital of Asuncion and the epic 5 star and historic Hotel Guarani.