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...