So we cleaned up our villa, got in the van with Juan at 9 am. We pulled out after many waves, more good byes & some honking. Juan took us to the bus station & though we were there an hour early because we wanted to make sure we didn't miss the bus, Juan insisted on staying til we loaded. Rog & he ended up having a great time conversing via translator. Juan eventually downloaded the app so he could practice using it himself. He's anxious to learn to speak English more fluently. Turns out his wife (whom I helped in the kitchen on Sunday) has a 3X black belt & has won many competitions. A nice bus arrived on time. Rog had us in (clean) window seats on the shady side of the bus. Always a good planner. So with our trusty collapsable cooler (that we got for our Hawaiian breakfast on the beach long ago) stocked with cheese, ham, bread, water & Coke Zero we were off for a pleasant 6 hour bus trip. I love window views: huge fields of corn & soybeans, pastures with cattle, road work, small vendors, jugglers 2 intersections, kids playing in small pools, too much trash, lots of bars on windows & barb wire, police stops, poor & nice housing and mass plantings of both rubber & eucalyptus trees…but no kookaburras!
We got off the bus in Concordia & caught an Uber to our hotel & soon were in a pool…not the clearest but it felt great. we found a hamburger spot later &since we could, watched an English speaking movie in our air conditioned room with no mosquitoes. Next morning, our host brought us a basket of fresh breakfast rolls & we had coffee & hot chocolate mix. Our first place to check out was the Museum of Anthropology & Nat'l Science. Huge skeleton display of a deodicurus (picture of huge turtle) and a giant sloth. We found a pizza for lunch & picked up some food to replenish our supply for our trip tomorrow. The afternoon heat made jumping in the pool very inviting. Around 3 we headed to see Castillo San Carlos. A bit overrated. Supposedly the man who wrote The Little Prince got many of his ideas here after he had made an emergency landing on the immense castle grounds & befriended the family. It was extremely hot! The park thermometer read 45C (that's 113F)11. Quite amazingly, there was a small stand nearby where we got cold drinks & miracle of miracles…a chocolate crepe! MMMMmmm. Also almost as good as the crepe…there was a hose with dripping water hanging over the pergola. We both soaked ourselves …several times. Felt soo good. We slowly walked back to the road where we called for an Uber. One more swim & then early to bed cause we had to be up at 2:30am to catch a bus. It was a nice bus so we easily fell to sleep & woke up to see the gorgeous sunrise & got off in Paso de Los Libres. Brazil is right across the river. A taxi took us to our hotel which we'd rented for 2 days (only $30 ea) so we could check in right away. Basic but clean & cool. Rested a while & then went to check out this town. Lots of nice stores, some rough areas but mostly okay. We couldn't find any restaurants open so we had to settle for a hamburger at a gas station. We were hot & tired when we got back to our room and took a as cold as possible shower. Since there is not much happening in this town, we watched a The Starling…in English! Later we headed out looking for a nice dinner but struck out again & only found bread, beer & a Coke Zero.
Moving on, we were on a bus at noon headed for Posadas…7 hours away. Window views are similar to what we've been seeing with some nice housing in town centers & mostly not good outside.
Posada is a large town & quite modern looking with much more traffic & large stores. You can see Paraguay across the river. Our booked room was out a town a bit and in a very quaint & artsy house. The owner is a chef & has filled this place with interesting decorations and plants. He has a waterfall in the living room & an inviting pool in the back area. About 8:30 we headed for dinner but it seemed we were in the wrong part of town for restaurants so ended up getting cheese & corn stuffed rolls & a burger at fast food places. Then we went into an ice cream shop & I asked if we could eat there & then order ice cream. Three young girl clerks giggled & nodded yes. The ice cream & girls were the best part of that meal. We were both tired, hot & ready for bed. Breakfast was at 8 & elaborately displayed: 3 types of bread, cheese, ham, omelet, coffee & passion fruit juice…enjoyed! Then off we went to find the few sites in town…a giant statue that looked very much like the tin man in Wizard of Oz & a few hero statues and the walkway by the river. We play shade hopping as we walk. It's sooo hot! Luckily, we found a nice, cool restaurant open and shared a lasagna meal. They seem to have a ham addiction here cause even though it was mostly beef filling, it included ham! Uber took us back to the room & the cool pool was calling our names. I am sitting by it now under a gazebo area covered with a trumpet vine…much like the one we had at the farm! Tonight we hope to go to a museum & neighborhood Carnival…but we never know what we really end up doing.
Tomorrow we're off again…headed for Paraguay!
(Update: Museum closed but carnival pretty cool and got popcorn !!)
