36: Short Break In Paraguay

We’ve wrapped up in Chile, so it’s time to head back to Paraguay. We took an Uber from the hotel to the Santiago airport. Because Uber is illegal, it helps to act like a family member when getting dropped off to avoid questions. Craziness.

The flight to Paraguay was delayed a couple of hours. It wasn’t a big deal as it was a non-stop flight and we didn’t need to be anywhere at a specific time. The only real challenge was ignoring the donuts at the Dunkin’ Donuts shop in our terminal…they were calling to me.

Our first task after landing was to connect with a driver that had been sent to the airport with the Noah. Remember the Noah? While we were on the road, the Noah was repaired (fingers crossed). Apparently the mechanic was initially unable to find anything wrong, so he asked to drive the car as his full time vehicle until it failed, which it did after a week. Then he knew what part to replace. When’s the last time any of us had a mechanic show that level of commitment? Total repair cost: $150. It was great the repair was so inexpensive, but also a bit frustrating as the $150 repair caused us to rearrange our trip and spend more on airfare. So it is.

Miguel was actually back in the country and staying at his house, so we stayed with John (father-in-law) for a couple of nights. We had some of the coldest weather I had experienced in Paraguay. Houses in Paraguay typically don’t have heating systems built in as the cold season is so short, so we survived with the fireplace and space heaters. It’s a good thing there were lots of blankets.

Over the next few days we took a short break and Tracy shifted back into tour guide mode. Our next adventure was to meet one of Tracy’s clients in Ciudad del Este for a day+ of activities. It promised to be an interesting visit with more things I have not yet seen.

The next post has us back on the road, so stay tuned…

Will