Brazil - there and back again

Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Asuncion, Paraguay
Our bus from the Brazilian Pantanal arrived in Bonito late afternoon and we checked into the Pousada Muito Bonito. Bonito is a very small town, and very quiet, full of souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants, the odd bar and other small shops which seemed to be mostly devoid of customers. We went for a walk along the main street and found a bar, Taboa, for a few drinks, then had dinner at a seafood restaurant across the road from our hotel, Cantinho do Peixe - I had caiman nuggets, which were quite nice but probably won't catch on at McDonalds. After this, we visited a street party, which was a sort of South American hoe-down, and a bit crap. We didn't stay long and a few of us, me, Simon and Peggy, headed back to Taboa for a few more drinks which seemed to be the only bar open in Bonito but was still as empty as earlier in the day.

On Saturday, most of the group went on a snorkelling trip down the Rio de Prata, where the water is so clear it is like being in a fish tank. I don't snorkel so I gave it a miss. However, the others when they came back said it was one of the best things they'd done on the tour so maybe I should have given it a go. If I did, I'd have wanted an underwater camera though. The rest of us (me, Rachel and Mike) had lunch in a nearby cafe, I had a chicken sandwich and we all tried the acai berry juice, which is some sort of super-vitamin drink. The only effect it seemed to have on me was to make my poo a funny colour the next day. In the afternoon, I just chilled out in the hotel grounds, blogging and drinking the cheap beer from the supermarket across the road. In the evening, disheartened by the previous nights lack of activity of Bonito, we just got a few cases of beer from the supermarket, some takeaway pizzas and played cards in the hotel's open-air dining area.

On Sunday, we took a 4 hour minibus trip from Bonito to Ponta Pora, gateway to Paraguay, from where we would cross the border the following morning. This was just a stopover town with not a lot going for it, particularly on a Sunday. We had a meal in a roadside restaurant in the evening, I shared a meat platter and had a couple of kebab skewers, that was about it for the day. I think we were just heading to Paraguay as our next major stop was the Iguazu Falls on the Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina border and it was easier to get there from Bonito by crossing Paraguay rather than staying in Brazil.

The following day, we took a 6 hour public bus from Ponta Pora, crossing the Brazil-Paraguay border, arriving in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, pretty late about 6pm. An easy border crossing, we just gave our passports to Mike and he got them processed en masse. Paraguay has a particularly ridiculous currency exchange rate, one US$ equals about 4,000 Guarani. I ended up taking half a million Guarani out of an ATM, loadsamoney! Sharing a border with Brazil, it was quite noticeable that the chicas were particularly stunning, so at least there was something worthwhile about Paraguay.

After checking into Asuncion Palace Hotel, we had an evening meal at a nearby restaurant, the Taberna Espanola, a quaint seafood restaurant with various strings of shellfish hanging from the ceiling, bells to summon service, and Spanish quotes plastering the walls. Not being much of a seafood fan, I had the Lomito Vacuna, a beautifully tender steak with a red wine sauce, mushrooms and fries. Then we headed to a bar which by chance had a karaoke bar next to it. They also sold lager by the 3 litre tower so it was lots of towers and lots of bad, drunken singing. Me, Mike and Peggy headed off to find a club afterwards. We got a taxi, visited a few clubs which Mike had a look in and rejected because they were all rather empty, but after what seemed like ages touring most of Asuncion, thirst and boredom took over and we eventually settled on one place. The taxi bill turned out to be probably the most expensive in Paraguayan history, a whopping 200,000 Guarani, about US$50!! A bit of poor bargaining by our inebriated Tour leader Mike there. The club we did end up in only had a handful of people in it, and all the three women there appeared to be prostitutes who weren't shy about showing their goods on offer. They soon disappeared with the few men in the place, leaving just us three in the club. They had a pole in the middle of the empty dancefloor so a few Cuba Libres and shots of tequila later, we all practiced our pole dancing skills. We got back about 6.30am in the morning apparently.

On Tuesday, we had an orientation walk of Asuncion. There wasn't exactly a whole lot to see and I was pretty hungover. The rest of the day was just spent on the net, I had Burger King for lunch, and most of us went for an evening meal at a nice restaurant where Peter demonstrated his non-existent language and social skills by trying to order a cup of English tea (and getting a teabag with a cup of hot milk) and a bowl of soup (and getting some small cake/bread-type loaf), then proceeding to summon the restaurant manager to our table while he virtually stuck his fingers in someone's vegetables and shouted "Look, in corner of el plate, vegetables, give, now". So much for international relations.

The next day, we had a 10am public bus from Asuncion to Foz do Iguazu in Brazil, which should have taken about 5-6 hours but more on that next time.
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