Border Crossings

1 Junio 2007


So today I begin my jouney to Salta. But let me tell you a bit about Asuncion and the visit with Mikey and Kate. I arrived late on Tuesday night and Mikey came and picked me up at the bus station, from there we went and grabbed a falafal because I really hadn´t eaten too much real food . (Basically I am surviving on Dulce de Leche cookies, bread and cheese). So it was nice to get some real food into my system. The next morning(days are beginning to run together, I know the date just not the day) Mike had to go teach a class in the morning so I slept a bit longer then we went to a local place for cappaccino and mediaunes (which are super yummy, like a mini crosiant, but a bit sweeter). He had to go back and teach which is when I got to experience the South American mall experience. To be honest it wasn´t any different then a mall in America. Kate told me that adults actually go on dates to the food court in the mall, hmmm, I think if someone I was dating took me to the mall foodcourt that would be a deal breaker.

So the mall was interesting, but really no different than an American mall. However, ever time I went into the store, the sales ladies would hover over me.

Not sure if you all know, but it is winter down here and it´s freaking freezing. I don´t think I was prepared for it to be this cold. Luckily Kate has lent me a fleece and some gloves, being as I head to B.A. it is only going to get colder.

Ok, sorry a little tangent there....So back to Asuncion, after the mall we went to Mike and Kate´s school, where Mike showed me around and introduced me to some of the other teachers and what not. We left the car with Kate and walked back to their house, which is about 10 minutes away. For dinner that night, we went to Mexican (yep, I had mexican food in South America). It was actually pretty good, I had chicken with this brown sauce that is a bit sweet, thanks for the recommendation Conner. I also got to meet a bunch more of the teachers that Mike and Kate hang out with.

The next day was pretty much similar. However, Mikey and I did head into downtown Asuncion, and what a metropolis! Ok, maybe not so much, but it does have some nice buildings, but everthing is sort of run down and no one really takes care of anything. But if you ever need to get money changed this is the place to go. On ever corner, or about every 10 feet, a man with a bag, would ask "Cambio" no joke it was every ten feet. We ate at this place called Lido Bar, which is famous for this fish soup. Kind of like clam chowder, but it is a white fish, that is pretty much the only fish that Paraguay is famous for. Then we walked around a bit more. Looking at some of the federal buildings that they have there. Right next to the feds are these shanty towns, with just stacks and stacks of super small little houses. Next, it was off to yoga. Kate (for those of you who don´t know, she is Mike´s girlfriend and is pretty awesome. I am only the third member of our family to meet her). She is a yoga instructor and teaches yoga twice a week at the school. It was a good workout and relaxing as well. After that we went back to the house to relax and then off to Pizza for dinner. Again, it was damn good, and for four of us, with 2 larger beers, agua sin gas (no bubbles) and 2 pizzas, the total was about 60,000 Guarni, which is about 15 bucks. Much cheaper than Brazil.


This morning I got up at 5 am to catch my bus at 6am for Resistencia, what is here, don´t really know, it is where I get to catch my connecting bus to Salta. Again I had to cross the border, this time was a bit different and took much longer. I´ve traveled in Europe and don´t ever remember having to show my passport when traveling via train/bus across the border, but here you do. Here´s the story. Get to the border, everyone gets off the bus (apparently I am the only one with a passport, the rest are locals of either Paraguay or Argentina). We go to the immigration of Paraguay to get our exit stamp, easy enough (so now I have two stamps from Paraguay, an entrance and exit). Then we go to the window next door which is for entrance into Argentina, I give them my passport and the look at it, stamp it and take it telling me to go back to the bus. So I am thinking this is a bit dodgy, I need my passport. Ummm, so I am standing there, but decided to go back to the bus, where they tell us we need to grab our stuff off the bus. Okay, now I am more confused, but then I realize, it´s Argentina, they want to search our stuff (been through this once already). So we wait.....still waiting.....finally the little guy comes we run our bags through the x-ray machine and grab them and throw them back on the bus. I then go back down and secure my passport (just needed to make sure I wasn´t smuggling anything into the country, but apparently I did, apples!!!!). Great, we made it through immigration we can get back on the bus and continue with our trip. Uh, not the case. About 15 minutes later we have to stop again to make sure our papers are in order and once again for them to search our bags, this time they have a dog. (Still the apples made it through). So, I am good, they look at me, look for the entry stamps and send me over to the other side. Now we can get on the bus to go to Resistencia. These bus trips are interesting, becaues we will stop and drop people off in the middle of nowhere, or people get on the bus from the middle of nowhere, selling all kinds of stuff.

Well let me give you a recap of the total amount I´ve been traveling so far, this includes air travel.

San Fran to El Salvador= 5 hours
El Salvador to Peru= 4 hours
Peru to Brazil= 5 Hours
Sao Paulo to Foz de Iguacu = 15 hours (BUS)
Foz to Asuncion =5 hours (bus)
Asuncion to Resistencia 5 hours (bus)
Resistencia to Salta= 15 hours (bus)

Total hours traveled = 54 hours

I will keep updating you as the the total travel time.