En Vuelta (pt. 2)

So we make it Paraguay. Done with la tierra. Back on smooth highway. As soon as we enter Paraguay, our bus is inspected by a Paraguayan soldier, the first of probably 10 searches.

Soon thereafter, we make our first stop. We are directed to take all of our bags out the bus. As we exit, we are told by a Paraguayan soldier to form a line and drop our bags in front of us. One by one, one of a few Paraguayan soldiers searches our bags for drugs and verifies that we are on the passenger list. As soon as I am done, I buy a bottle of water and brush my teeth. I have to change some Bolivianos into Guaranis, the Paraguay currency, to make the purchase.

Oh yeah, as I´m standing in line, I make a couple friends. The first guy is quite a talker. I don´t catch his name, but he gives me his business card and informs me that he is on his way home to Asuncion, Paraguay after traveling South America for a month. He runs a small cell phone business in Asuncion and Buenos Aires, which he told me he had recently visited. He was disappointed to learn that I would not be spending even a day in Asuncion, as I was just passing through. For the rest of the trip, he would call me ¨America¨, which was a little funny, slightly embarrassing and mostly annoying. But he was nice and seemed to like me. We had actually spoke a little bit before, during the tierra when I spotted an insect near me and swatted it away. This guy, who I will refer to as ¨the leader¨ for reasons to be explained later, was seated behind me, and informed me that I had missed the bug, but spotted it himself and told me to try again. This time, I swatted with my book and connected. Avispo (wasp), I asked? Si, he told me.

The other guy I met in line didn´t say too much. But he informed me that he was headed to ciudad del este and then Puerto Iguazu, the same route as me, and said that it was okay if i followed him to puerto iguazu after we got off at cuidad del este.

Oh, I also had a short conversation with the azafata, who informed me that when it rains, that same stretch of la tierra that we drove over, can take more than a week. I felt very lucky.

We reboarded the bus and started up again, only to stop a minute later for gas, and then another five minutes later at Paraguayan immigration. As we made our way to the little office, we were greeted by a bunch of poor little kids who were asking us for food and money. There were some nuns on our bus who were handing out bread to the kids from a basket they had brought. I thought that was nice. But it was really sad to see these kids, a couple of whom looked really sick.

Around this immigration office, just as there had been around the Bolivian office, were a collection of animals. There was a goat, a couple roosters, and some dogs, one of which only had three legs, which I couldn´t stop staring at. I finally made it into the office. When the Paraguayan official asked me for my visa, I knew that I was in trouble. I definitely did not have this. I assumed that I wouldn´t need such a document and that my US passport would be sufficient. Wrong. He asked me what I was doing in Paraguay, and I informed him that I was just traveling through the country, on my way back to Argentina. He said, okay, I would be able to get a transport visa, which would cost 70 something dollars. Luckily, I had that 100 dollar bill in my wallet. So I pulled it out and paid the man. He handed me back a 50 dollar bill, stamped my passport, and I was on my way. A little scary.

We reboarded the bus and were back on the road.

Another passenger on the bus was an expressionless Bolivian boy, somewhere in between the age of 15 and 17. I had first seen him with his father at the bus station in Santa Cruz. But this boy was traveling alone, not with his father. I would later learn that he traveling for the first time in his life to see relatives in Sau Paulo. He had a folder full of different papers that he would need for the trip. He made it through immigration in Bolivia and Paraguay. But for some reason, we were later stopped in Paraguay and this boy was pulled from the bus by a Paraguayan soldier, who was asking to see one of the boys documents. He took the boy into an office, which was clearly visible from the bus. We watched as the Paraguayan soldier was unrelenting in letting this boy get on. After about five minutes of this, the leader got off the bus and started negotiating with the soldier. After a couple minutes of talking, the leader pulled out his wallet and handed the soldier some money. The soldier let the boy go, and the leader walked back with his arm around the shoulder of the boy, who remained expressionless, though was also clearly shaken by the experience. And we started up again.

Not too much happened in between the Bolivia-Paraguay border and Asuncion (capital of Paraguay). I talked for a bit with a cute old Bolivian woman named Victoria, who´d lived in Santa Cruz all her life and now worked as a seamstress. When I asked her if she wouldn´t mind talking for a little bit, she said okay, but as our talk went on, I could tell that she grew a bit wary of me; I´m not sure if this was because she was wary of strangers or if it was because I was an American. But I feel as though she warmed up to me as the trip went on. Oh, she was also on her way to Sau Paulo to see her daughter, who had apparently married a Brasilero. And it was her first time out of Bolivia. I imagine, she must have been 65 years old.

At the last rest stop, I also met this other dude, who I will call my twin. I first spotted this guy in the middle of la tierra, when the bus stopped so that everyone could go to the bathroom (women behind the bus and men in front). He was also wearing jeans and white lacoste polo shirt, just like me. I would spend a good portion of the trip trying to figure out if his shirt was also a knock off. He would later tell me that it was. But he had bought his for 80 bolivianos (I got mine for 55). He was impressed with the deal I had gotten. We met as we were both eating empanadas at this rest stop. I asked him what kind he was eating. Carne, just like me. I laughed, we are twins I said. Same clothes, same food. As we walked back to the bus, I asked what he did for a living. He was a medical student in Santa Cruz. Ridiculous, right?

After the rest stop, the leader got up in front of the bus and informed us that the boy who had been pulled off the bus before was in need of some money in order to pay for his connection to Sao Paulo. So he walked down the aisles, collecting money from the passengers. I gave him 20 Bolvianos. The leader gave all the money, which was a pretty good amount, to the boy. Victoria then yelled at the boy to thank the people who had given him money. The boy then got up in front of the entire bus and gave his thanks. It was incredible really. He remained expressionless througout his speech, though you could tell he was very grateful. He was very brave talking in front of everyone. He did a fantastic job, and when he finished, the whole bus gave him a well deserved and proud round of applause.

Four hours after the rest stop, we have been on the bus for 25 hours. Oh, an azafata would tell me at some point, that my trip would consist of 24 hours from Santa Cruz to Asuncion, and then five more on a different bus from Asuncion to ciudad del este. So that was awesome. The bus to ciudad del este would leave at midnight from the Asuncion terminal. At ten oclock at night, we were still on the bus. We had been on the bus for 25 hours total at this point. I started to get a little worried that we weren´t going to make our connection. Luckily, were entered the city of Asuncion a little after 10. I swear that in the last hour before arriving to the bus terminal, we were stopped by at least four military officials, verifying that everyone on the bus was on the list and searching the bus for something.

Asuncion was pretty nice. Seemed like a pretty happening city. Some parts nice, other parts kinda run down. Pretty much just what I expected. I wasn´t too upset to only be passing through.

But eventually, we made it to the Asuncion terminal, and the six or seven of us continuing on to the connection were directed to our new bus...