Journal Entry for July 6, 2002

Visit to the "Interior"

We have been so busy lately, we haven't had time to do any exploring of our new country, at least until a couple of weeks ago.  The last week of June we took a trip northward to the "interior" as the regions of the country outside the capital are called.  We had a WONDERFUL time.  It was a short but effective opportunity to explore the areas where we will likely be doing water well work in the future, and may be living.  We enjoyed good roads and great weather the whole trip, both of which are a real blessing in Paraguay.  We drove about 750 miles, which by US standards is not a lot, but think of travel on 2 lanes roads in the 1950s, pre-interstate, shared with ox-carts and cattle herds.  A real time-warp!!!

We headed north through the Chaco (click here for a map - our route is in yellow) to the "town" of Pozo Colorado.  This was really no more than an intersection of roads and a big service station.  We then proceeded to Concepción, a delightful town on the Paraguay River.  This may eventually become our home as we move northward into the Chaco with our water well projects.

Concepción - "Pearl of the North"

The treat of our time in Concepción (at least for Ed) was seeing a river boat loading up for a trip to the northern frontier.  It will head up into the Pantanal (the big swamp that John Grisham wrote about in his book "the Testament" - we highly recommend it).  It was being loaded by hand, with freight coming in by truck, ox cart and bicycle, and passengers heading up-river.  The trip lasts 2 1/2 days!!  Another boat plies the river between Asuncion (where we live now) and Concepción, a trip which only takes 24 hours.  We think we will start with that one to warm us up to river boat travel.

Cerro Corá National Park

From Concepción we traveled on eastward toward Brazil.  We were planning on spending the night in the town of Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, which is on the border with Brazil.  We found a nice hotel, and they did have a room available.  The desk clerk quoted the prices is Brazilian currency, which we thought odd, but she spoke to us in Spanish.  When we went up to our room, we noticed that everything was in Portugese (the language of Brazil).  We began to wonder, so Ed went back downstairs to ask what seemed like a dumb question - "what country are we in"?  Well - it turned out that we had crossed the border and were in Brazil!  The border in this area is completely open, and if you are not paying attention and know what to look for, you don't even realize that you have crossed it.  So - we spent the night in Brazil - without the Visas required for US Citizens - we were illegal aliens for the night!

The next morning we left early to visit the National Park of Cerro Corá.  This is the site of a famous battle in the Triple Alliance War in the mid-1800s. Linda really enjoyed the birds - parrots, toucans, and many others.  We even saw the South American version of an ostrich (called a Great Rhea) while traveling that day.

Click here for the second part of this Journal Entry