Sorry I haven’t posted at all until now. We’ve just got settled into our final hotel destination for the week. The hotel in Obligato. So hello from Paraguay! Our planned 5-hour bus ride to Obligato from Asuncion ended up being about 9.5 hours... so we're a little bit behind!
Our bus taking a break somewhere in the middle of Paraguay.
The travel has been very draining. Yesterday we Flew literally all day long. We had two six-hour flights. I never understood why sitting around all day can be so painful. If I was sitting around all day at home, it would be a very special treat.
We did have some highlights traveling down to South America.
We had a layover at the airport in Panama. Flying in was pretty rad, there was all sorts of ship traffic waiting for passage through the canal when we flew over.
We killed about an hour in Panama. Ate a $9 bologna sandwich, pretty standard airport time.
I will say that when we were in the airport it did defiantly feel like we’d left the US. There was a lot of Foreign Fashion. Foreign Fashion is subtle, yet pronounced. I ran into this phenomenon whilst in Asia as well. Old people probably have no idea this is a thing. It’s like fashion in the United States, and clearly is trying to emulate fashion in the United States but misses the mark. As a general rule: take a popular trend in the US and add steroids. So if a jacket with a few visible zippers is trendy in the US, people in other countries will rock with a jacket with 25-30 zippers all over the place and (of course) no actual pockets. None of this stuff is made well either, it’s just China knockoffs.
The smell in Panama was an olfactory version of foreign fashion. It smelled similar to a Clair’s in the mall, almost like bubble gum- but bubble gum made in China. You can tell it’s cheaply produced. A cheaply produced smell. I’m not sure, but I think it’s perfume.
So each one of our two flights was a completely opposite experience. The first flight I was on was about as painful as it gets, was like 5 rows from the back smooshed between the window and one of the larger travelers with us on the plane.
The second six hour flight was seriously an embarrassment of riches... aisle seat. Nobody in the middle. And we were the first row behind 1st class. I’m very thankful for that second flight. I needed that.
Man Sleeping.
Once we got off the plane in Asuncion it was almost midnight, it took about an hour to purchase visas and get our luggage. We have lots of luggage. We were joking that the Asunción airport smelled like a mix of cigarettes, body odor and urinal cakes.
But it was warm!! It felt like just a beautiful summer night.
We boarded our bus and y the time we showed up at the hotel it was 1:30am.
The hotel is our spot for just one night but it was a pretty nifty spot it had this sort of Ernest Hemingway Cuban vibe to it. But it definitely was not a western hotel. The lady working there was drinking a cocktail on the porch outside when we showed up.
Joe at the Hotel in Asuncion.
There wasn’t any English at this spot. We got our skeleton key and the lady had to point us all in the direction of our room individually. There was no signage and no method for which section or floor a number would put you on. For example, rooms 93-99 were on the fourth floor, 87-92 on the third, 40-49 on the second and 1-8 on the ground floor. Absolute chaos.
Hotel Key #1
We opened our room door to find a very, very modest room. Most of the stuff seemed 20 years old and sort of dirty, but were troopers. After a quick panic attack about whether or not there was AC, we settled in.
Terrible night sleep. The mattress wasn’t good and we were pretty positive cockroaches were around but the worst pet was this one-inch thick pillow! Honestly, a better pillow would have made all the difference.
After a quick breakfast this morning we hopped onto the bus.. which again was about 20 years old but for the most part pretty comfortable. We napped and relaxed for the whole 9 hours and just soaked in the summer breeze.: )