Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. --- Mark Twain

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Paraguay


Day 672,
75 147 km since the beginning of the journey,

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The border-crossing between Brazil and Paraguay was quite peculiar. Peculiar in this sense that actually there was no real border between the two countries - but just a street in the centre of the town and that was the Border. On one side there is Brazil and a town Ponta Pora and on the other side there is Uruguay and another town named - Pedro Juan Caballero.



On Brazil`s side the passport formalities took less than half an hour and not much time was spent at the Customs either. The symbol of the border is in the middle of the street, and so well hidden that I probably passed it yesterday for several times. The Paraguay border and customs services are located in the house a bit further. On Paraguay's side the procedures took little time as well as here was no queue. The Custom`s office was on the second floor and again – almost no customers waiting and soon everything was in order.

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A Spanish language course for beginners – “Coche” means a car and the word “ auto “ does not mean any car. And if there is a kind of sign “autoservice” - it does not mean that one can march inside in the hope to get help about the technical problems of the car. Here "autoservice means a self-service shop or canteen.

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It is +35 Degrees Celsius and Christmas themes. Further along there is a huge shopping centre - full of goods. Compared to Brazil and Argentina Paraguay was said to be a country of favourable level of prices.

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A Picture on a big road. Smaller roads deserve a separate post and sorting of images, anyway the bridges are comparable to Transpantaneira.

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Caazapa.

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What else is important - Oh, the incoming AirBalticCard calls are free. Calling out is going to cost EUR 0.48, and the SMS price is 0.35 EUR. Esso petrol stations seem to have free wifi. And a couple of hours ago I saw a road sign saying "Hotel Rural San Ignacio," and in addition the words - Camping and WiFi. Just in time. So the first impressions of Paraguay are positive.

Today it was supposed to be the end of the world somewhere , but here it is all somehow calm. At least for now.

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