Paraguay

We arrived in Paraguay to a massive city called Ciduad deal Estad (or something like that). This is famous for cheap electrical goods so was full of Brazilians who walk across the bridge and go shopping then walk back across the bridge. South Americans seem to have free movement within South America so it was actually really hard to make sure we weren't illegal when we entered Paraguay. We set off along the very busy main road to Ascension, unsure about which route we'd take as there were lots of hilly diversions. We were soon overtaken by a peloton of cyclists riding behind a car with a massive doll of the Virgin de Cacuupé on top of the car. The car was blasting music and it seemed very partyish. We joined in with them and it turns out they were heading to Cacuupé for the national holiday/festival in a few days time.

 We rode along together for a while and then we stopped for lunch. After lunch we joined in with another group and we rode with these for ages. They were all hilarious, even with almost no English. They pushed us up the hills, gave us food and water and took lots of selfies (I was a popular choice for these). It got to nightfall and it turns out they were going to keep cycling through the night. Considering they weren't cyclists and some of them were really struggling, I was very impressed. Mum wanted to keep going with the party but I didn't, and overruled her (this is rare). We asked the policeman if we could camp at their station. They invited us to stay in a bedroom and brought us food and water. We even had a guard dog sleeping outside our room! These encounters with official people bordering on personal are always slightly strange. The policemen both added me on facebook and regularly send me messages. It's hard because we don't want to be unfriendly but we equally don't want to be lifelong friends.

The next day it poured with rain and we didn't make a huge amount of progress. We arrived in a small town and found a cheap hotel which it turns out was only £7.50. It was really nice! The son of the owner also spoke English which was the first time we'd been able to . After a few days on the main road we decided to get off it and explore, so in the morning we indicated left and got off the main road.

We went into rural Paraguay which was beautiful. We arrived again in a small town and everyone we asked pointed us in a direction of a hotel (it looked like rain) but it didn't seem to exist. One woman then said we could stay in her house which we did. Her house really wasn't very nice but as it poured with rain overnight we were grateful. We had pasta with massive lumps of dry meat and I had to hide mine in my sock. In South America they all drink this sort of grassy cold tea called Maté which is DISGUSTING. It's in a metal cup with a metal straw that is passed around in a circle. Drinking it is not optional and it goes round and round in a circle of doom with constant checks from them to make sure we're enjoying it. After what felt like hours and hours of this we finally went to sleep in a room which didn't have glass in the window and were both eaten by mosquitos all night. In the morning we had more of the maté and then eventually escaped.

We then cycled to the capital Ascunsion. This was not a nice ride in the pouring rain, on a really busy road. We arrived at a hostal run by a cyclist who gave us a discount. It was the nicest room we stayed in all trip (except air port transfer). There's not a lot to see in Ascunsion but we tried! The next day we headed for Argentina.