Asuncion, Paraguay/Menonite Conference

I had decided that I wanted to visit Paraguay before leaving for South America, and Monday was the day I was leaving. I headed with Juliano to the bus station without any problem. I had to find the international section of the buses, and after showing my passport and giving fingerprints (strange, huh?) I was ready for the bus. It arrived on time and was ready to go! I realized after about 30 seconds what a good idea it was to choose Cama Suite. While I would be laying down sleeping fine, the poor people on top would have to simply be "leaning" and trying to sleep. I met a man from Asunción who proved to be quite helpful. At the border I saw some very North American people in line and asked if they were there for the Menonite conference. Sure enough they were--a whole bus full! The entire upper portion was Menonite people there for the Paraguay conference. Because they hadn't done the border crossing S. American style I helped them out and they all felt comfortable. I got to talking to them and found a lot were from Lancaster, PA and one knew Laura North (a friend from school who was there at the conference). We continued the last few hours until arrival. This might seem a strange thing to be saying, but I enjoyed my 19 hour bus ride a lot more than I did the 9 hour flight from Miami to BA. That's a surprising thing I think..

My plan was to "buddy" with the menonites to get to wherever the conference was so I could meet up with Laura and figure the situation out--and it worked well. We thought we were headed to another location, but it just so happened that Laura was there. She spotted me chatting with an Argentine guy and rushed up to me. It was a nice time acclamating to the new place with people I knew :) We later got bussed back to the conference center that was in Asunción. I said bye to the group and Laura and snagged a taxi. I arrived at Rubén's house (My couch surfing buddy--check out www.couchsurfing.org for the scoop on this GREAT site!) without any problems. I paid the taxi driver the $4 fare and got out.

I met Rubén and his brother and some of their friends. They seemed really neat. The next day I met up with Laura at the center and we spent the afternoon together just exploring a new, unknown city together! There's something about being with a friend in a city you don't know--the intrigue, the adventure--it really can make a trip great! We saw downtown and walked around the sites before she had to return. I dropped her off and headed back to Rubén's. I met up with another CSer just to eat and drink. I came back and went to bed. Thursday I was planning to go to Rubén's office and see his job. I got up at 6:30 a.m. and it turns out he wasn't going to go in until 10:30. If only I knew before... I met up with Laura plus two friends on Thursday and we again explored downtown, but we saw new places of course! We had a nice lunch/dinner and headed back.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting! Benjamín