Monday, July 31, 2006

All in the same boat!

What a cool past month it's been. I left Buenos Aires for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay and had a real good time around the capital, some of the Chaco where the Mennonite colonies live and then took an awesome 3 day boat ride up the river pretty much up to the Brasil/Bolivia border.

There, I got stuck but luckily I wasn't alone. After seeing virtually not a single gringo in the country, I met 10 on the boat! A great mix of Irish, English, French and a Spanish guy (presidente/rey/Juan the man). We all got stuck in a small village and soon became local celebraties...memories of Bahia Negra! We had a good laugh amongst trying to secure a boat to take us further up the river. At one point we finally made a deal, packed the stuff on the boat, climbed aboard and were off. Three of us layed back on the roof looking at the vivid milky way until we stopped 1km up stream. A few complications, the main one being that we were sinking, meant that we had to abandon ship. We were wondering why everyone below was shreeking and shouting over the noise of the engine!

Anyway, a lot happened including some real fun days including a trek with Travis, our local mate/guide, and his horses, some failed fishing attempts, some boat rides including one where Manon and me went 'hunting' with some locals, lots of beer, footy with the local kids (Leandro was legendary and Arturo was quality) and meeting cool people including the local navy military.

Since then we passed into Brasil for a bit and then onto Bolivia where I met up with Clare last week. We just walked out to a lake 6km out of the village where we are to catch the sunset and also saw loads of Capyguara (like mini furry hippos!) and loads of birds.

So all's good and so far Bolivia seems great!