Hola everyone!! Today we flew solo!!! Muy Muy exciting! Last night we slept with the air conditioner on and we are probably the only people in this whole country doing that, but it felt good to us and it blocked out all the talking and banging around early in the morning. We had breakfast again in our little restuarante downstairs. I had a nice, hot cup of cosido ( yerba mate with sugar and milk) and James asked for orange juice and they brought us fresh squeezed orange juice,muy bien. We ate omelet and almond pound cake. Mr. Leatherwood is sick with a nasty cold so his wife told us a shopping area we could go check out. Oh boy, this means were all alone with are non-existent spanish! First we walked to the bus terminal to exchange some more money. You know, we don't want to look obviously clueless so we walked like we knew what we were doing. James carried the backpack with our camera's and had on his hidden pouch, but I kept a lookout for people getting suspiciously close. Luckily that didn't happen. I think it helps that I am brown and his whiteness is just considered German here. We get double looks all the time but everyone has been very friendly and very patient with our poor spanish. After getting our money into guarani we caught a cab. Carlos is the man when it comes to taxi drivers. He was so kind and honest. we will be using him again. He took us to Shopping Del Sol. Okay, we thought this joint would be like an authentic shopping experience.. nope. This place was basically an americanized, upper class, way too expensive for our asses mall. It was very nice and clean and pricey! We exchanged more money and went to the food court. We ate Pizza Hut, yup, Pizza Hut. Now the fanta was not orange america fanta...I dont know what the heck i ordered but me no likey paraguay fanta. The pizza was pizza! Most malls here have a super market inside them so we bought some hand sanitizer and baby wipes and headed out for the cab. Next stop was the Plaza de los Heroes. This is a old, rather beautiful building full of important dead people. It was under construction so we couldn't go in. Outside was three armed military police. These dudes were carrying M16 machine guns!!! James asked politely if he could take a picture. After looking around there was alot of the armed guys. But hey, it's for our safety. We walked around some authentic street vendors and bought several handmade bracelets and some dresses for our Avanee. ( speaking of Avanee, I cant wait to ask a Guarani Indian how to say her name since it is Guarani.) I love the handmade lace and leather purses and satchels they have...but I haven't picked up any of those yet. We walked around the park and noticed a young man pissing in the park by a tree, just out in the open for all to see! Here in several places, you have to pay to use a public bathroom, so some Paraguayans rebel by whipping it out and peeing in broad daylight! Last but not least, we stopped by four Indian women sitting on the sidewalk selling jewelry and handbags. We ended up buying from all but one. She kept showing us her different things and we felt bad so we found Avanee some cute handmade bracelets for her tiny wrists. This made them very happy that we bought from each of them and they gave us a free bracelet, which we thought was very kind. Here, Ive noticed how happy people are to be tipped. and when I say tipped were talking 1,000 to 2,000 guarani which is .25 - .50 cents. They are so grateful, and at first it was surprising, then I realize what a different world this is here. After all the sightseeing we came back to our hotel.It gets dark here around 6pm and you don't want to walk around in the dark in most area's. But that okay with us, because it came-a pouring down!! It has been raining almost all day long. Now its really raining. Well, that's all for now. I love you, my Avabear. Mama and Daddy miss you whole bunches. Tomorrow we should be headed to Argentina!! We will post several pictures of the waterfalls. Then Friday... were off to see the Zarza's!! Hopefully!
Love to all, Miss Crissy
Love to all, Miss Crissy
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