Tomorrow is Just the Beginning.... (hopefully)

Hello again.  We have been in Paraguay for one week and today holds somewhat of the same excitement as our first day here.  Tomorrow we will actually be in San Cosme y Damian, Crissy's birthplace.  We spent more time in Asuncion than we intended but it was for the best.  We were going to take a bus on Friday but Mr. Leatherwood arranged for us to ride with his friend Aldo.  It was worth the wait.  It was a very long ride (5 hours) with Aldo, his wife, mother-in-law, and 3 year old son, but he took time to tell us about the towns along the way and even made a 10 km detour to take us to a town of a woman that wrote a guide book for Paraguay which we have been using to learn about the country.  He also stopped to let us video and take pictures along the way.  It was very refreshing to breath in fresh air instead of the polluted air in Asuncion.  The countryside of Paraguay is very different than that of the city.  The roadside is lined with Eucalyptus trees and there are several places that have fields of wheat. Cows and other animals roam freely on the side of the road.  It seemed like each little town we passed was known for a specific thing, and the people of that town have booths set up to sale these products.  One town we passed was known for it's sheep and wool. Much of the roadside was covered with wool products.  One town was having a parade.  The picture of the horses was from the parade, however, they had several hundred horses in the parade.  In fact, we had to take a detour through the ditches just to avoid the parade.  During our travels today we also witnessed a Paraguayan funeral.  There were many people walking behind the hearse.  Aldo said that that person must have been important because of all the people.The pictures of the stone head carving is from the small town that was having the parade.  The picture of Crissy and I was taken at a plaza near a church that is 400 years old.  The picture of the water was take and a rest-stop/ restaurant as we crossed into the region of Misiones.  The other picture is of Aldo and his son Pablo playing soccer during a break. 
The last picture is of the sign to San Cosme.  We did not go there today, we drove about 1 hour past it to stay the night in Belle Vista, which is Aldo's hometown. We are going to go the San Cosme in the morning and Aldo is going to help us look for Crissy's mother.  We are excited, hopefully tomorrow's post will have some wonderful news that Crissy has been waiting her entire life to find.  Thanks for keep track of us.  We look for ward to seeing you all soon.
Love, James and Crissy
   

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