It's not a slow car, it's a fast house

December, 2022

In the last post we shared some photos and videos of Iguazu Falls, Brazil.  It was a beautiful day.  Then we returned to our grassy, tree-shrouded campsite to await the arrival of our friend. Mike used this time to change the front brakes on the truck.  Mechanical work in a campground always draws a crowd. (Mike is the one on the ground, wearing a brown tank top)

A little visitor dropped out of one of the huge mango trees and landed just inside our back door.  This beautiful, baby colibri (hummingbird) was a bit dazed and shaken, but seemed fine.  I built a small shelf and put it back in the tree.  The mom quickly arrived to coax the baby up on to a higher branch.  The next time I checked, they were both gone! 

We also had to prepare our truck for the Argentina highways.  Those men that watched Mike work, had warned us about the “bad cops” of Argentina.  They said we would be stopped for many silly violations which included the speed limit sticker on the back.  We chased around the city looking for one, and finally had one printed.  It looks very official up there.

When the guest arrived, we and the dogs were very excited.  Our Korean/Latin American son, Myungsu Kim first entered our lives in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.  He was on the same Rio Food Tour as us.  You can find him in a couple of the photos on this blog link. https://slowcarfasthouse.com/2021/05/15/a-trip-to-rio-de-janiero/ 

He visited us another time while we were in Brazil.  This visit included Christmas at the farm and New Years Eve at our rental in Canela.  Myungsu is a professor of Korean language who is hired by various universities in South America, through a program with the South Korean government.  His current post is Paraguay.  When school went on holiday, he decided to travel with us for a while. He climbed in to the back seat with the dogs and we hit the road!

Our first stop was a Buddhist temple near the border between Brazil and Paraguay.  Everything was of a grand scale.  And the gardens were very peaceful.  Then we crossed the border and headed for our first campsite in Paraguay.  We did stop to withdraw some Paraguayan money.  The bills shown here are called Guarani and each of these 100,000 Guarani bills are worth about $12.00 USDollars.  You can imagine that it takes a lot of bills to buy a tank of gas or a cart full of groceries.

Our first campsite offered free unlimited mangos, beautiful sunsets and fast internet.  It was a good place for all of us to relax.

There was not much that we wanted to see and do in Paraguay.  So aside from a few trivial stops, we were ready to head to Argentina.  This region of Paraguay has a lot of small villages, wide open fields and dirt roads.  Myungsu snapped this photo from the backseat where he rode with Nica and Pacha through several countries.

 

Exiting Paraguay was amusing.  We arrived down a twisty, dirt road and stopped at a small sign saying “Check Stop”.  There were three people sitting on plastic chairs under a shady tree.  Myungsu snapped this clever photo.  When we approached the flag pole, two of them stood up.  One was the customs agent to whom we returned the exit paperwork for the vehicle.  The other was the border agent who shushed us vehemently, as her baby was sleeping under the desk.  She gently stamped our passports with the exit stamp and scooted us out of the building.  We were out of Paraguay.

Getting in to Argentina was almost as comical.  Because we were no longer in Paraguay, but Argentina actually began on the other side of a very wide river, we had to get on a ferry to cross “no mans land”.  It was a strange feeling to not be in any country at all.  But the ferry ride was brief and comfortable.

We drove off the ferry through a gate and on to a dirt road.  The road led immediately to the Argentina border offices.  It quickly became clear that they seldom saw travelers from countries other than Paraguay, much less as far away as the USA.  They treated us as somewhat of a novelty as they stamped our passports, completed the truck paperwork and glanced at the dogs records.  It was a simple and quick border and we were ready to explore Argentina!

Follow us as we begin to explore Argentina!  We entered at the upper “thumb” of the country.  It was still HOT, HUMID and FLAT!!!  What will we find next and when can we get cooled off?