Thank you for your comment, Gabriel. Looking back, the intent of the piece was not to complain as the tone of the piece might indicate, but to suggest that to really dig deep into a destination or place, we must undertake some difficult journeys, among which this was one. Traveling in the countryside of any country always carries some challenge, including language (e.g., Guarani in Paraguay).

Thanks again for sharing your perspective about traveling in Paraguay, even as a Paraguayan!

@Ellen: We spent a few weeks in Paraguay. While the journey there doesn’t contain some of the epic bucket-list experiences dotting the rest of South America, we’re glad we visited Paraguay and came away with the background and perspective that we did.

Our bus into Paraguay (from Bolivia, as it turns out) was something like 37 hours en route to Asuncion.

I had a similar bus ride experience in Bolivia. An 18-hour trip turned into 30 hours, as we had to make multiple stops to dig the bus out of a half meter of mud. Also not a journey I’d want to repeat!

I have laughed from the beginning at the end of your history…
You know…you guess …i am living here in the paradise…

how come you soft americans have tried to take that boat….you must be crazy at that time…. Va con onda 🙂

Luis

@Hugh: I hope your rugby games were during the cool season. I can’t imagine playing sports in the 44 C/110+ F heat we experienced in Paraguay! We visited Paraguay because we didn’t know anything about the country. Even after visiting for several weeks, we still find it a bit of a confounding place.

We use Photoshop to batch copyright our photos. Record and save an action and then use that for batch processing.

@Nomadic Matt: Our goal was not to sell this trip; glad we accomplished that. Gritty experiences are standard fare for us, not because we have anything to prove but because they are usually required to satisfy our curiosity about a place the lives of ordinary people there.

@Jennifer: We love hearing from you as well! It’s comments like yours that keep us motivated. While we don’t know too many people who would want to experience this journey themselves, we do hope that by sharing our impressions people might learn a bit about what life — similarities and differences — for people in other parts of the world.

@Earl: Some people think that we’re masochists for submitting ourselves repeatedly to long and difficult journeys. But we’ve learned that sometimes the only way to really learn about a country or people is to put yourself in the their shoes. This is what scratching the curiosity itch is all about.

@Dave and Deb: Glad you could feel the experience through our storytelling skills. Like you, we have so many examples of journeys we wouldn’t want to voluntarily repeat, but we’re very glad for having had them all.

Fantastic story!