Paraguay and preparing the van for a south American road trip!

Summer is fading and Autumn is here, that brings a refreshing breeze after the hot and humid summer months. When its near 40 degrees and 98 percent humidity and your sweating 4 litres a day its hard to believe that this country can ever be cold.  Apparently even a few days of frost a year, when the winter weather comes up from Antarctica.. brrrr sounds nasty, but so far from a summer reality.  However right now its perfect, around the 28 degree mark, which I believe is the perfect daytime temperature, that centigrade of course folks!

So what have we been up to? Well back in February we bought a VW Kombi a 1990 edition of a Brazilian produced van. It was seemingly in reasonable shape and the colour sold itself to us! Nothing like a bit of paint to make things look better than they are, well that's not quite fair... We have done what anybody who is embarking on a long journey of unknown risks would do, we changed the wear and tear parts and made it as safe as possible, then changed the clutch and now were on to an engine rebuild.  The inside has been the part where we have actually done the design and work, in fact the credit goes to Sandrine as she has done 70 percent of the work and all the design aspects, she just gets me to chop up bits of wood and screw things down.  So by the start of May we should have a van that pretty much as good as you can get for that kind of car, by that I mean a car with no heating or cooling system and no power steering and not 4x4!! However the bed is fantastic, 2m by 1.60 so the three of us can sleep comfortably, in fact soon it will be two of us as Lili will have her own hammock bed in the front.

After spending the first month in Asuncion and the farm of Briggite and Lucio we heading down and right to the city of Encarnacion, where we were joining other VW enthusiasts on a road trip.  It turned out to be a car exhibition for antique cars and our rather dirty looking kombi was more than welcome. We arrived and it was around 40 degrees so we were happy to see a beach just in front of us! Now this is Paraguay along with Bolivia the only two landlocked countries in South America, but they do have rivers, in fact quite a few.  The other side of the river was Argentina and the city of Posadas which had the image of a kind of New York skyline.  The water was clear but shallow and you were not allowed to go past the buoys or risked getting arrested, we saw a few bathers being threatened by the life guards with such treatment.  After a couple of days in the city and a quick trip to Argentina we headed out of town to stay at a camp-site in a small reserve, it had a swimming pool and friendly staff but an absence of other guests.  The area is famous for its Jesuit ruins which are located nearby and pose as one of Paraguay's major tourist attractions, I saw one other person there!  Paraguay does not have man tourists, maybe thats why the locals are so friendly. The only foreigners you see here are German speaking, some are third generation others new immigrants.

Borrowing owls live in holes in the ground

Jesuit Ruins near Encarnacion

We headed back to the farm of Briggete and Lucio where Sandrine finished the van interior and I dug posts for electric cable, cemented brick walls and dug a big hole for a swimming pool/ water storage for irrigation.  Sandrine tried her luck at selling some of her hand made jewellery at a market where we met lots of German people, one couple Klaas and Andrea  have a bit of land and were kind enough to allow us to camp the kombi on their land and even gave us electric and water, thanks!

We drove the kombi to the garage to have an engine overhaul after it leaked 2 litres of oil on a 400 km journey, no we are homeless but fortunately through couch surfing found a young couple who invited us to share the home whilst looking for howler monkeys!  On the second day and with the help of asking local people we managed to track down this troop and now Johane and Rorueguiz hope to protect this group and move some members to other small groups like this one to help increase genetic diversity and long term survival of these monkeys in a rapidly depleting forested area around Asuncion.

 

At this moment we do not know how long we have to wait in Paraguay until we have the papers for the car.  This process can take quite a long time, maybe around 4 months, we have already waited 2.  However the people are very friendly we have met lots of good friends and its 28 degrees!! Theres plenty of nature.  The buses known as collectivos are a fun place to learn more about the culture.  They are like a moving supermarket in Aunscion with various vendors getting on at each stop to sell black market goods from Argentina or simply bottles of coca cola.

Fire Bird

 

Buenos Aires and Jet lag then Paraguay

South America!!

Tarantula

After having spent a year and a half in Asia and Australasia it was time for a new continent South America! We plan to drive up the East coast!

Leaving Australia we knew we were going to have a huge journey ahead of us with lots of hours on air planes.  We were not sure how we would all cope, me with my long legs and Lili being Lili!

Our first leg was Sydney to Bangkok then 19 hours stopover, which meant sleep a Thai massage and a bit of relaxing then we did Bangkok to Dubai and a 6 hour layover in their airport, managed to find a couple of reclining chairs which helped, but not much and then 16 hours to Rio de Janeiro 1 hour stop then 2 hours to Buenos Aires.  To be honest it was pretty good all considered, we flew with Emirates and their air planes were good and their in flight entertainment was very good.  They kept giving Lili kiddy's bags on every flight so we had more luggage to handle by the end!

On arriving at Buenos Aires and heading into down town, I felt myself feeling at home, everything looked like a Spanish city, the roads, the people, the buildings.  We had organised accommodation in Buenos Aires and stayed in the house of a young Argentinian guy named Leandro.  He was a great host and made us feel welcome, he and his friends gave me an introduction into Fernet and Cola, the favourite local cocktail. most of all we were able to just relax and try to readjust our bodies to a completely different time zone.  16 hours difference from Australian time, it was the first time I had really ever experienced Jet leg, I had always laughed off the idea as absurd or overrated but having now experienced it, you do feel like shit for a few days, bit like the living dead.

Buenos Aires, what were we there for? Well it was where the airport was, after that not much... It looked like a mixture of Paris with high sided buildings and flat grey roofs and every Spanish city that I've seen. The parks were pretty impressive, big and well maintained with organised kids games. The people were friendly but seemed to be quite fearful and certainly fed up with politics and finances.  The Peso has taken quite a beating in recent years and inflation is high.  There exists two currency exchange rates, the official rate and the blue rate. Basically if you change Dollars to Peso with the official rate you get 8 peso for each Dollar if you walk down town Buenos Aires to a street named Florida you will hear 100s of people saying cambio, these guys will give you an exchange rate of about 12.5 peso for each Dollar, which is a huge difference.  It is illegal but nobody seems to care, I even went to one office where they are set'up almost like a bank, they even have a police man standing outside.  I was concerned he might be there to entrap stupid tourists, but after consulting with a local shop vendor was reassured he was just there for security... Apparently all the cops are corrupt...! We stayed for a few nights at a couch surfing place with a nice man named Mario and made the decision to head to our friends to Resistencia, which is in the far north of central Argentina.  The last time we had taken a bus had been in India, so when they said it was a sleeping bus I did not expect too much, however it was to date the best service on a coach that I have ever received, proper seats that fully recline to flat position, and champagne plus food service!! Very impressed, still did not sleep that much, but not their fault.

Arriving into Resistencia we were met by friends that we had first met in Malaysia when staying at Arafats farm.  Vicky and Manu introduced us to their family and friends in Resistencia, the first thing we did was have a massive BBQ. The meat was piled high and the wine flowed well.  South Americans eat a lot of meat!! Far more than in any other country that I've been to.  The weather in Resistencia was hot and humid and most of the day was spent chilling out and relaxing waiting for the heat to reduce in the evening.  Most activity is restricted to early morning and early evening.  After a week in Resistencia we decided to go to Paraguay to buy a van so that we could head up through the continent, we spent our last few days staying in the house of Gustavo and Andres, Lili especially had fun with Gustavo who enjoyed making her various disguises and dresses.

Paraguay

Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay and only a short distance to the nearest Argentinian border. The city infrastructure is pretty bad, years of dereliction mean that the roads are all in bad shape.  We stayed in an open house community which was great and close to the centre of town.  We took collectivos (buses) everywhere and went looking for a van.. it is a bit like a needle in a hay stack, Asuncion is spread out and unless you know the areas you lose time, but we found passengers on buses and the drivers to be extremely helpful and point us in the right direction and stop at the right place, our first day was cut short by heavy rainfall evidently it was rainy season in Paraguay as it rained pretty much everyday in February that we were there, sometimes with the rain so heavy that the streets were flooded.

Cities and Lili are difficult, we want to do things like look for a van, she wants to do other things, she does not want to hold hands, the roads are busy and dangerous, it was very hot, we were losing patience... we were walking close to the house where we were staying and found our van!  A VW Kombi!  We both liked it! Its a classic only time will tell whether we bought it for sentimental reasons or sound travel reasons.

After having bought the van and visited a Notary who will do all the paperwork, which could take months!, we headed to a farm 70 km out of Asuncion.  Back to a basic house with thatched roof and open sides and picking up weeds and other farming activities..  The wildlife is diverse with porcupines and tarantulas and humming birds all seen at the farm plus numerous other birds, butterflies, fish and other insects... and plenty of rain and sun.

The van meanwhile was in the garage having some repairs replacements and cosmetic surgery, all the things needed to make it our home on wheels. 

Australia road trip

Australia has been our home for the last half year, we arrived in the winter and are leaving mid summer... We bought a camper van drove it around NSW and parts of Queensland.  We saw family and met new and old friends.  We enjoyed the Australian wildlife and beautiful wild beaches.

Australia is like the UK with better weather and less people, free BBQs, and bigger spiders! Oh yeah their pretty big!! I saw a huntsman as big as my hand, my cousin said he once woke up with one in his mouth!! Yuk!! Most of the white folks came from the UK originally, some in the last 100 years others the centuary before, so its not really surprising to find fish and chip shops all over the country, but it was a surprise to me, a pleasant one.

Australia is bloody big, we saw a fraction of the country,the east coast which is the most populated coast.  Due to our visas we had to split our 6 month stay into two, divided by our trip to Indonesia.

The first half comprised driving slowly between Sydney and Brisbane, sometimes only driving a few km per day. What struck me was the immense deserted beaches, with signs warning you against swimming because of strong currents, rocks, sharks etc.We stayed with my cousins and got to know family which had not been seen for 30 years which was great and added a whole new dimension to the trip. After Brisbane we stayed near the glass house mountains with Ian and his kids and picked coffee during the days. After Indonesia we returned and spent two months in the Northern Rivers area which is on the border of NSW and Queensland, Byron Bay and Nimbin are some of the famous names associated with this region. Before heading down to Sydney and the area around the blue mountains.

Australia is famous for many things, Koalas being one of them, this photo was taken at Australia zoo, the zoo that Steve Irwin (aka Crocodile hunter) founded.  Unfortunately Koalas have suffered greatly from car related deaths and dogs in gardens and their populations have fallen greatly... We never saw any koalas in the wild just in sanctuaries.  Kangaroos and Wallabies are also killed regularly on Australian roads but their numbers are high and seen regularly everywhere.

Rainbow lorakeets are very colourful birds and can be seen all over Australia in big numbers

Don´t worry Lili its not a croc just a Guiana!

Australian humour is well known but this one was quite novel!

Picking coffee Beans!

Me fixing a rear tyre that exploded whilst driving!!

The inside of our camper!

Queensland.

Our first stop in Queensland was my cousins house, I had not seen him sinse I was 10 years old! We enjoyed our stay with my Aunt and Cousin.  My Cousin asked what we had been doing each day, when we said not much just chilling, he was quite surprised... truth was after many months of travel sometimes you just need to pause and do nothing.. running around and seeing tons of tourist attractions, just did not appeal... Lee my cousin and his family took us out for some great day trips one up to the hills and national park in rain forest, on the way home I jumped on the back of his motorbike and was treated to a real thrill of a ride back... when your racing your way along long open country roads at high speed, you cannot help but have a smile on your face!!!  They also took us to Australia zoo, which was founded by Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter.. little ripper... Its a cool zoo with well treated animals with plenty of space.

Gold Coast surfers Paradise

After my cousins we took to the road again, but not that far... Ian and his four kids became our friends instantly... when we drove up to his place, nobody was there but two dogs, whom after a few minutes I decide were friendly and would let us in the grounds without a problem... there were little signs everywhere saying hobbit house , there were dinosaurs painted onto the sides of water tanks.. we felt at home.. Ian likes a beer after work and likes to run in the morning and weekends... the beer bit was easy, the running a little harder... mainly due to the fact he lives on a mountain so steep climbs are frequent.. but he got me out there.. even racing with him and the kids a couple of times... I spent my days picking coffee at a neighbours place and Sandrine painted the kids doors.

Mental preparation before the big race

Day at the races

Brisbanes water supply

Tawny Frogmoth, strange looking bird!

 Northern Rivers

We spent a month on the property of Melanie and Nicholas with their kids Jeremy and Celeste.  Celeste is 3 just like Lili, they were best of friends and worst of enemies for the time we stayed,,, It was great for Lili to spend some time with a girl of her age and a boy slightly older..  We worked as volunteers mainly doing bush regeneration and weeding, we were treated to first class organic food and expensive red wine in the evenings... The land had loads of wallabies just lying around or nibbling on grass and black cockatoos screeching in the trees.

So our Aussie experience came to an end where it started, in Sydney! We sold our van to a French couple and then stayed in a community near the blue mountains. We took a day trip up the mountain and were rewarded with a beautiful  day of stunning views and waterfalls that you could cool off in.

Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains, near Sydney

 

Blue Mountains, the Eucalyptus oil refracts and gives the blue colour to the mountain air

Felt great getting out, massage and refreshing shower all in one.