After a lot of waiting, whining and frequent changes of location, we finally leave Asuncion on 29 September. Our tsjolbak is like new, the brakes and clutch have been replaced, the crack in the front train has been welded and the steering wheel has been successfully switched from right to left. It is a long way from the center to the north of Paraguay and enough food and fuel has to be purchased because up north there are no shops and fuel stations. We drive eastwards because a rally is organised in the weekend and the road to the west will be crowded with participants taking their cars to the starting point. In the late afternoon we arrive in Santa Rosa where the father of Beto, our friendly car mechanic, lives and we accept the offer to stay there. We are warmly welcomed and park on the banks of the river. Early in the morning we continue our road to the north. It is a boring tarred road heading to the ferry crossing the Paraguay River. The track through the village is seriously damaged by the huge trucks that bring the cattle to Asuncion. We spend the night in the front yard of a hospitable family. Beto has advised us to stop when it starts raining which it does when we leave the ferry in Puerto Casado, but we continue driving. Stopping on that narrow dirt road is not possible. The road surface gets a bit better, but then comes more rain. We are stopped at the police station at 195 km from our destination. The rain is pouring and no one is allowed to drive further, everyone has to wait until the roads get dry again. We camp next to the police building. The small parking lot in front of the office is filled with travelers who have to stay overnight, and one of them is a sympathetic Paraguayan doctor with wife and two little children, they sleep on mattresses in the police building. It rains the whole night. In the morning there is a dead deer on a hook at the police office, accidentally hit, he says, by a man whose car does not show a trace of blood or dirt. In any case, it means a couple of days of good meat for the policeman. The sun is coming through and at 11h the signal is given that the road is dry enough for cars. We can also go on, but that turns out bad. The tsjolbak continually slips in the mud and after a good hour we slide off the road into a trench, we are hopelessly stuck. Fortunately, another car is crossing, and the driver proposes to tow us out, which is easily said than done because our tow cable breaks twice. The third try is successful. We learned a lesson: if trucks are not allowed to drive on, we stay put too. Our 4-tonner does not behave like a lightweight pickup. That day we arrive at Toro Pampa where can do some shopping and fill our tanks, we can even pay with Maestro. There is also wifi. We spend the night on the parking of the fuel station. The last 95 km to Bahia Negra go smoothly. The village is beautifully located on the banks of the Paraguay River. Fruits and vegetables cannot be found because the village is very hard to be reached by road. The few tourists coming here take the plane. The exception is two strange Belgians!
We can camp in the military base area, use a toilet and a shower. The commander insists not to take pictures, however we can walk around freely to see how poor the military’s housing is. In the evening there is a beautiful sunset and full moon. We have a reservation for four nights in Tres Gigantes nature reserve and they will fetch us by boat. The name of the reserve refers to the fact that it is the only place where three giants occur: the giant otter, the giant armadillo and the giant anteater. First we are told over the phone that we will be picked up at 15h, then only the next morning at 8h, eventually we leave on October 4th at 17h. We meet Gabriel, a sympathetic world citizen and biologist of German origin, who works as a volunteer in the reserve. The boat trip takes 45 minutes and costs more than the flight Asuncion-Bahia Negra. fortunately when it comes to paying we get a good reduction. Just before dark we can set up our tent. The food we brought can be put in a refrigerator and there is a kitchen to prepare our meal . The lodge is very well equipped and fully powered by solar energy, everything works at 220 volts. As soon as the sun sets down there is an invasion of mosquitoes that bite through our clothes. Putting DEET 50% anti-insect all over our body helps. We spend an uncomfortable night in the tent, but we survive. The symphony of animal sounds, frogs, insects, night birds is a unique sensation. The following days we take a room with fans and private bathroom, the tent experiment has been suspended! The next days are very hot, up to 38° C. Our days are filled with canoeing and hiking. The diversity and quantity of birds is overwhelming. Howling apes give a deafening noise in the morning. Crocodiles remain immobile when we pass with the canoe. Of the giants, Michel only sees six giant otters one morning, the camera is unfortunately not within reach. From the jaguar and the puma we only see footprints at 1 km from our tent. Two evenings we are spoiled by the manager, he grills fish for us, a welcome change to our normal meat menu. We visit a vegetable garden 5 km downstream where fruit and vegetables can be obtained in exchange for other foods. On Monday morning we leave the paradise resort, load everything back in the tsjolbak and drive to Filadelfia, one of the Mennonite towns in Paraguay. It is hot again and the dirt road is dusty, bumpy and boring. We camp again in Toto Pampa and our air conditioning works all night, because temperatures get not much lower than 30° C. After all the hard days we need some rest. We find a campsite with swimming pool, which we share with a Belgian couple from Brugge. Koen and Heidie are experienced travelers with lots of stories and in the evening drinking beer and wine many stories are told. After two days, they leave, we will stay for a few more days.
tsjolbak 
Recente reacties