We arrived in Asuncion after a long bus ride (7 hours) from the border with Brazil (Foz de Iguazu). The bus didn´t stop for food or bathroom, but let on vendors at different stops along the way. Drinks, food, hairbands (just what you need on a long trip) all for offer.

The best was the ladies who hopped on to sell the fresh bread. That baskets where huge and would have been very heavy and they balanced them on their shoulders as they moved down the bus selling round circular bread rolls. They had cheese in the middle and were heated through and sold for about 2,000 guiraneas (less than 25 pence) each.

Arriving in Asuncion we then caught taxis to the hotel. Taxis like I´ve never seen before!! I think they were made in the 60s and not repaired since then.

Hotel was a historcal building that used to be used by a high ranking official.

We went on a walking tour of the city, and learnt a lot of interesting things about the country

- Run by a dictator from the 1950s to 1992 and people were generally happy with him as they were relatively comfortable and had food to eat and things to buy.

- People were surprised when the dictatorship ended

- The dictator didñ´t kill people, but instead liked to torture them instead. Only 2000 people were killed during his reign. We visited a museum that had been made from the building that used to house people for torture. One of the things they used to do was tie people up and put them into a bath filled with discusing filth. The guards used to play music before they took someone in their and so all the prisions were afraid it would be them. They didn´t used to return the bodies of those who died but instead took them on a flight and dropped them into the Chaco (deserted area in the north of the country) where the animals would eat the bodies

- The streets didn´t have any names so the goverment planted spies into each of the areas so when any visitors arrived they would have to ask for directions. Then the spies found out exactly what they were doing and reported the movements to the police.

- Paraguay had gone through only 2 wars. In one of the wars the population was reduced from 400,000 to approx 200,000. Only 28,000 males survived so the country was built up again mostly by the woman

The temparture was really hot (I´m thinking close to 30) and while it was a very enjoyable tour it was good to get back to the hotel to rest afterwards.

In the evening we enjoyed sitting down and seeing the Parliament building lit up.