Thursday 25th April 2013 - on arrival we needed to get cash in the new currency. We were able to swap R$50 straight away but I got 400,000 g out as well which is around £75, we joked how it wouldn't take much to be a millionaire. Although, confusingly a 20,000 g note would have written on it 20mil. I paid 1,000 g to go to the toilet which was an odd one as I only had large notes. We had a load more taxi banter on route to the hostel again thanks to Claire as we all tried to communicate in Spanish. Nicki had her phrasebook and we were trying it out. We were allowed to check into the hostel early which was great. So straight away we decided to walk into the city and go for an explore looking for breakfast. Claire and nicki spoke to an American guy from Florida who advised of a good place to eat called Bolsi. Unlike normal I had not paid attention to the directions so Claire used her map from her travel book to guide us to the place. I had an amazing burger, nic soup, Claire eggs it was so cheap as well. We could even call our waiter at the press of a button on the table. Whilst sat there we discussed how the cars and people had advanced but a lot of the buildings hadn't. It was strange. In some places you would have westernised things like TGI Friday and most ground floor infrastructure looked fine, but some of the high rise flats and occasional buildings looked either uninhabited or impossible to live in anyway. Considering this is a capital city it's hard not to notice the relaxed atmosphere. Everyone is chilled no one seems to be in a rush. I guess it's quite a small city as we managed to walk most of it. The drivers let you cross which is unusual and the cars don't mind if their not in the right lane. The museums weren't busy and a lot was free to walk inside. The river wasn't even remotely used as a tourist location which is strange considering most European city breaks relying on their rivers. However it does seem they are reinventing the riverside to attract tourism perhaps? Across the river was Argentina. But it was one of those intimidating looking borders and didn't look approachable to get near the waterside. There were spray paints of mosquitoes everywhere with big red warning signs across them and big red crosses drawn over them. It was quite concerning really especially as I had been bitten a lot in Brazil. They have Denge fever warnings and you have to always wear repellant. We were told by a crazy French guy, Joel I think his name was, to look out for the small white mosquitoes they are the deadly ones. All a bit scary to be honest. We found a market and I really fancied a thirst quenching fruit. I chose a pear and an apple, and the pear was stunning so juicy but I think we got ripped off. I mean it was cheap, but we got gringo tax for sure because the guy wasn't even smart enough to work out the change quickly as he had obviously changed his price on the spot but oh well. After walking for what felt like the whole day we grabbed a huge bottle of fanta and began looking for some shade because at this point it was 1pm and blistering hot. We found an open park with benches and began having a lovely nap the three of us sprawled out on the bench. Before we made our way home, once recovered, we did a bit of hammock shopping in another local market as Claire was interested in buying one. When we got back the American guy had set up his whole desktop computer on his bunk bed he looked insane. Not quite sure what business he was in but he slammed one phone down saying "boom! There's a 50,000 dollar contract done right there!" We were told about some more good places to eat meat and fish. But told to avoid the cheap bbqs on the street which are everywhere as our stomachs were probably not adequately adapted yet, ha. Good advice I feel. The French guy had bought some rum he wanted to share with us so he poured us all a glass this stuff was 60% and looked lethal but still we got involved and even bought some beers from the hostel to share as they were massive. We had heard good things about the tapas like good at Britannia pub on our block, and they were right the portions were massive. We had a huge round platter filled with nuggets chips fried chicken meat balls, chorizo and sausage. Claire ordered a salad and a pizza so we all kind of shared with each other. We also ordered a tower of sangria which was epic almost 3 litres of the stuff! By the time we had drank and talked the night away it was already 1am or so. We climbed down from the roof terrace which was shadowed on one side by a huge half finished building that looked like something off call of duty and made our way home. I stayed up a little later with nicki chatting to a girl called Christina from Germany as she had been to chile an also caught the boat to Uruguay from buenos aires so it was good to get some tips on that. We said goodnight and I climbed into our 8 bed dorm for a humid nights sleep under the fan.

Friday 26th April 2013 - I had to get out of bed quite early because literally the heat was insane and with a room full of other people sleeping it felt like it was only getting hotter. I chilled on the hammock outside for a bit until we thought we should go get breakfast. We didn't fancy the in hostel breakfast so popped out as Claire was going to send some postcards off to her friends. We walked back to where we had seen a couple of the really nice looking parliament buildings and historical buildings as we hadn't got many pictures of them yet. We found the lido bar which we had heard a lot about and since it was located with such nice views and a place to eat outside we decided to enjoy a Ceaser salad sat here. God knows what flavour fanta we had but it was lovely and the meal was cheap like most things out here. I saw a Paraguayan football kit yesterday for 5000 g which is like 90 pence!? Regret not getting it really. We tried 3 different bus ticket sites, well 2, 1 turned out to be a chef course we almost enrolled in, ha. Buses straight to Uruguay are more expensive and a lot less frequent than buenos aires so it looks like we will have to get the boat back and forth like Christina did. We booked the 24 hour bus from Asuncion to Buenos aires leaving at 6pm to give us some time. When we get back go the hostel the crazy French guy, who had become obsessed with one of my stories about a welfordian local and constantly repeated his name whenever he saw me, had bought some more rum and made me a drink with fanta. I said its to early but thought what the hell. This continued as once Claire got back she insisted to buy us a beer to give us a send off, she even bought nicki a book as nic was saying she was without one which I thought was really lovely of her. We got a taxi to the bus station again as its just so much easier and we still feel on top of our budget. They waved us off and it was actually quite sad, but we arranged plans to meet up again later on the trip hopefully in Bolivia. Finding the bus was easy so we used our last 10mil g on some biscuits and a drink for the journey. The bus was fairly nice, not as good as the bus from Foz de Iguacu but still they gave us food. We had a proper chicken and rice dinner which was a pleasant surprise. We crossed the strange strict looking but on closer look fairly lapse boarder into Argentina. I say this because the guards looked scary but yet they were all texting and playing on their phones. It was a bit disconcerting when they took our passports off us and told us to go sit in the bus at one stage I thought we were driving off before we had them back but we were reunited shortly. I drifted off to sleep while the bus played numerous songs by some s*** Paraguayan band called freres or something. We had to watch the videos and everything. I was quite satisfied to see a film in Spanish put on at about 10pm.