Yesterday we got off the bus at 8.15am, at Formosa (only 15 minutes behind schedule!), on the Argentinian border, where we had to get a connecting bus to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Our bus wasn't due until just before 12.00 noon, so we passed the time drinking coffee, reading and attempting to complete suduko puzzles in a 'make-shift cafe' in the bus station, soon the time had passed and it was time to get our bus. We had to wait for about half an hour, as our bus was delayed, this bus was not as 'posh' as our previous 1st class bus to Formosa, but was comfortable enough.

Once we arrived at the boarder to Paraguay we lined up with our passports, handed them into one 'official' at the first window, confirmed who we were at the second and got our passports back for a short time at the third, before they took it back off us and said the bus driver will give it us back (?). Apparently, this border has one of the most rigourous checks in South America. After, freaking Laura out the bus driver gave us our passports back, back on the bus (after what seemed like waiting for hours!) and we headed into Asuncion. We didn't realise, but Paraguay was an hour behind Argentina, so we had gainned an hour! After withdrawing the wrong amount of money, in our tired state, we grabbed taxi to our 'Pension House'-type hostel, which was cheap and confortable enough, but our room was very stuffy.

Being pretty late in the day we headed to the shopping centre for a browse of the shops and stalls and grabbed some dinner at the Chinese counter in the food court at the top of the centre, cheap as!! After we were sufficently stuffed and a few pennies lighter, we headed back to our hostel and flopped out!

This morning we were woken to the sounds of traffic passing by in the street outside our room. We showered, dressed and left the hostel by 9.30am and headed straight towards the market quarter, which we gave up as a bad job, as it was pretty run down and not very 'happening'/ 'markety'. We headed back towards our hostel to begin our personal walking tour of the city, passing Estacion Central, now a car park and museum and houses a old steam loco motive, Plaza Los Heros and numerous other municiple buildings. We made a brief de-tour off the walking tour to head to the shopping centre for a lovely buffet lunch, including a gorgeous lasagne.

Once we headed back out onto the streets, it was absolutely chucking it down so we took refuge in a few shops before finishing the walking tour and doing a bit more shopping! We headed back to the Pension house around 8.00pm and got ready for our early start.