Ellen in Paraguay

On night we ate dinner at Dario and Marelene’s house. We came at six o’clock but then sat around talking for a couple hours. Meanwhile the sky was turning greyer, the wind was picking up and I was sure at any minute waterdrops would be hitting my head. FINALLY she said “why don’t we go inside and eat before there’s a big storm?” Well, the weather held out for another hour while we ate, but we decided it would be good to go and catch the bus before it started to pour. We RAN to get on the bus back to Lambaré but a fifteen minute walk still awaited us from the bus stop to my house. I would have considered taking a taxi, but we decided just to run for it, and besides I only had another five mil, half the amount it would cost us to catch another bus that would bring us only a block away from home. This is what I love about Paraguay. At the moment we were passing the next bus stop (which is not really a bus stop at all, one can hail a bus from almost any position along the street. It is convenient to not have to walk to a bus stop, but fairly inefficient because the bus sometimes stops multiple times in just a short block) …the bus came along and I had the brilliant idea of asking if we could enter for half the price. I don’t know if I would normally be so brazen, but the thing was I had been throwing up earlier that night and all that running wasn’t making the situation any better. And of course the driver let us on, so that is why I am telling our victorious story. It started pouring during the bus ride, and we still ended up getting wet anyways, but it was an adventurous evening for us and hopefully make everyone appreciate their cars at home a little bit more.