Encarnacion, Here We Come

Monday morning, we drove about 3 1/2 hours out to Encarnacion, a lovely city on the border of Argentina. What a nice drive, and a chance to see more of this beautiful country! The small towns here all seem to specialize in something, so we drove out of Carapegua (home of hammocks, blankets, and tablecloths), through the town of soccer balls, one of cattle stalls, another of sheep's wool, and a few more we didn't readily identify. You know what the specialty is by whatever happens to be hanging over or lining the sidewalks on the main road. Our favorite was the wool town, since all their hanging goods looked very warm and fluffy.

We made it into Encarnacion just in time for lunch, and the city did not disappoint. We were told that the plan (sometime in the near or distant future--who really knows?) is to make the city a sort of island, only accessible by the eight bridges currently being built as connectors. The lower section of the town that runs along the impressive Parana River will then be underwater. For now, that area is full of vendors and street people. You know I just can't resist the hippies, so we met some of the most interesting people there. I have to admit that the song Jack Black wrote for the nun of the same name in Nacho Libre is STILL ringing in my ears. Every time someone said, "Encarnacion" in a sentence, at least one of us broke in with "Encarnaci-oh-oh-oh-oh-on!"

Anyway.....we were so thrilled that the (cheap but adequate) hotel we found had an air conditioning unit with a heat setting. Poor Ken. He was outnumbered by us women, so he had to endure the sauna we created to combat the cold outside. Encarnacion is "way down south," so it's the coldest. I still find it funny that the further south you go the colder it gets. When we woke up one morning, it was 1* celsius. BRRR! Camille quickly bought a puffy winter coat (thanks, Granny!) and Caroline stayed snuggled up with Nana.

Here are a few pics of the day. Tomorrow I'll tell you about our jaunt over the border into Argentina, and then about the really neat Reserve we found near a big dam. The first picture below is of the flags of Argentina and Paraguay, which fly together near the bridge that crosses the border.

This is the view from our hotel window. We were in a "not so pretty" part of town, but you can see Posadas, Argentina over the river. At night it lit up nicely!

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