Happy holidays

I am enjoying a really good week of holiday so far. The weather has been glorious.On Monday Mags, Gwen, Hannah and I went to Aregua with an old friend, Pat, who has been back here on a short visit. We had a lovely day enjoying the tranquility of being by the lake in perfect weather, after which we enjoyed lunch in a local restaurant. We also visited the church and explored the pottery shops on the main street.

A local "kitchen".

Yesterday Caroline Gilmour-White and I decided to nip across the border for a shopping spree in Clorinda, Argentina. In fact by lunchtime we had decided to go on to Formosa. I had never been and so we hopped on a bus and had a lovely time exploring Formosa a little. It was great to get away from Asuncion. Formosa is a small, clean city with lots of wide, tree-filled avenues, around a central square with a cathedral, as well as small, busy streets. The people were generally very friendly. Unfortunately, because we went on the spur of the moment I did not have my camera with me so I searched the Internet for a couple pictures.

We enjoyed sitting under the trees and and relaxing, overlooking the port on the River Paraguay. Boats were busy taking visitors out to an island in the middle of the river. I hope that I will be able to return there for another short break sometime.

The bonus was that we found a branch of the Carrefour chain, (not known in Paraguay) so that had to be a "must visit" before we returned to Paraguay laden with shopping!