Mad dogs and English women.....

I must be mad.
Today I woke up very early. I looked at the temperature and it was a relatively cool morning at 25C. I therefore decided to go and grab my shopping trolley, a cool box and then went to find a bus to take me over the border to Argentina. I was lucky. A bus came almost immediately and I climbed on. However, there were no seats left. It is a one and a half hour to two hour trip with a dirt track road across the Chaco for the last half hour.

Eventually a grandmother took pity on me and she moved her grandaughter onto her knee. In the end we took turns at having the child, who was a sweet little thing. (Not one of theses "macho" men would give up his seat for a grey-haired "old" lady.)

I was in Argentina just after nine, so went straight to the supermarkets. The exchange rate is well in our favour so I stocked up on cheese, real ham (as opposed to plastic sealed ham) a huge amount of washing powder, some 70% chocolate for making mousse and eight bars of Dove soap. I was peeved that I could not get my toothpaste as they did not have it.
By eleven my cool box and trolley were full, so I went back to the bus station. There was a bus in but it was full so I hung around for the next one.
As it pulled in I could see men moving stuff around on the bus. I climbed on to get a seat near the front. All the seats in the bus and under the seats was full of stuff, from sacks of rice to cans of beer and bottles of cooking oil (all contraband bound for the market in Paraguay). The driver told me to sit on top of a box. I and another lady (who was 85) sat doubled up in an almost foetal position on boxes. My shopping trolley was removed and placed behind the drivers seat along with a several sacks of stuff.
Eventually other people piled onto the bus. By then it was getting very hot. The driver was not going to leave until there were as many people as seats on the bus... no matter that they were stood on boxes in the aisle because there were no seats actually available.
The lower windows on the bus had no opening mechanism so there was only air coming in at the top through a vent. I was sooooooo hot! I have been on a few buses from the border, that had contraband under the seats but this was amazing. The bus had a distinct list to the right because the weight was unevenly distributed. (I was sitting on the left. Ha! Ha!)

On the way back we were stopped at the International bridge. The driver had to climb out of his "cocoon" in the driving seat (It was surrounded by stuff) to tackle the police. Eventually, after some arguments he handed over a fistful of guaranies (bribe!) and we were sent on our way.

When I got near to my road I yelled at the driver to stop. There was then a major problem extracting my trolley from under what had now become a pile of sacks of rice. Finally a kind man did what was needed and I was set down with my shopping onto the pavement. I was "dripping" and very tired.

I will now wait until the Autumn and cooler weather before I attempt that journey again. Living in Paragauay can never be called "dull".