Capiata, Paraguay, Mile 56

MAP:   http://www.odysseyatlas.com/trip/8j2


Greetings from the town of Capiata, a whopping 16 miles outside of Asunción.  I did not get far today, unfortunately, like last year it is taking me a couple of days to get used to being suddenly thrust out of winter and into a tropicla summer.  

Today´s ride was...interesting.  From where I stayed to the entrance to Route 2 on the outskirts of Asunción was a distance of exactly 10 miles.  It took me almost two hours to get that far, the traffic had to be seen to be believed.  I rode out of downtown, past ¨Mercado 4¨, an enormous municipal market (Multiple city blocks big) that anyone who has seen the Paraguayan film ¨7 Cajas¨ (Seven Boxes) will recognize, and got on to Ave Mariscal Estigarribia.  Stopped traffic does not usually stop me on a bicycle; I just ride between lanes.   Here, however, the lanes are not as wide as they should be, and these un-wide lanes were mostly occupied by buses.  I could not get through, so I had to sit through several cycles of every red light, breathing diesel fumes, to be able to move on to the next red light.  By the time I got on to route 2, it was noon and 118 degrees according to my thermometer.  I headed east on 2, consuming large quantities of water and Gatorade, passing, among other things, the Paraguayan Military Academy, which was surrounded by cramming schools (One named ¨West Point¨) which promised that, for a fee, they would ¨guarantee¨ that you passed the entrance exam.  Shortly past the academy was a steep uphill, and on this both my legs and both my feet began to cramp up.  At the top of the hill was a sign saying it was 20 miles to Caacupe, a fairly large town, and I figured I would stop there, but the cramping kept getting worse.  At just this moment, I saw a hotel, and decided to bin things for the day.

The hotel I stopped at is a couple of miles east of Capiata proper (Which isn´t much), and surrounded by nothing, so, after a long shower (I was literally dripping sweat from all my clothes), I paid 2,500 Guaranies and took a bus back into town to find something to eat and somewhere to use the internet.  The bus driver had two hands, one of which he was using to hold the cell phone into which he was having a lenghty and detailed conversation and the other one of which was used for shifting gears (It´s Paraguay.  Automatic transmissions are rare on the ground.), taking fares and making change for passangers, and, occasionally, for holding on to the steering wheel.  Except at red lights, the bus never actually came to a full stop the whole time I was on it, it just slowed down and you hopped on or off.  Every block or two someone would get in the front door with a bunch of Cokes and work his way out the back door trying to sell them.  Most exciting.  I was on the bus for about two miles; I may walk back...

The same lack of restuarants in the smaller towns that I noticed in Paraguay two years ago continues.  There is a ¨chipperia¨ (something like a Tijuana taco stand, selling burgers, empanadas and hot dogs) a hundred yards from my hotel, but it won´t open until this evening.  I found a bakery and bought a couple of meat empanadas, a Coke and 7 pieces of FrenchBread, in case the chipperia does not open tonight, for rather less than two Dollars total.

Tomorrow I am going to move on to Caacupe, and maybe beyond if I don´t cramp.  I am a little worried about the long term weather forecast; if it holds up I may be getting wet for a while.  We shall see.