MAP ADDRESS: http://www.odysseyatlas.com/trip/8j2
Greetings from the crossroads town of Coronel Oviedo, a place that, while not quite half way between Asuncion on the west and Ciudad del Este on the east is basically the halfway point across the country. Coronel Oviedo marks the eastern terminus of Paraguay Route 2, and the westbound terminus of Route 7, which goes to Ciudad del Este. It is also bisected north to south by Route 8, which starts at Caazapa, 60 miles south, and goes north for hundreds of miles into the Chaco. It is named after Colonel Florentino Oviedo, a war hero (naturally) who somehow survived the Triple Alliance war (He had the good luck to be taken prisoner by the Brazilians) and died at age 95 in 1935, a major political leader in the area. The Brazilians were sufficiently impressed with him that they offered him promotion to General and lots of money if he would switch sides, which he did not do. What is impressive about the guy is he entered the army as a Private, with no money or family, and made it as far as he did. On the other hand, of course, when you are one of the very few surviving males in your country after the war, there´s not much competition.
I woke up this morning about 7AM, and saw it was raining, so I rolled over and went back to sleep until 9. At that point, the rain had stopped, so I checked out of my hotel (forgetting to return my key, something I did not notice until miles down the road. Oops.) The day was very cloudy, threatening rain, and I had verified on the internet that there were hotels in Itacurubi de la Cordillera, a town about 20 miles east if the skies opened. As it happened, they did not; I stopped in Itacurubi, which is a pretty, small town, for a few minutes for a Coke and some Gatorade at a gas station, and continued on my way. On my way out the east end of the town, I rode through a copse of yellow flowers that smelled like honeysuckle or lilac. Very pretty.
From Itacurubi, I rode about 10 miles to the town of San Jose de los Arroyos, then made a half left and rode 20 laser straight miles into Coronel Oviedo. About an hour out of Cor Oviedo, it began to rain, but not enough to cause any problems. Before leaving, I had double wrapped all my electronic stuff (Tablet, cell phone, camera, radio, I-Pod and assorted chargers and cables) in plastic bags and buried them in my saddlebags, so nothing got wet. Nor did any pictures get taken either. I put my wallet and passport in another plastic bag inside my camelback.
Paraguay and Brazil (but not Uruguay, which is much more civilized) place rumble strips every 100 yards or so on the shoulders of highways, to keep impatient people from using the shoulder as an additional lane. So far, and on all my sojour on Route 1 two years ago, the MOPC people had very thoughtfully left a two or three inch gap in the middle of these strips, which allowed me to steer through them. Today, I began encountering strips with no gaps. This is bad for multiple reasons. If I take these at speed, I will start breaking spokes, as well as loosening the straps that hold my saddlebags in place. (At 30 MPH down a hill, hitting one of these might send me flying.) The sensible thing to do, one would think, would be, traffic permitting, to just zig out into the traffic lane at each strip and then zag back in, but the highways are constructed in such a way that the lanes are about 3/4 of an inch higher than the shoulders, so doing that is almost as bad as just riding over the rumble strips. I found myself riding on the white line on the right of the traffic lane for stretches, and I did not like it. If there was no oncoming traffic, I did not worry about people behind me passing me, but when I had a truck overtaking me and another truck approaching, I was forced back on to the shoulder, and then forced to slow to about 5 MPH to go over the rumble strips. Today´s ride was very hilly; when I was going UP a hill, this did not bother me because I was only going about 5 MPH anyway, but when I was trying to make up time by flying down the other side it was a real pain in the neck. The last few miles had no rumble strips at all; I hope it continues that way into Cd. del Este.
It never got over 82 degrees today, and the wind was negligible. The ride was so much easier, although I continued drinking lots of water and Gatorade. For some reason, the only two flavors of Gatorade (which is imported from Peru, of all places) I can find are red and blue. I can tolerate blue, but really wish they would stock yellow or purple...
I had my cheapest meal of the trip last night; at another one of these places where food is paid for by weight, I spent 15,000 Guaranies (less than four bucks) on two large milanesas (chicken fried steaks), a beef empanada, bread (to make sandwiches with my milanesas and a Sprite. Not bad. Prices are definitely cheaper; today´s perfectly acceptable hotel cost me 70K (and I ¨splurged¨ an extra 10,000 on a ¨deluxe¨ room with AC and Frigo-bar), which is less than I spent anywhere two years ago. I do hope this keeps up.
This is funny. I just realized I am getting charged in the internet joint by the SECOND. 1 Guarani and 11 (I guess) Centavos per second. I am going to demand exact change...
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