Map: http://www.odysseyatlas.com/trip/8j2
Greetings today from the fair sized town of Santa Rita, 44 miles west and then south of Ciudad del Este. This is a most interesting place...
First, the ride. The wind gods smiled upon me today, there was about a 10MPH wind out of the north north east. Since I was riding first west and then south, the wind was my friend today. I left out of my hotel about 8:30 this morning, wearing my Toros del Este T-shirt from the Dominican League in honor of my hotel´s name--Hotel Santo Domingo, and rode two blocks south at which point I turned right on Route 7 and began to retrace my steps from Saturday. There was about ten miles of up-and-downs, always helped by the wind, and then the highway flattened out a bit. At Minga Guazu, half a mile before the four lanes reduced down to two lanes, I encountered the turn-off for Route 6 (NOT Route 9 as I mistakenly said yesterday.) I stopped here to restock on blue gatorade, and headed south. Route 6 stretches 155 miles from the port city of Concepcion, across from Posadas, Argentina, north to Route 7. I knocked 26 of those miles off today, meaning I am now 129 miles from the end of the Paraguayan portion of this ride. Route 6 is neither in as good a shape as Route 7 nor as busy. I stuck to the shoulders, mostly, and, with the wind, went whizzing through endless fields of Soy Beans. The thermometer topped out at 105 degrees on the pavement, and I consumed a total of 5 bottles of Gatorade in the course of a 44 mile ride that lasted about three and a half hours.
The Gatorade is something to mention. I am, as is known, something of a heavy consumer of the products of the Coca Cola Company. When hot, the first thing I usually want is a cold Coke. In my previous half a dozen long bike trips, five down here and one on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I have consumed copious quantities of the stuff with no ill effects. Perhaps I am getting older, or wiser, but after having real problems with the heat on Sunday a week ago riding around Asuncion and then last Monday on the first leg of this trip, I have knocked off the Coke entirely while riding. I drink only Gatorade, when I can get it, and water when I can´t. I still drink my Coke, but in the afternoon, when I am done riding. Since I started doing that, I have had no problems whatsoever, none, with the heat. As I mentioned, the only flavor of Gatorade I can find that I will drink is Blue, but most gas stations stock that. Prices vary anywhere from 7,000 to 12,000 Guaranies for a half-liter bottle, meaning a significant percentage of my total expenditure is going to Gatorade, but it is worth it.
Gasoline in Paraguay runs about $7.00 a gallon, with the price set by the government. There are many different companies selling the stuff, including ESSO (EXXON) and 76 from the US, PetroBras from Brazil, local brands and ¨Petrosur¨, which is like Citgo--Chavez gas, owned by the socialist paradise of Venezuela. As I refuse to buy from Citgo in the US, I also refuse to buy from Petrosur´s convenience stores.
I arrived in Santa Rita about 12:30 this afternoon. I could have gone on, but did not know how far until the next hotel. I did not know this because of the difficulty I had getting on the internet this morning in my hotel in CDE. So I stopped here, in a huge Germanic hotel called the Hotel Stauffenberg. It is a bit expensive, 195,000 Guaranies, but the room is nice and there is a very nice pool which I already used. Being out of clean clothes, I asked where the nearest laundromat was, and after a shower walked my two bags of filthy clothes around the block to said laundromat. Being that I AM in Paraguay, and that Paraguay is a Spanish speaking country, I asked in Spanish when my clothes would be ready and how much it would cost. I got a blank stare, and then a response in Portuguese. Somewhat non-plussed, I repeated myself in Portuguese, and dropped off the clothes. Then I walked across the street to a supermarket and bought a bottle of Coke, and the cashier gave me an ¨Obrigada¨ instead of a ¨Gracias¨ when I paid. So I walked back to the hotel and asked the girl at the counter if, maybe, there might be a few Brazilians in this town, and she responded that ¨we¨ are about 90% of the population. I wonder what the Paraguayans think about all this, but since I have not actually seen any in this place, I cannot ask them.
The weather forcast tomorrow is not promising, I might end up staying here an extra day. I hope not. Nothing against the place, but I want to keep moving.
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