While we were having breakfast this morning we were joined by perhaps 50 park workers who mingled around us for a while before filing into the nearby building for a start of day prayer meeting, followed by their own breakfast. Certain proof that, as the guide book said, Paraguay is a catholic country.

From the peace of the Botanical Gardens we launched back into the hustle and bustle of Asuncion traffic and found our way back into the heart of the city. We eventually found a parking lot near a shopping mall and spent some time looking around at what affluent Paraguayans could buy. Pretty much everything was the answer - they even had a Radio Shack. We continue to be surprised by the universality of consumerism.

It took us a little while and a few false starts to find our way to the border where formalities were completed without much hassle. Though the Argentine officers did not initially seem to know what to do about a foreign vehicle. But once the chief got on the case things moved along as fast as his pedestrian internet connection would allow. It was interesting that the border crossing was a very rough and grubby place, very unlike the other Argentine crossings we have seen. We put it down to the Paraguay influence.