Our Paraguay visas only last for 90 days, so we knew we would need to leave the country at some point to get exit stamps and new entrance stamps. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to go about doing it and thought we might just have to find a way into the Formosa province of Argentina that borders Asuncion. We were very excited when a family in our ward said that we could use their van to go on a trip while they are gone on vacation to the states. What a blessing! I was pretty nervous about borrowing someone else's car, especially to drive down here, but it all worked out very nicely thanks to my fearless husband who took the wheel the entire trip.
It was a 5.5 hour trip down to Encarnacion where we decided to spend our first night. We stopped in a little town and turned it in to our own personal rest stop where we "used the bathroom" and ate lunch.
We saw this little library on the way out of town.
He said, "Well, Paraguay looks pretty much the same as Idaho, but with random banana trees."
We found a resort for 50 bucks a night that we stayed in that first night. I set my expectations pretty low, but it actually ended up being a really nice experience. It had a beautiful view of the river. We were impressed with how kid-friendly it was. We tried to swim, but the water was freezing. It's been in the 70s here lately, but gets lower at night. Just a TINY bit too cold for us to swim. It is winter after all! The boys were brave and both jumped in, but then got right back out.
Belén preferred the little playground.
Eating our leftover sandwich bits from lunch at 4 p.m. because restaurants don't open for dinner until 7:00 p.m. here.
There were emus and peacocks randomly roaming the hotel grounds.
While we were out playing, some people came out and set up this bouncy house which the kids were obviously VERY excited about. Shae was excited to time himself going up the bouncy house to see if he could keep beating his previous record time.
Belén dancing her Belén dance.
We were able to borrow a soccer ball from the front desk and play for a bit.
The moment in which Darin almost killed me with the soccer ball. It zoomed right past my head after I took this. That's what I get for trying to document moments instead of keeping my head in the game.
This one was worth documenting though.
Sunset with these guys our first night of a much needed weekend away together.
At the kids normal bedtime, we headed out for dinner. We were all starving. We found a burger place online that had really good reviews, but when we got there learned that it had been closed down. A nice man on the street told us of a different burger joint nearby and we quickly headed there. La Victoria did not disappoint.
Playing "where is the coin" while we wait for dinner.
The kids got some final bounces in and then we all crashed.
We let the kids play on the playground and bouncy house a little bit more the next morning. Literally as we were heading out, an employee showed up with a horse and asked if the kids wanted to ride it. Um, yes! They were very excited to ride their first horses. Belén was a little scared to ride by herself, so Darin got to ride HIS very first horse too :).
Some final swings and then we were off to the ruins.
No comments:
Post a Comment