Rio Paraguay to Concepcion....then back to Asuncion

Spent a few days killing time in Asuncion. For a capital city, its not much. Some badly maintained building and parks BUT I DID see a Paraguayan rap battle. Basically just a bunch of teenagers spitting to some paraguyan hip hop beats with crowd applause deciding who was the best. Pictures are posted above. In all honesty, for an amateur affair, some of the kids weren't bad. Bought some pirated DVDs. Most of which I got completely ripped off on. What are you going to do though right? That's what I get for trying to screw the RIAA.

There was this boat called the Cacique II that goes up the Paraguay river, which is a tributary to the amazon, for two days and lets you off more north in Concepcion Paraguay. My plan was to do this and to my surprise, it worked. I was joined by two Australians and an old Irish guy from my hostel who wanted to find the Jesuit mission in Concepcion. The problem is that the Cacique II is NOT a passenger boat. It mainly carries eggs, chickens and lime. which I was inhaling for most of the two days on river. There WERE rooms but mainly made for the mates on board, just about the size of a shoebox and it was hotter than a bum's anus inside the cabins. I did meet some nice Paraguayans who made me play a bunch of American songs on the guitar. Then after being a half bottle deep in Pisco they let me drive the boat. It might of been because I was drinking, but piloting a boat is easy. I only hit like two sea otters.

We got into Concepcion which is by far the smallest town I've been into. The Irish guy just got off the boat muttering "I'm going to look for the Jesuits" and walked off by himself.  He's about 65 and doesn't speak a word of Spanish.  I respect the man. This town literally has ONE stoplight and not much else. We got picked up by Peter, a German who owns a farm a little outside of town with his wife, three kids, and tons of animals. I didn't WWOOF here, only relaxed. The food was amazing, Peter was hilarious and obsessed with "boobs." He also got me sleeping pills which is perfecto. I got some creative juice flowing to write again. They had a beautiful setup and I had a private room with a fan.
On my way back, ( I was going to take a bus to Filapelphia, PA (no relation) and then into Bolivia. Unfortunately, it turns out that Americans have the ass end of getting Visas into Bolivia, probably thanks to the illustrious W being president for 8 years. While I was being driven there, Peter asked if I'd gotten my Visa yet and I nonchalantly replied that I hadn't.  I was just going to get it as I crossed into the country per usual.  He looked at me like I was crazy and told me that I needed to prearrange a Bolivian visa before leaving the country....I had to bus all the way back to Asuncion, effectively making the boat trip north up river useless, just to apply for the Visa. Spent a day running around to different spots getting this and that; passport photos, police letters, copies, proof of yellow fever shot. I think I'm all set to go now. I'm waiting in the hotel lobby to get on my bus to Bolivia. Heard its 30 hours +. Hurray.