Living in the Botanical Garden, Asuncion

September 9, 2018

We could actually stay in the botanical garden for free, and the staff was really nice. There were even people at work during the night for safety, though the botanical garden is closed. Inside the is also a zoo, and we had heard that the zoo had a tapir, which we really wanted to see. The entry fee was only cost 11,000 PYG per person (2 USD or 12 DDK). First we were blown away by the hippo, but why? First of all we have never seen one before, second it is so BIG and third it was amazing to see it eat.

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A lot of action was going on in the cage of the pumas

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Other animals were a lot more relaxed

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But where was the tapir?

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Maybe it was hiding like the hippo… or the alligator

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Stopped by some other animals first, since we could not find the tapir

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BUT we found it, first it was just laying around looking really said, but it looked a little bit more happy, when there was served fresh fruit and vegetables. Its favorite were lettuce and bananas.

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We spend two days living in the Botanical Garden, because it was just so nice. No problem sleeping at night, because the traffic noise was scarce. Also one of the other items in the package was waterproofing for our jackets. A second thing was a new hard disc, since we were running out of space due to all our pictures.

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We also had time to go for a walk in the Botanical Garden, and nearby we decided to visit the Memorial Ycuá Bolaños. On August 1st 2004 a fire started in the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket. After the fire broke out, exits were locked to prevent people from stealing merchandise. The building also lacked adequate fire protection systems. The fire burned for seven hours before firefighters were able to extinguish it. Nearly 400 people were killed and more than 500 were injured (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ycu%C3%A1_Bola%C3%B1os_supermarket_fire). As we walked by the 14 years later, the demolition of the building had begone, and the only thing left of the memorial was the metal statue.

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After spending 1 week more than planned in Mallorquin due to me being sick and waiting for the shipment, it was time to head towards Bolivia. We had decided to drive the Trans-Chaco in Paraguay to reach Bolivia in 4-5 days. It starts on Asunción’s Botanical Garden and Zoo and ends at the border between Paraguay and Bolivia, traversing 835 km (519 mi). It was time to hit the Trans-Chaco.

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First night on the Trans-Chaco

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