February 18, 2000
Day 119 Juan O'Leary: small town Paraguay
We have our little alarm clock set for 6am. The hotel provides breakfast, after that we carry our bikes and gear up the stairs and assemble all in the front drive.
Off we go.
Even though it is still early traffic is already hectic. Fortunately, there is a nice wide shoulder. For the first 40km, the road west to Ascension is a divided highway. It climbs and descends a bit, along the road mostly industrial buildings. Every hundred meters a small speedbump runs across the shoulder to discourage drivers from using it as a passing lane. They are too high for us to run over them at any speed, so either we go around or have to break. Most of the time we can go around.
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The countryside becomes more farmland as we get further from the city. There are a few villages shown on the map but it seems like there are houses everywhere all set back about 50 meters from the road.
We stop at a gas station, east some bread and buy juice and chocolate. It's warm and humid today, but not as extreme as we had in Argentina province Misiones. We see several ox carts and lots of other cyclists and scooters.
After about 40kms the road becomes two-lane but we keep a shoulder.
After one more stop at a roadside shop for a cold coke we reach Juan O'Leary, a small town not on our map but indicated on the tour guide of the "Latin America by Bike" book that we've been carrying.
There is a nice hotel, bun by a Brazilian for 50,000 Guarani (about $15US). We get a nice clean room with AC, TV and a large and small bed. Bathroom is attached. We roll the bikes in the covered parking next to the room and install ourselves in the room just past noon. We read since the TV cannot be persuaded to show us anything. Rachel does some laundry and, in the evening, we eat at the hotel Restuarant.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 3,844 km (2,387 miles)
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