Bad News

 Our inverter/charger has lost the ability to charge our batteries. This means we no longer have the ability to charge our batteries by plugging in to electrical outlets.

As long as it’s sunny, or we are driving we can recharge our batteries. If we want to stay still on cloudy days we run out of energy. Because we are looking to live and roam and not simply drive from A to B we want the ability to charge the batteries any way we have to, but solving this problem may require a return to Brazil. Which does not make me happy. 

The urge to leap in and offer advice is irresistible  but our van has appliances powered by 110 volts and the difficulty of locating a 110 volt 30 Amp charger  in 220 volt Paraguay is one obstacle. Brazil uses both systems so 110 volt parts are available there. Plus Paraguay has steep and irrational customs duties on imported parts. If they are available. Also Brazil has an active RV building industry that uses both those 220 and 110 volts systems. 

Caacupé Cathedral 

I have no idea why our Go Power inverter/charger no longer charges  but the coincidence of a new installation combined with a sudden failure is forcing me to the conclusion that there is cause and effect. The only reason I care is because I am reluctant to drive four days back to Brasilia to have the same hands install a new system  but we may have to. And hopefully they will be more efficient with equipment they know from experience. 

If Chris the mechanic and campground owner cannot get the parts we may have no choice but to return to Brasilia. 

Rusty is suffering the heat and developed a hot spot so we took him to the vet so that one was one positive thing, they have a good vet it seems in Caacupé. It also seems the town which is quite pleasant is a shrine of some sort to Our Lady with an annual pilgrimage I believe. My heads full of inverters and chargers at the moment.

This is a massive irritation as we were enjoying our solar and air conditioning and Starlink upgrades. The carpentry has made the interior more comfortable and we were busy route planning and looking forward to it. We have been rather grumpy as a result. 

Loki’s antics with a beer can have helped. He’s the campground pest rescued  from a cage. He irritates a lot of people including Layne but I get on with him fine. He hasn’t pee’d on me yet and I’ve stopped him stealing my glasses  so I’m hoping he will continue to be civil.  

He lives in the fenced in area around the house where the swimming pool is so you need to keep your possessions guarded. The common fridges have been monkey-proofed to protect the contents but I enjoy watching him leap around the rafters and swing through the trees.  When I go for a swim he comes running up to me and climbs on my head making him difficult to photograph.

He likes the dregs of beer cans too.  

Not entirely compensation for not being able to travel. 

Little Bavaria

 Paraguay the paradox, a country unknown that offers surprising campgrounds for overland travelers. We left Pedro and his free campground and drove two and a half hours on Monday afternoon to Chris and Astrid’s Pequeña Baviera (little Bavaria) campground near the town of Caacupé an hour outside the capital of Asuncion.

We were greeted oddly enough by a German couple we’d last seen in Argentina last March. They have a Toyota four wheel drive pick up truck with a camper and are anxious to get into the mountains to escape the torrid heat  as they don’t have air conditioning to sleep by, unlike us. We awoke to 55% battery capacity after a  cool air conditioned night and the solar panels and a little driving got us fully charged by the we arrived at 3:30 pm yesterday at the campground. This 12 volt system is really proving to be excellent on 100 degree days. The drive was as we have come to expect in this country. Agriculture is an important industry here : 

The roads were a mixture of smooth pavement and stretches of rough patching and potholes which are annoying and slow us down. Even on the good stretches we barely make 50 mph but on the rough bits it’s 25 mph if we’re lucky. The road sign says slow down to 25 mph as the road is full of potholes (baches):

Laundry is a perpetual requirement where washing machines are too expensive. 

Tire shop and lunch counter in the sand place. All trucking needs attended to I guess: 

Not completely fascinating countryside I will admit: 

Lots of tire shops (gomerias) in Paraguay. Tires are so expensive the locals generally like to get by on used replacements for well worn tires. We gringos riding on knobby all terrain tires with treads are the lucky ones. 

I include road signs as a reference but I have no idea where these cities are located and I doubt you do either but here they are. 

Paraguay, like most poor countries, sells stuff roadside so people can try to help make ends meet. 

We discovered they make some pretty good empanadas in Paraguay, fried and filled with ground beef and chopped boiled eggs. 

We have encountered a few toll booths. The attendants smile and charge 75 cents. With gas at $3:40 a gallon we can afford to drive. Pretty nice country. 

Here’s another town no one’s ever heard of…Paraguay, land of mystery. 

The capital of pineapples and bananas apparently.  

Layne says the small pineapples are best when juiced. We don’t have a juicer so we passed on by. 

Need a Chevy? They sell models you’ve never heard of (and some you have). Chinese manufacturers stick a Chevy logo on their cars and sell them as prestige American cars. And Chevy makes  money for next to nothing. Cool, eh? 

Remains of a 75 cent lunch. 

There are some hills and outcrops but most of Paraguay looks pretty flat and dare I say noting special to look at. 

The Promaster gets about 15 miles per gallon and burning gas is our single biggest expense. If overlanders want to save money they slow down or sit still for  awhile. 

Consider a $15 a day campground compared to driving at 15mph at $3:40 a gallon. So a day in a campground is a money saver usually. Never mind free camping in the wild if the area is suitable.  

The campground’s address is in the town of Caacupé: 

The road to the campground is half a mile of dirt, red dirt, and uncomfortable reminder of the Amazon. 

We have a neighbor. She’s called Fran and is sweet enough Rusty tolerates her and her owner, a well traveled Englishman. 

This campground wasn’t meant to be our next stop but Chris the owner does mechanical work and our new shore power system isn’t hooked up properly. I’m slightly annoyed as we should have checked even though we were running out of time. I’m also annoyed the electrician didn’t get it right first time. 

So we have to pause our tourism to deal with unintended consequences. Life on the road.