Oviedo

Every time an overlander visits a new country it’s time to reset all the knowledge and information accrued previously and in the case of Team Lost grocery shopping requires investigation.

After the heat of the day we drove 15 minutes into the nearby town of Coronel Oviedo to check out the culture, best expressed by food and its preparation. A quality fruit stand is important to us and the best fruit we’ve found overall was in Brazil. Often you’ll see travelers proudly showing off fruit stands in markets in developing countries as though they are the best quality because they aren’t from a supermarket and so forth. However reality is usually not so simple, as usual.  

Nowhere in the world do the poor get priority. Buying fruits and vegetables in fruit stands is as fraught here as it is at home. Organic is a concept but just because you are buying out in the country somewhere doesn’t mean the produce wasn’t grown pesticide free. Nor does location indicate provenance. It’s abating how much our food travels after being grown in mass production. 

And because we travel a great find (like the one above, including empanadas) quickly becomes a memory as we move on to look for new shopping opportunities in new villages and towns and countries. Supermarkets require exploration too. The Englishman Mark in our last campground had recommended Superseis (“super six”) and it was an excellent store in Caacupé so when we found it in Oviedo we figured…and the shopping center looked very weird like it had been dropped in from Florida:

Unfortunately we neither of us noticed the word “express” next to the store sign.

It looked like Publix from the outside but a grumpy Layne came back reporting it was like a convenience store inside. Meanwhile Rusty and I did our usual circumnavigation. 

I’ve read all the pearl clutching about the Mexican spat and I’m grateful no one here has posted a comment about it as we are further removed from Guadalajara than most North Americans. I don’t suppose any of the overwrought commentators noticed but it was a fight between the government and a bunch of drug dealers only, no tourists were harmed in the killing of El Mencho. But I have no doubt know the shooting has stopped the chatter will continue. It’s massively ironic but these days the former dictatorships and killing grounds of South America are the least violent continent of all. 

We’ve driven through several police checkpoints and only got stopped once by a cop chatting on his phone! He took my drivers license and Florida registration, walked round GANNET2 and came back to my window, waved me on never once interrupting his chat. Curiosity is the main driver in our meetings with police. 

The heat in Paraguay continues unabated but we find this wooded shady campground to be much more comfortable than the last. The owner Attilio is cheerful and helpful and cooks well too. 

The pool is a refuge in the heat (Rusty doesn’t like water so he sleeps either under GANNET2 or in a convenient bush). 

And at lunch the farm invades our space. The crazy old sheep, a pet came to say hello rather insistently. 

There is a serenity here that comes as a relief after the bad manners and strange vibes at Pequeña Baviera. We decided to base ourselves here and take a day trip and then push on to Brazil. At 4:20am Saturday we are booked on a tour of Iguazu Falls which rank among the most visited cascades in the world. Suddenly we have a deadline, which is just as well as I could sink into an old man’s torpor in this place. 

“Do you drive or do you text?”

“Oviedo is for everyone!”

There is no central square in Oviedo which seemed like an oversight so we drove to the unimposibg cathedral and then turned around.

Main Street: