We got on the road from our truck stop around 10am with less than three hours to drive to get to the border.
It wasn’t a bad spot to spend the night in the back, surprisingly quiet. The road started out crappy of course but the roadside showed a level of poverty we haven’t seen since Brazil.
The road continued horribly patched.
The part that got freaky was the style of driving. Argentines have cornered the market on unskillful aggressive decision making on full display when we got stuck behind some very slow logging trucks and a line of trucks cars and buses behind them.
I was certain we were going to witness a pile up and hung back to give others a chance to pass if they felt like it, I wasn’t getting involved in the shoving to get ahead.
It all worked out and I got to sit back and in between avoiding pavement patches got to look around at impoverished northern Argentina.
I am a little tired of red mud in my life but here it was just like we’d seen across Brazil and it makes for a messy shoulder on the road.
Skies were gray but we had no rain and temperatures are near 70 so we are enjoying not being cold at last.
We had a chance to buy some tapioca cheese rings from a street vendor so we did. Pretty good too, and we had them for lunch with marmite and cheese.
And that road boy howdy.
The weird thing was the toll booths were fine despite rumors to the contrary they accepted our credit card no problem and the corrupt cops also rumored on iOverlander were nowhere to be seen going north. They were checking cars going south but it all looked above board and normal. We have yet to meet corrupt cops reputedly found across Latin America.
The final thirty miles were being replaced and happily there were no stripes so traffic could make it a free for all after the active paving zone. 
When we last left Paraguay we chose Friday night to fight traffic to the border with Brazil and this time we chose Saturday afternoon to get in line to leave Argentina. It took longer in line than to deal with the paperwork.
We were under observation. 
Weirdly enough immigration for both countries was carried out by the cheerful Argentine official who apparently got us out of his country and into Paraguay in one seamless, stamp free operation. 
At the checkpoint the customs guy took our Temporary Import Permit for GANNET2 and we got on the bridge to Paraguay which was an epic traffic jam almost the entire length of the structure. Including vendors to keep the bored families fed. And don’t forget the windshield wiper salesmen! 
It’s a mighty structure across the great Paraná River which is second in volume only to the even mightier South American river already visited by GANNET2 and crew: the Amazon. 
Reminiscent of the Sunshine Skyway in Tampa Bay and there was no toll here which surprised me. It was dreamed up in 1973 and construction began in 1983 and the bridge opened in 1990. 
Of course I got a picture as we passed the midpoint.
On the Paraguayan side we had to stop to do a fresh Temporary Import Permit for GANNET2, a piece of artwork not required by locals in the Mercosur (Southern Market) countries. It took twenty minutes and basically required us to sit while he typed.
And then we were back in Paraguay a pleasant cool gray day compared to the burning heat of summer a few months ago.
Founded in 1615 is a city of a hundred and fifty thousand and is the tenth largest in the country. It’s undergone a process of renovation as a tourist center in this landlocked country. Posadas Argentina across the Paraná River: 
It’s famous for its beaches and its new waterfront promenade.
The city is a bustling tourist center for Paraguayans but there are foreign communities here reportedly Poles and Ukrainians mostly, surprisingly enough.
We got the distinct impression no one expects to see gringos here especially in winter. We smile and wave and say hi! And they reply cautiously with a suspicious glance. It feels like being back in Suriname where people wondered why we were there…
You can imagine the crowds here in summer baking on the river beaches.
In winter in a Saturday afternoon there is plenty of room to park but we were on a mission.
We had other plans to be revealed tomorrow.
Paraguay: we’re back.
