It must be clear we don’t have much going on at the moment but I try to remind myself lots of people take a two week vacation to drive to a campground and relax with a book which is roughly what we’re doing…so this enforced boring pause is our vacation. There. Solved.
I have to also point out Rusty is acting bored, getting up, pacing around, napping, short walks, more napping. When we’re driving he acts much more involved in his surroundings though I may be anthropomorphizing.
We were sitting around doing what you do as you wait for your parts to arrive from the States when Robert showed up, last seen in Colonia Valdense Uruguay.
Robert lived in Key West though we never met him and now he’s based in St. Petersburg. He travels alone in his Toyota Land Cruiser and he’s got a water leak in his home which he’s hoping Chris can fix.
We went out to dinner with Robert Friday night along with Mark the Englishman who lives in his cottage at the campground. Mark drove us into town in his Ford van, a job that usually falls to me but from which I am exempted with our failing motor mount, so I got to be a passenger in the back.
We put Rusty on his bed in our bed and left him to guard GANNET2 before dark. So I got to lie in the bed in Mark’s van and look out the windows. Not normal for me so I enjoyed it.
Mark had a place for us to check out as we search for the best burger in Caacupé. It’s odd how a burger can become the object of desire when we are this far from home. It’s a food I enjoy but don’t normally pay much attention to, because in the States a decent burger can be found anywhere. But before the burger test we had some shopping to do at Layne’s current favorite supermarket.
It was night and slightly cool so I was glad I decided to wear my puffy jacket. It’s been warm but temperatures have been variable. Downtown Caacupé:
It turned out this place was a little more upscale with drinks about $18 each. I enjoyed the draft beer as did Mark before he joined Layne drinking caipirinhas:
The burgers were great, as were the fries we shared:
The conversation was travel focused mostly on the subject of food and roads and crazy experiences. Robert got his four wheel drive Landcruiser stuck on a Peruvian mountain for three days with a broken axle. The tow truck he managed to call got stuck too. It was high drama before he got down the mountain.
Mark traveled for years on a motorcycle and sidecar with his dog Fran, the dog that attacked Rusty last time we were here and he hasn’t forgotten…Mark’s really nice and it wasn’t his fault so it’s easy to keep Fran away from Rusty now. 
It was our night out for the week, a break from cooking and dishwashing at camp. The funny thing about the place at the moment is the split between the residents. At one end there are two Germans, a Dutch couple and an Austrian. They all wave cheerfully but none initiate conversation and scour end are the English speakers hanging together. It’s a bit odd but it’s how it goes. Not everyone speaks or likes to speak more than one language and English ends up being the default which can get wearying for non native speakers. Having Robert around is nice for us as we have the same cultural base, all too rare in South America.
We were talking about that and Robert thinks a lot of would be travelers to South America from the States get out off making the crossing of the Darien Gap. And the funny thing is almost all travelers who do make the effort love South America a lot more than the small hot and humid nations in the isthmus.
The Darien Gap costs money to cross for sure but it is also a psychological barrier for most people driving south. And it’s a shame because South America has proved to be an exceptional experience, vast open spaces, mountains, jungles and welcoming people. Central America in my memory is much tougher with a hot humid climate much of the year, small countries with fiddly paperwork required at borders and not nearly the variety of the continent to the south.
And here we are vacationing in a South American campground. Lucky us, I guess.
Seen online; pretty much sums it up:
“ I hate when people ask what I did on the weekend like I'm out here sky diving or something.
I'm almost 62.
I went grocery shopping,
STOPPED TO PEE,
Loaded the wash machine,
STOPPED TO PEE,
walked in the bathroom and forgot why,
IT WAS TO PEE.
At one point l ate shredded cheese out of the bag like a damn raccoon,
STOPPED TO PEE,
then I sat down "for a minute" and accidentally took a 3 hour nap, only woke up because
HAD TO PEE.
So yeah... pretty big weekend
Still recovering.”
