We got up at 6:30 and had a simple breakfast. By 8:30 we were on our way. We drove along the front of the Sierra de Aguarague. I did an XR paleomagnetic section on this range but had not seen it before since XR did the sampling. It is more imposing than I had imagined.

Before reaching the border, we visited an indigenous village renowned for making the animal masks that I collect. It is located in the western Chaco. The people were friendly and made many sales to our group. I bought two exquisite masks: a parrot and a wolf.

We continued toward the border, stopping in a small, God-forsaken place to eat our sandwiches in the hot, dry, dusty air. Some students still don't get the fact that this is not the USA . We went to a small tienda hoping for cold soft drinks but one student wanted ice cream….good luck!

We drove on to the Argentine aduana. We caught them off guard. I could distinctly smell a few whiffs of marijuana in the building, then it took the guy 15 minutes to find the passport stamp. After getting through that, we crossed the Río Pilcomayo into Paraguay. No one was at the border station. We asked several people around the Pozo Hondo station what was up. One guy who was sort of in a uniform said that if we all had visas to just go on. So we did.
The map on the wall on the Argentine side and all Argentine maps show the road as a straight shot but the one on the Paraguayan side showed a huella, or dirt track. When I originally planned this trip, I had us crossing the Chaco salteño from Joaquín V. González to Asunción. Angel talked me into this alternate route because my route was "all the same". So was this one. My route was on paved road, at least. We could also make Asunción in one day instead of three!

The Chaco is impressive in its flatness and its total impenetrability. Every plant is adorned with thorns. I didn't really mind crossing it because I had never done so before. With luck, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

The track was rough and it was hot in the bus so I called a techero ride. Most people went up and rode as the sun set and into the night. We saw lots of birds, several consuelas, an armadillo, a coral snake, rabbits, a fox, and some saw a cat. The moon and stars were glorious as we bounced along seeing no sign of human habitation.

Eventually, we came upon a national police outpost. The captain with his M-16 spoke good English and was a nice guy. We explained the entrance stamp situation and he was cool with that. He took to Jayne and she gave him her e-mail address.

A few techeros went in but the rest of us cruised along until Angel started driving under low branches. I got a cut on the top of my head from a thorn and Todd cut his arm on another. So at about 1:30 we climbed down. Only Motley and Nigel stayed aloft.

I sat with Samm. She told me someone asked if we were going to stop at a restaurant. Todd said, “If you can find one, we’ll stop.” Silence ensued. We drank her coke and I soon fell asleep. Motley and Nigel proved to be the techeros from hell staying on the roof until we arrived in Filadélfia, a total of 11 hours.