From Puerto Suárez (Bolivia), via Corumbá (Brazil), after 100 kilometres we reach Puente Morinho (Brazil) and take a boat to Porto Esperança (Brazil). Assuming we would board our ship to Asunción there, we enjoy the ride in a river taxi on the Río Paraguay. You can quickly tell how fast the river is flowing from the "water lilies" that have been torn loose. In places these drifting plants cover large areas of the waterway. Our boatman has to choose his route carefully ahead of time so he can get through the gaps in time. A stop at the railway viaduct gives us a fantastic view out over the Río Paraguay.

After 40 minutes we reach Porto Esperança. What a shock! Where is the port? It seems that apart from us and the mosquitoes, nobody ever strays out here. Yes, yes, the boatman proudly confirms, this is Porto Esperança in Brazil. Dusk has already fallen, and the question is where we will spend the night. Miguel sees our dismay and takes us to his friend, who lives on the riverbank. Once again we are delighted by South American helpfulness. The whole family helps unload and carries our bags into a 4-bed room made ready at short notice. 2 beds are made up with fresh sheets for us. The boys have carried the mattresses from the other 2 beds into the next room. In the kitchen, Mama is already cooking, so our hunger will soon be over too.

Even the best planning can literally "fall into the water". We are on the wrong riverbank. The ship we were expecting leaves from Puerto Esperanza in Paraguay, which is about 200 kilometres further downstream and can only be reached from here by water. What's more, it only sails to Asunción once a week, on Fridays at 07:00, so not for another 5 days. Our host would take us further downstream to the port in the morning. A 5-hour boat trip: 140 litres of petrol plus 100 USD is what the fun would cost us. There is only one sensible solution! Back to Puente Morinho, where there are also just a few lonely huts, the petrol station and the bridge.

Where there's a "petrol pump", there's bound to be a lorry going to the next bus terminal. A lift soon comes along, and we are taken to Miranda, 160 kilometres away. We don't understand Portuguese, and speaking it is even more out of the question. Sign language and the help of a Spanish-speaking local soon get us onto a coach for another 270 kilometres to Campo Grande. At the big bus terminal, where most of Brazil's routes meet, we have to change to get to Asunción, 1,000 kilometres away. At 06:00 in the morning, after a 14-hour night journey, before dawn has broken, we cycle into the city centre, 8 kilometres away.

Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, with 600,000 inhabitants, didn't offer us much apart from lots of dangerous potholes in the asphalt. On our walk around town, the "Panteón de los Héroes" with its 2 guards caught our eye. This magnificent domed building was turned into a war memorial after it was completed in 1936. Impossible to miss are the government palace and the slums right in front of it. The slums stretch down to the banks of the Río Paraguay and are watched over by the Policía Nacional. The contrast could not be more extreme! The people in government enjoy a sensational view, and those on the margins can't even afford windows for their wooden shacks.

The old railway station, which in 1856 was one of the first on the South American continent, also stands abandoned and derelict. Just one street away is the "Plaza Uruguaya". A shocking picture of misery, rubbish and plastic-sheet tents. We can't understand how such a place of misery in the middle of Paraguay's capital can be called "Uruguaya". This patch of ground, the size of a football pitch, is home to 50 – 100 shelters, their families and a handful of toilet huts. This misery, too, is guarded all round by the police, as a precaution so that no tourist can wander in. Two days in Asunción were enough for us; we move on to Ciudad del Este, 360 kilometres to the east.

The "Ruta Internacional" leads out of the city as a dual carriageway at first, but it soon becomes a single lane each way. Everything, absolutely everything, is moved across the country on this main road. The volume of traffic is enormous. Even on the other side of the road there is traffic coming towards you. Wherever there is a hard shoulder, which is the case on almost the whole highway, "microsleep bumps" have been built in. These ridges of asphalt laid across the direction of travel are so unpleasant for us cyclists that we have to stop before riding over them. So we are always caught between fast traffic, an asphalt bump, or oncoming vehicles squeezing through to get to their house.

All along the route from Asunción to Ciudad del Este there are enough places to buy supplies, and at the neighbouring farms, the "estancias", you can usually find a spot for the tent too. After 4 days, with more frustration than pleasure, we reach Ciudad del Este, the fastest-growing city in the country. The "Puente de la Amistad" (Friendship Bridge) across the Río Paraná and the building of the hydroelectric power station brought the city its boom. By now 300,000 people live here, in a smugglers' town where anything that makes money can be bought and sold. Electronic goods, spirits, perfumes, clothes and copies of brand-name goods are offered at rock-bottom prices.

At the weekend the city seems deserted, which is ideal for us to cycle to the 40-metre-high waterfalls on the Paraná river. Ciudad del Este is very central. The Brazilian border, the "Saltos del Monday" waterfalls and the Itaipú power station are all within 10 kilometres. The lively driving style in the city centre, however, needs strong nerves and a constant readiness to brake!

The largest hydroelectric power station in the world!
On a chassis on wheels that calls itself the "Hernandarias" regional bus, we head for the Itaipú mega power station, 10 kilometres away. In the auditorium there is an information film (available in 3 languages), followed by a tour of the site in a luxury coach. Seeing this brilliant pioneering achievement is an absolute "must", and, believe it or not, it's free!

The Itaipú power station was opened in May 1991 as a "monument to solidarity, cooperation and integration". The agreement of 1966 laid the foundation stone for this binational venture between Brazil and Paraguay. The Paraná river was to be used equally by both for generating energy. The contract went to an international consortium of IECO (USA) and ELC (Italy). Building this gigantic project took 16 years (1975 -1991) and reportedly cost 22 billion dollars.

Figures:
The 1.2 million construction plans, drawings and materials lists, stacked on top of each other, would be as high as a 50-storey building. The 12.3 million cubic metres of concrete would be enough to build 210 football stadiums. With the iron and structural steel used, you could build 380 Eiffel Towers. The flood spillway, at 62.2 million cubic metres, carries 40 times the flow of the Iguazú Falls and reaches a speed of 120 km/h. The reservoir covers 1,350 square kilometres and stretches for 170 km, making it 2.3 times bigger than Lake Geneva. 20 Francis turbines (10 for Brazil, 10 for Paraguay) reach a total output of 14 million megawatts. One turbine can supply a city of 1.5 million people. At its highest point the dam is 196 m high.

On the way back to Ciudad del Este, "El Museo de la Tierra Guaraní" and its zoo are not to be missed. They show the culture of the Guaraní people and the wildlife of the continent, preserved in display cases and alive in enclosures. We were told several times that wild mountain lions, jaguars and panthers live in Paraguay (in the Chaco), so it's dangerous to cross this region. These animals wouldn't leave cyclists off the menu either.

For us Paraguay was a "transit country" on the way to the Iguazú Falls (Brazil) and on to Argentina. Apart from the Itaipú hydroelectric power station and the Saltos del Monday waterfalls, which were the "saving" highlights for us, Paraguay didn't offer us much more.

After 380 kilometres we leave Paraguay with these memories:

Slums in the middle of Asunción's city centre

Dangerous tigers, panthers and jaguars in the Chaco

A trip on the Río Paraguay

Our odyssey to Porto Esperança, Brazil

The Saltos del Monday waterfalls

Itaipú, the largest hydroelectric power station in the world

For us a transit country, comparable to Panama (each with one gigantic structure)

Biker info for the route

-	Active (5 days of riding)	380 kilometres
-	Transfer to Asunción (bus)	450 kilometres
-	Total climbing	450 m
-	Average speed	18.1 km/h
-	Riding time in motion	21 hours