Our Time in Paraguay - Leaving Argentina III

The driver dropped us off at the bus station in Ciudad del Este and we found a bus that was leaving for Camp 9 very shortly.  The price for eight seats was Guarani $232 mil ($232,000).  Dane was dumbfounded by the figure and went to find out what the exchange rate was since we only had Argentine pesos.  I can't remember what it was, but I think it was just over $200 pesos or around US$65.  Very reasonable in spite of the mind-boggling number of Guaranis Dane was quoted.  We bought tickets and loaded up.

The bus was comfortable and we all had seats for a time.  Like our final bus experience in Argentina, the bus stopped at several stops and picked up more and more people.  We guessed that people didn't usually buy seats for their children because the bus usher asked Dane to show him receipts for our children's seats on two different occasions when our children didn't leave the seats they were in as others entered the bus.  Eventually, entering adults just squeezed themselves beside the children.  A couple of the children gave up their seats when they became uncomfortable with this arrangement and joined Dane and I or one of their other siblings.  Four hours later we arrived at the bus station in Campo 9 and happily met our friend, Jonathan Shrock, who had expected us the night before. 

That night we stayed with the Shrock family, Jonathan, Rebecca, Ethel, and Adriana, so that we could visit with them for a time. Then the next day, we moved over to Matthew and Irene Myers' for the remainder of our stay.  We had a very nice visit with them all!!  We got to visit the Florida colony's community church and school.  We enjoyed a lunch with the elder John Myers family, and then later a dinner with the Samuel Bontrager family from the neighboring Luz y Esperanza colony too.  Our friends were very gracious and hospitable to us. We will have very fond memories of our visit with them and hope the Lord will allow us to see one another again sometime. 

Unfortunately, the day before we were set to head to Asuncion, Dane woke up sick and feverish.  By the end of the day, most of the children were sick as well.  We prayed about what to do and called the airport to see if we could reschedule our flight (this was during the height of the Swine flu scare).  The airline representative told us that if we were well enough to walk on the plane, then we could fly.  So seeing that it would cost us US$250 x 9 ($2250) to change our plane tickets, we made plans to leave the next morning.

Thankfully, the next morning, the Myers' took us in their community van to the airport four hours away so that we would not have to travel by bus.  When we reached Asuncion, it started pouring down rain and a flash flood ensued.  Cars were stranded in the road and water was running into the store fronts.  It was surreal.  Despite this, we were able to reach the airport and were even several hours early.  We said goodbye to our dear friends, Matthew and Irene, and just rested until it was time to board the plane that evening.

The time came to board our plane.  We proceeded to immigration where an officer asked Dane for our passports.  Dane handed them over and the officer took one look at our transitory visas and proceeded to call other officers over to look at them.  Where had we gotten them?  Where was our receipt for them, they wanted to know.  Ohhh.... The receipt.....Apparently the visas were not exactly legit.  And apparently one should always keep their receipt with them to prove a visa's validity. We had a lot of explaining to do and again pulled out all of our papers to be examined.  After much discussion, the immigration officials had pity on us and agreed to let us go if we would pay them for standard tourist visas (US$75/person) and kindly they would deduct the $280 we had already paid for the transitory visas (US$40/person).  The total came to US$245 more, and of course, we could only have them without a receipt!!  Since we didn't have any other options and our plane was soon to leave, Dane did just that and we boarded the plane for the long trip to Miami, FL.

To be continued.......