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Not long after we arrived at Hasta La Pasta it started raining. We'd just managed to say hello to René and Marion, then parked our motor home next to other campers and were saying hi to Claudia and Uwe when the heavens opened. It rained so heavily we were getting wet just standing under their awning from the rain splashing onto us. So we went inside their motor home and waited for the rain to stop.
Unfortunately we hadn't checked our back doors. Driving along sand or gravel roads mean we shake and rattle quite a bit in the back and our rear doors need to be shut properly when it rains. Of course, we were so busy saying hello to everyone that we didn't check them. So by the time we got back to Winnietwo we had leaked and my first job was setting up a drying system using our fans to get our seat cushions and covers dry! There wasn't much room so we went for a cool down in the pool!
It's normally a few degrees cooler at Hasta La Pasta compared to Asunción but the humidity is higher. We now put our bread straight into Marion's freezer because otherwise it will go mouldy within a day or two. We've learned that lesson the hard way! By 11pm on our first night back it was 92% humidity and felt a lot hotter than the 20°C showing on our thermometer!
We had to get up early the next morning because our football team HSV was playing their last match before the Christmas break. In Germany the teams have between 4 and 6 weeks off! Not like the Premier League in England where all the teams play throughout the season without a break.
The match started at 9-30am but, even though we had parked closer to the WiFi router, we couldn't get good enough WiFi. So we got out our Claro stick to use the telephone connection and bought a package for $3 US for the day. We needed to take the chip out of our smartphone and then tried to get it set up on the computer but it was extremely frustrating. There was virtually no reception but we kept trying for 30 minutes. No good. We went back to trying WiFi again and by the time we eventually got to see something HSV were already losing 2-0!!! Oh boy, definitely not good. They didn't even play very well and ended up losing 3-1. So we'd wasted money on a stick that didn't work and our team lost. The only good news was that our major rival also lost so we were still top of the table!
After the match we put on a load of washing and later went out jogging. We kept on doing our fitness regime whilst we were here, going out onto the road and jogging and/or walking and then doing more exercises in the pool. Kirsten did 30 minutes jogging and then pilates exercises next to the pool. We'd borrowed Claudias scales after the football match and found out that the fitness centre at the hotel had made a difference. I'd managed to lose 3kg!! So that gave me a push to keep going and most evenings I would walk and run around 8 to 10km.
The next day was Christmas Eve which is the German Christmas. They always celebrate on Christmas Eve in the afternoon. As soon as we opened up our sliding door Mia came to say hello! I had bought her some doggy treats from England so as soon as she heard our door opening she would come along with her ball, tail whirring, hoping to get her treat! I would tell her to sit and then hold out my hand and she would "give me five" with her paw! She knows quite a few tricks! She always wants to play and loves it when we throw the ball so she can chase it and catch it in a cloud of dust! Seeing as it was Christmas she got a bigger treat this morning!
About ten minutes later she came back, but this time she had a Christmas present wrapped around her neck!! Claudia and Uwe came along aswell and Mia gave us our present - a lovely Mia Calendar for 2019 with the best photos of her! Wow! What a lovely surprise!
Xmas present from Mia
At 11am it was time to start with food preparation and setting up a marquee and tables etc for the Christmas Goulash. We were both on peeling and chopping duty along with Gisela and another Helen (from Switzerland, staying in a bungalow with husband Peter). We tackled a pile of onions, carrots, potatoes and garlic which didn't take all that long! Good company and good music turned kitchen duty into a lot of fun!
Meanwhile Claudia was inside making a mousse au chocolat - yummy!! I got to clean out the bowls ... well someone has to do the dirty work! The guys job was to set up the seating area with the marquee and the fire above which the suspended cauldron would be slow cooking the goulash. Then we helped out decorating the area with balloons etc.
Connie and Georg turned up in the afternoon. We didn't know whether they would make it because they had engine problems on their way here. Near the Brazilian/Paraguayan border they had to get their motor home towed to Ciudad del Este, at the border. The diagnosis was that they needed a new engine!
It was the Friday before Christmas and, unbelievably, they managed to get a new engine delivered and fitted throughout Saturday and Sunday so that they could drive here on Christmas Eve! They thought they'd be celebrating Christmas in the garage!! Unfortunately they've already sold their motor home and the handover is due to take place in 3 months time. A large expense they didn't really want to have - the new engine cost around 5,000 Euros!! At least they were really happy to get here and celebrate with friends.
Then Cesar and Chantell arrived. We met them here last Christmas and had a lot of fun with them. Chantell is from Manchester but has been living in Paraguay with husband Cesar for over 20 years. Their 20 year old daughter Anne-Marie was also with them. She's studying in France.
It was a really enjoyable evening with everyone and the goulash was yummy. A teeny bit too spicy hot but Marions super home made bread helped a great deal. Then there was Claudia's dessert - we were unbelievably stuffed!! We talked to Cesar and Chantell until well after 11pm even though most of the others had retired by 10pm (!) and then went for showers because we smelled of fire! We had a great day.
Christmas Eve at Hasta La Pasta
On Christmas Day I phoned England to talk to my family and later we sat with the other campers to watch the sunset. The following day we were all invited to coffee and cake and we heard all about Connie and Georg's engine problems just before Christmas. Amazing how they managed to get it all fixed!
The campground now has a new meeting/sitting room. It used to be where they made their homemade pasta until they sold the business. Now it's called Casa Loca (mad house!) There's a large fridge with cold drinks on an honour system. Plus we can use the fridge for our personal stuff - comes in very handy when we go shopping every Saturday and didn’t have enough room in our fridge.
There is also an electric two ring cooker which Helen and Peter used every evening to cook their evening meals. (They don't have a kitchen in their room but will be moving into a bungalow in the new year where they have a kitchen etc.)
Kirsten and I were carrying on with our fitness routine but when it rained we went inside Casa Loca and used our mats to do yoga and stretching exercises. There is a large ceiling fan which helps us a lot in the heat!
Mia was also given a present - a new swimming pool just for her. Normally she loves being in the water but wasn't too sure about the pool. She probably didn't realise it was for her. Even throwing the ball into the pool didn't help. But when Claudia got inside first and then picked Mia up and carried her in ... Well, that worked!!
Dog pool for Mia
Kirsten was given a job to do this time at Hasta La Pasta - every Sunday, collecting the newly laid eggs. The gardener collects them on the other days but has Sundays off. The hens make it really easy because they lay them in the same place, all together. So collecting them is simple. Except Kirsten doesn't know what day it is most of the time!!! So I had to remind her the first and second Sundays but the third Sunday got missed!! So Marion collected them! Not exactly reliable but the eggs taste far better than bought ones!
For New Years Eve we made Franzbroetchen which are Kirsten's cinnamon rolls and we all sat at the pool for coffee together to eat them in the afternoon. Afterwards I used Marions kitchen again, this time to make a potato gratin. We were having a pot luck meal and the men's job was to set up the grill. We would all bring our own meat to put on the grill.
We also set about decorating the pool and Connie is always the one who comes up with creative ideas and has a lot of fun making it look festive. It was quite a busy day and also hot and humid! Everything was set up and the plan was to meet at the grill at 6pm.
Well, it was a great plan, but exactly at 6pm, just as the first pieces of meat were put onto the grill, the heavens opened and it bucketed down with rain!!! The grill made a loud tsishing noise and went out! Kirsten was with Claudia at the pool putting on the finishing touches to the decorations. Everyone scrambled ... literally!! Kirsten, Claudia and Connie did their best to save the decorations (Connie in bikini can be seen on the photo trying to save the candles!!); I grabbed our meat to take back to the motor home and we all got soaked within seconds!!
So the new plan was to cook our own meat and bring everything down to Marion and Renée's terrace area where we could eat together. Campers are a flexible lot so it didn't ruin anything and 30 minutes later we had the terrace set up for eating, and a table in Marion and Renée's house for all the salads and my potato gratin. There were at least 7 or 8 different salads and far too much. There were also three different desserts - Tiramisu, lemon cake and a fruit salad. Despite the rain it was a super meal.
Fortunately the rain stopped later so we could all move up to the pool at 8pm so we could celebrate the new year in Germany and Switzerland. They're four hours ahead. Connie's candles looked really good even after the rain and the lights were mirrored in the pool. At 9pm I shouted out a countdown for new year in England and the ladies were dancing to our disco music! Even Mia joined in - she was following a stick in my hand so it actually looked like she was dancing in time to the music!
At midnight we went down to the sunset spot to celebrate the Paraguayan new year and watch all the fireworks across the lake in the distance. We also went for a dip in the pool so it was almost 3am by the time we got to bed! I think we well and truly celebrated the new year!
On new years day we all sat together in the evening again to eat up all the salads etc from the day before. We had made so much that it lasted for two meals for all 15 of us!! No rain this time and afterwards Marion brought us her homemade egg liqueur! Yummy!
New Years Eve Party at Hasta La Pasta
Over the next few days we needed to get washing done and we also sat together with Georg to get tips from their journey through the north eastern part of Brazil. We're planning to go there from March to May so we poured over maps and made notes for two hours.
During the first week of January it rained a few times with heavy bursts in between which meant we had power cuts and the humidity increased. We had to keep an eye out for mould and were trying to air out our motor home every day. The humidity also meant that it never really cooled down and we had temperatures around 35 to 37°C.
We baked more cakes for another coffee and cake round with everyone the day before Connie and Georg left. They're selling their motor home in March and going back to Germany so we probably won't see them again ... well at least until we start travelling around Europe but that could be a few years away! We inherited a power converter to change 110 volts into 220 volts plus a guidebook for Brazil. Thank you Connie and Georg. Have fun and take care!
In the second week of January we had two families with children at the campground - Sina and André with their two children Eva 12 and Luis 8; Sabine and Rallo with their two five year old twins Emil and Tino. It's unusual to see families travelling in motor homes so two families at once meant there was quite a bit of action!! At times the pool was overcrowded!!
There was more cake baking because "Swiss" Helen wanted to know how to make Kirstens cinnamon rolls. Our camp ground coffee and cake afternoons are turning into an institution!!
Lots of other fun at Hasta La Pasta
Kirsten also got motivated to do more with our videos because Sabine works for a major TV programme in Germany and has made super films of their journeys. Take a look at www.zeitreise2018.de. The films are really professionally done and, amazingly, she somehow finds time to work on them during their overland trip with two five year old twins!! Each film takes her three weeks to complete!!
Mid January our friends Regula and Joerg from Switzerland returned. They started travelling in South America at the same time as us and we have met up with them very often. Regula joined in our pool fitness club. We were also coming to our last days here because we need to get an appointment in Asunción to get the rust on our motor home dealt with. Over the last 6 months our rust has grown a lot and some of the rust fell off during our last days at Hasta La Pasta leaving a fist sized hole in the outside wall!! We definitely need to get it done!
On our final evening, or more accurately, the middle of the night (!), we went out to watch an eclipse of the moon called a "Blood red moon" between 2-15am and 4am. Together with Claudia and Uwe we sat on our chairs right in front of our motor homes and watched the moon turn red! Quite a spectacle!
Full "Blood" moon eclipse
Because of the late night it took us a while to get everything done the next day and it was after 4pm by the time we had said goodbye to everyone and got on the road. We drove into Asunción and went to Vertigo, the garage where we would get our rust sorted out. We had been here in November last year but they were so full that Sonia the manager told us it would be January or February before we could get in.
Now it was 21st January and Vertigo looked busier than they were in November!! Sonia recognised us and told us we could get in on 4th February. They would need a week to work on our motor home so we would need to book into an apartment and remove everything from inside!! A major job for us!!
I'd already found an apartment about a ten minute walk from the garage so we went to take a look at it and check the prices and availability. Then we drove to Casa Rica, a large supermarket that sells a lot of German items. It was already getting dark when we arrived so we just bought something for our evening meal.
It was still 40°C at 9pm and we knew we would have to switch off our fridge overnight so that we'd have enough power to run the fans!! There was no point driving all the way to Hotel Westfalia where we could plug in for the night because we needed to get money from the Western Union near to Casa Rica and we also needed to do more shopping the following day. So we just parked at the back of the supermarket for the night.
It was an uncomfortably hot night but afterwards we drove to Hotel Westfalia where we have power to run our fans.
