Playa Laguna Blanca

(Playa Pics here)

With a three day weekend one of my wife’s co-workers helped book a trip to Playa Blanco, a cool camp-out/lodging beach on a river? lake? on the eastern side of the country.

26 of us set out in all, a caravan of six vehicles, packed to the brim with provisions. The ride was fairly scenic. Lots of green, some small towns here and there. The last 30-35km were a dirt road and a couple bridges.

The place itself was great. Very small, secluded, on a reserve and a good couple KM in. Katie and I shared a small room with two of our friends in Zoolander-style tiny bunk beds. Not the most comfy, but a place to sleep. And it had a mini-fridge, which was great as we brought a not-insignificant amount of beer and wine. Also had it’s own private bathroom with shower. Hooray.

We spent the better part of two days lounging on the beach, cooling off in the water, and enjoying nearby nature trails. Two of the couples each had two kids who got to ride the horses as well. Was a great way to just relax.

We did have to bug out at 4am on Sunday as thunderbolts and lightning (very very frightening) woke everyone up. Adrenaline kick is in gear. We had to move fast as a bad storm was a brewing and if we lollygagged it we risked getting stuck for several days.

We made it out, but the exit drive across those 30km as the rain fell was fairly nerve wracking. We made it, but encountered some serious storms along the way as we paused at Paraguay’s Coolest Truckstop for some amazing empanadas.

When we returned to the outskirts of Asuncion we saw how bad they were hit. The town of Limpio was flooded. Streets were knee-deep. (Imagine Tucson after a major monsoon, if we had no washes…) The couple that was driving us had a rather low-to-the-ground FunCargo, so discretion was the better part of valor. We opted not to attempt to ford the flooded roads and instead redirected through Luque.