PPP - Proyecto Pavimiento Paraguayo

I could write award-winning development project names for a living. FDR used me all those years ago with the New Deal nicknames for everything.

The Paraguayan Pavement Project would also have to incorporate most of what I´ve experienced in Bolivia thus far.

I took a bus on the Trans-Chaco (Highway...I think it´s called) and the Picada 500 from central Paraguay to eastern Bolivia. They are famed as the two bumpiest and dustiest roads in the world.

I had doubts. Never have doubts.

Imagine a 12 hour butt-flexing exercise and you understand. It was insane. And I somehow slept off and on. Without a doubt it was the bumpiest ride of my life. And the dust infiltrated everything. Quite an experience.

I anticipated the infamous Chaco to be a desert littered with small shrubs and bushes. Oh no.

This is what Prince Charming went through to get to Sleeping Beauty. It was insane. I hope she was worth it for him because I wouldn´t be heading into any forests like this. Impenetrable growth of 2-story cacti and thick trees make up the Chaco. Honestly, the largest cacti I´ve ever seen in my life.

And somehow Bolivia and Paraguay fought a war from 1933 to 1935 over this life-forsaken area. I got to experience the national holidays in both countries commemorating the June signing of La Paz del Chaco. The Chaco Peace.