Chilling Chako

I was expecting the crossing from Paraguay into Buenos Aries to be through Encarnation; basically the exact same road I had travelled days earlier to get to the Jesuit missions. I was thrilled therefore when the bus instead took a straight line on the single bridge over the Rio Paraguay and headed into the Chako- the most uninhabited area of the continent. The experience of passing through the Argentinian boarder in the middle of this wildlife- rich deserted expanse was one I didn't think I'd get the opportunity to enjoy. And while the customs in such a strange place became even more complicated than was standard (Castellanio for 'Where on earth have you taken my passport you crazy grinning Argentinian?' anyone?!) the experience of travelling 24 hours on a bus full of increasingly jubilant (and increasingly smelly) Paraguayans through the total other-worldly darkness is a twilight moment that will stay with me for some time. The journey was pitch black, darkness like I didn't think existed anywhere in the world- no habitation for literally hundreds of miles around us. Zero light pollution of any kind. And beyond the eerie darkness the experience was something to behold in that so very few European people have ever traversed the Chako, it being so easy to get lost (it is largely unmapped) that many travellers bypass it altogether. I also think it might be one of the only times in my life I've been the only European; not a single other person on that bus was from anywhere other than Paraguay.

I in no way expected the 24 hour bus journey connecting the two capitals to be a highlight of my trip, but I think I will always remember the frightening calm of being miles from anywhere, in the pitch black, seeing lands few other people I will ever meet will see, on a bus without a single other person who could speak my language. And I will forever be grateful that not only did I speak enough Spanish to get my passport back, but that the bus didn't break down out there 'coz God only knows what would have happened then...