May 31,

I awoke at 0800, considering it was 2130 when I went to bed…just saying!!! Jeff had the opposite result…he didn’t get to sleep until 0200. We readied and started our connection day. First we video-talked with my Mom and her husband on WhatsApp. Then we had our Javas and breakfast of oatmeal with PB & Nutella, and yogurt. We finished the PB. We are starting to have the last “ofs” as we leave Tuesday EARLY!

Anyway, we did two loads of laundry. Next was our home Church service via Zoom. After our connection with them, we went out to the mall for lunch. We decided to get food from the grocery store – ready-made items. We ended up with a stir-fry of rice with beef; ¼ of a rotisserie chicken; and a little dish of souffle with corn, broccoli and cauliflower. We paid 43,000 PYG, or $7.14. Taking our food back to our place, we heated it more, because it was only lukewarm once back. The food was good but lacked seasoning, which we thankfully have. We also cleaned our CPAPs around now.

Neither of our sisters were available for video chats, so we spent the late afternoon/evening listening to music. Since it is Sunday it was pretty peaceful. The many workers of all the high-rises being built around us have the day off. They are making slow steady progress. Anyway our supper was just odds and ends. I had a tomato sandwich, Jeff had a cheese one. We finished our olives and had some pretzels. There was not a visible sunset as it had been cloudy all day. Bed by 2130.

     June 1,

We were both awake sometime in the five o’clock hour. But we both felt we had slept well enough. Yeah!!!!! Wonder of wonders! We readied and settled into our Javas and breakfast of oatmeal with Nutella. There was blue sky outside. Miracle of miracles! We did the last of our laundry, I blogged some, and we started sorting/packing our stuff.

By 1215 we headed out walking. We decided to go to Jardin Botanico de Asuncion (Asuncion’s Botanical Gardens). The reviews were mixed, and we had read enough to know it was not like botanical gardens as we would call them. But it’s our last day and we wanted to get out. It was a 4.5 km, or 2.8 miles trek over. We stopped along the way for lunch at La Cocina de Kzero. We split a Lomito Arabe Pollo, which was Arabic chicken and cabbage wrap; and Estilo Oriental Bowl Yakisoba, which was a bowl of sweet soy noodles with cabbage, green onion, and tomatoes topped with chicken. The bowl was better than the wrap. The chicken wrap was not seasoned well, but there was lots of chicken! The meals cost 71,000 PYG, or $11.79.

We arrived at the Gardens, after we asked a policeman on the side of the road for the entrance. It covers a very large ground area. Walking to get in we saw two beautiful woodpeckers, called Campo Flickers. When we finally came to the entrance, there was a guard but no entrance fee. It was more a large park, or a green space area. An old placard showed a Museum, a Zoo, and a Casa Lopez on the grounds. So we went to check them out. We passed by a labeled man made stream, titled Garden of the Senora, with the fountain starting at a shrine dedicated to Mary. Then right away we saw six or so Guira Cuckoos,spreading their wings in the sun.

We arrived at the Museum, but upon entering we saw many taxidermied animals…not interested in that, we turned and went back out. It was free, that’s all I’m gonna say. Next we saw the “Zoo.” It was just fenced-in animals. We saw Rhea, and Goats, but we weren’t wanting to finish seeing the rest of the critters either. We walked on to the Lopez House, passing by the remnants of its formal garden, now overgrown and lacking a gardener. There were some pretty orange daisy-type flowers blooming. The house was a two story home with wide, sweeping, open porches encircling each level. But it was not open, and seemed to call for some attention that it needed. A placard on the house read that it was…“Residence of Don Carlos Antonio Lopez, built in 1840”, and it had been restored once before the placard was placed in October 1999. That would have been cool to see. I wonder if the garden area was all his grounds?? Anyway, by now we were having mosquitoes swarming us, so we left the park. It was disappointing – chalk it up as a bust! At 1440 Jeff had E-hailed us a MUV taxi to go to the store. It cost us 18,000 PYG, or $3. We bought a bottle of wine for our last night to eat with a cucumber. (We still have cheese, bread, and pretzels.) We also bought some mosquito repellent! Jeff got bit a couple of times!! Ta-ta for now.