Asuncion et al

Sleepy from topnotch vegetarian chinese lunch.
This morning we were taken in a van to five towns within 10-20 miles of Asuncion.
They were mostly non-descript but for the stop at the very pretty Lake Ypicarai (spelling from memory probably very wrong). One town, San Bernardino, was founded by five German families back in the day and the small church and some of the architecture reflected their early influence.
The van driver said that military service (as of ten years ago) is no longer compulsory, you must attend school thru sixth grade, Olympia of Asuncion is his soccer squad, and that his sister lives in Richmond, Virginia.
There were road policemen with hand and machine guns.
Ive become a fan of ¨comido¨ (see amber for proper spellings) with milk. this is mate tea sweetened that you add warm, frothy milk to.
Tmrw flying to Sao Paolo then up to Fortaleza, Brazil.