We rented a car today to escape the city.  The new President of Paraguay was inaugurated and it was also a national holiday celebrating the founding of Asuncion.  The major street (Mariscal Lopez) was shut down and the traffic was supposed to be loco today.
    We headed out at 7am to go toward Ca'acupe which is about 45 miles out of town.  There is an ecological preserve call Mbatovi on the way and I found out that they had a zip line there.  Reservations were made for 9am.
     Paraguayan roads are decent.  There are few potholes and the road surface is in good shape.  The drivers are rough.  Stop signs don't work so they use speed bumps at most intersections and along the highways in town.  Many drivers go slow and motorcycles are everywhere.  When a driver wants to go fast, they abandon caution and good sense.  It's usually the SUVs.  They are not as bad as the princes in Kuwait, but, they have about as much caution as middle eastern drivers.
     We made it to Mbatovi with about five minutes to spare and waited for the eco tour to start.  There was another couple that took the tour with us.

     They put harnesses on us and gave us instructions in Spanish.  The main instructions were to stay on the trail, do not remove any vegetation or rocks, and obey the guides.
     We walked down a trail and came to one of the cable bridges.

John on the cable bridge.

     We were not expecting this, but, it was a challenge.  After a short while we came to the zip lines and they were fun.

     

     We trekked through the monte (woods or jungle) for a while......

and then we had to hold on to a rope and go backwards over a cliff.

And the coup de grâce....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8bQS9PIfbE

(click the link to see Anabeth rappelling down)

All in all, it was a fun day. We had adventure, 

saw part of the country, and made it home safely.....More to come.....