Adventures to San Francisco

I started my mini vacation in Asuncion on Wednesday because my APCD, aka my boss, offered me a ride. Obviously I took her up on that offer because I would clearly NEVER prefer a slow, rickety bus for 7 hours to a nice, clean, fast car full of English speakers. So I needed to take a short little bus ride to meet her in another volunteers site since my site was actually a little bit out of the way. My G-mate lives in a small…I don’t know what you would call it actually…we’ll go with town, called San Francisco. I was instructed to ask the bus drivers as they are passing me by while I wait on the ruta if they are heading to San Fran, so naturally I do this. I hail the first bus that is passing and ask “Va a San Francisco?” (Are you going to San Fran?) and the driver looks at me confused, which should have been my first clue, then proceeds to say “yes, we go there”. So I get on the bus and just hang out for a bit. I then get a call from Graciela, my boss, and she’s sort of in a frenzy because she thinks I’m lost. Well, how would she know I’m lost…she doesn’t even know where I am or what bus I’m on. Weird. So I just keep truckin’ along, minding my own business. Then we stop in a town and the bus driver comes to retrieve me and then tells me it’s time for me to get off (they always do this because clearly I look like a lost puppy every time and my rubia locks just set me apart). I step off the bus with confusion on my face. I look up and what do I see? A huge sign that reads Chipa San Francisco. For those of you who have forgotten, chipa is a typical food here that is sort of like cheesy bread. So then I think…well maybe this town just really likes chipa and named their chiparia after themselves. A man then walks up to me because I still probably look like a lost puppy and asks me what I need. He tells me that we are indeed NOT in the town of San Fran, but actually we’re in General Bogado. Okay, sooo now I need to haul ass and get back on that bus so I’m not stranded in this weird chipa town. I tell the driver that I in fact did not want to be driven an hour and a half to the chipa place, but actually to a town called San Francisco. His response: “oh, we don’t go there”. Now that I’m back on the bus a few questions are racing through my head. First, how did my boss know I would get lost?! Must be because the site is super campo, okay...I’ll accept that. Second, why the F*** did the driver automatically think I asking to be taken to a chipa place that’s an hour and a half away, instead of the town?! Pure madness I tell you. I ended up being able to go to Santa Rosa which was fairly close to San Fran and have my boss pick me up there. It just was the weirdest bus situation I’ve ever been in, and of course for the rest of the trip it was the running joke that I just simply love chipa so much that I’ll travel an hour and a half to get it.