Liz Hilliard, who is also a real estate agent, drove us to the airport so that we could sign the counter offer on the proposed sale of our condo apartment. We left not knowing if we had a sale or not, and occasionally during the trip we wondered about it. We left Ottawa midday and flew by Toronto and Miami overnight to Santiago, Chile. We met up with one of the tour leaders, Fernando Pombal, in Miami. Colin had travelled with Fernando in Guatemala and he turned out to be an excellent traveling companion. A fourth member of the group should have joined us in Miami but despite Fernando's and Mary's efforts to find him (by ostentatiously flashing the lured orange Trains Unlimited Tours baggage tags in the departure lounge at Miami airport and staring suggestively at likely candidates) he never made made an appearance. In Santiago, we discovered that he had missed a connecting flight and lost his luggage. Somehow he made it to Santiago by a different airline carrier. He spent the rest of the trip wearing the same slacks and t-shirt, and looking rather woebegone, as though expecting further disasters to strike him at any moment.

At Miami airport, Mary bought a Spanish - English electronic translator, but soon became disillusioned with it when she couldn't find “jugo” in it. The flight from Miami to Santiago turned out to be quite a good one. Mary practiced her rudimentary Spanish on the hostesses and enjoyed good Chilean Santa Rita Cabernet Sauvignon. We were unfortunately close to the smoking section, which with recirculated air is impossible to avoid no matter where one sits. However, somehow on this quite crowded flight we managed to snag six seats across for ourselves. It was good to spread out during the night, with three pillows and blankets each. The only unsettling moment came in the dark when a lost passenger kept feeling Mary's face in a desperate attempt to locate someone called Phil (or at least, that was the charitable construction Mary put on it being so rudely awakened).

Friday 14 October

We made our way downtown and met up with the rest of the group at the Crowne Plaza hotel. There was a little time to explore party Santiago, have coffee and juice and try out our Spanish. We took a bus to the airport around midday and flew to Asuncion, Paraguay. Our bags came through the airport system quickly and we were soon down town and in the hotel. Two special trams had been set aside for us to tour the system and there was a great hurry to ensure that we were able to see the system in daylight. It turned out that this was in vain because the power to the overhead wire failed after about four blocks and we eventually we walked back to the hotel. Afterwards there was time to walk across the Central Square and to have an empanada and a drink.

Saturday 15th October 1994

Almost a disaster on our first day as the alarm on Colin's wrist watch failed to go off and we had a short call through the hotel phone. After a hurried breakfast we took a bus to the station and transferred our bags to a luggage van in a special train hauled by 2-6-0 #51.

We were greeted by two men, one with a Paraguayan harp and the other with a guitar. They were to accompany us today and were very good.
Asuncion has many contrasts. Many houses looked very pleasant with jacaranda, hibiscus, frangipani and bougainvillea trees. Many shacks were very close to the railway. Air ferns grew in the telegraph wires. As we left the city the bright red mud roads became evident and many people were using horses and buggies. Butterflies were much in evidence - large blue ones as well as bright yellow and orange. We saw several rheas in the fields, there were many shrines and people were drinking mate.

At Ypacari the locomotive was cut off and picked up a flat car of wood for the fire. The logs were handled many times in their journey from the flat car to the locomotive firebox. Two men moved the logs forward and the third put them in the firebox - there was a driver as well. The town was very quiet except for the sounds from our musicians in the dining car (Comedor) where the crew were preparing lunch. The lavender scented smell of wood smoke wafted over the station, the boxcars set out for people to live in and the grass covered tracks.

   
Lunch was quite good.

Ham and hearts of palm with french dressing
Suruki fish with potatoesPeaches and cream
Carlsberg beer

The fish is a specially of Paraguay (it comes from a large lake that we could see to the north of us for at least an hour) and was very good. We stopped, during lunch, at a small station. There was a cockerel strutting along the platform as well as several geese. Three white horses made on appearance and ran through the main street. By this time the musicians were making quite a racket but the locals did not even come out to see - they were more interested in the televisions which seem to be installed in each Hut.
In the late afternoon we made a stop at Sapucay Works where three locomotives, #59 (59), #226 and #152 were receiving heavy repairs. The works shunter was #2 tank engine and there were two Argentinian 2-8-0s waiting their turn for attention.

There were large numbers of dogs roaming around and the village was very quiet. It seemed strange to see so few vehicles around. Maybe there was not much happening because it was Saturday afternoon - or maybe it is always like this.
The further we went we changed from rolling hills overgrown with vegetation to flat grassland used mainly for cattle- the true Chaco. There were many large termites nests that have the consistency of concrete. Every so often we could see a cemetery in the distance. These had blue huts and stood out well in the otherwise flat landscape. At Tebicuary we visited the Sugar Mill. There was little railway interest.

We then ran to Villarica over flat cattle land. The villages had very wide streets that were more like greens as the roads were mainly grass covered. Where the grass had worn there were bright red streaks of red Paraguayan mud. Many chickens, geese and dogs abounded, mixed in with the children.
There was a superb sunset and the final part was in darkness.

We had to wait a ong time for the sun to get into just the right location. The engine was called forward knowing that we would only get one shot at this. It was slide film and I only took one shot. I hat to wait several weeks before I found our that this had come out very well.

At Villarica the railway hooked up the dining car to shore power and we had dinner in the diner.

This was again accompanied by the harp and guitar to round off a great day. We took a bus to the hotel and quickly went to bed.

Sunday 16 October 1994

This morning we went by bus through the town to the station where the train was waiting for us. The cobbled streets had lime trees growing along either side and the people were in their Sunday best. Cattle were wandering around freely and the main form of transport seemed to be the horse and buggy. We managed some good shots of these by the train. As we waited, a young man and a girl came by on a motorbike. They were going to church. She had a long white dress and was sitting side saddle.

Colin rode the engine for part of the way. A pile of wood is placed on the front of the tender and when there is enough the crew then places it into the firebox. One man hands each log to the fireman who actually places it in the firebox which is filled right up. He used his feet wearing flip flops to push the logs into the fire.

The driver was having trouble with the throttle which would not open properly. The engine was evidently in poor condition as the color of the boiler water was dark brown rather than clear, while the gauge glass was completely unprotected. Colin found it better to ride in the tender where there is a better view of the cab, where he was out of the way and away from the boiler. There was a stop while the crew looked at the front axle bearing that began to run hot. They just stopped the train over a small stream where they could work on the journal while standing in the water - it was certainly easier than going underneath on the ties.

They slowly made their way to San Salvador Junction where #151 retired hurt and number #102 was put on. There was a small running shed at San Salvador Junction. #228 was in steam and #101 was on blocks in the shed. #60 was outside. There was a bit of an argument about which way #102 was going to face. The crew wanted to run it backwards but we wanted it the other way around. There was much discussion about using the turntable and concern that the table would stick with the locomotive halfway around. This was so serious that the local supervisor came over, complete with white shirt and tie, to help push. In any event the engine went round without any hitch and we had a proper train on our run along the disused branch line as far as in Numi.

Lunch was taken early at 10:30 so that we could be finished by the time we reached Numi.

Once again this was very good although the musicians, who came from Villarica, had stayed home. The land was still cattle but more hilly with thorn bushes and some spiky plants with red centers. There was much open water, mostly covered with water hyacinth. Numi is another village that is set out over a white grass covered area and has many houses with straw thach roofs.
A bus met us at Numi and took us to Igaussu Falls. The trip was uneventful and quite boring so we used the time to catch up on our rest. Brazil is quite a contrast from Paraguay, with its skyscrapers and there is much more commerce. We stayed at an excellent hotel in the Brazilian National Park. Arrival was at sunset and we had to wait until Monday to take a proper look around. We had a good buffet dinner al fresco.