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		<title>Megan Lyles: Travelogue</title>
		<link>http://www.meganlyles.com/</link>
		<description>Megan's 10 most recent posts.</description>
		<language>en-us</language>
		<ttl>60</ttl>
		
		
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			<title>New York City - Conclusion</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Well, we're back in New York City and living a life that is same-same but different. Michael and I live in the same apartment we had before we left but we're engaged now, and our book collections are comingled. (Which for me is huge. Your milage may vary.) But the differences are mainly internal, subtle even to us and still being discovered.]]></description>
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			<guid>256</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston, Texas</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We had predictably mixed feelings as we rode out to Ezeiza Airport in the remise. Happy to be going home, sad to be ending the trip. Before we started traveling, Michael and I would look at the world map in our bedroom every night, tracing out potential routes down South America, talking about what we wanted to see and reiterating our impatience to begin. ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>255</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Buenos Aires, Argentina - No More Extra Days</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Our last day in Buenos Aires, our last day out of the US. We didn't want to check out of the Ayers de Recoleta but there are no more "extra days" to be had. Late checkout (6:00 p.m.) is an extra $60, which, quite frankly, strikes me as ridiculous. So we left our overstuffed backpacks and Owen at the desk and headed out to finally see the Cementerio de Recoleta. ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>254</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Buenos Aires, Argentina -  So... Whatever Happened With The Final Test?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[I won't keep you in suspense - we are engaged! ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>252</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Buenos Aires, Argentina - Ayres de Recoleta</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We moved into the surprise fancy hotel room today, pulling up in a cab laden with shopping bags full of leather goods. Ayres de Recoleta rates its own entry, by virtue of its sheer fantasticness. Most of
the places we've stayed at on this trip have been satisfactory. Some have been great. Derek's
on Little Corn Island was paradise on Earth. But this is the first luxury hotel we've stayed
in on the trip. What a difference. The gleaming bidet, the high thread count sheets, the sparkling wine
glasses in the cabinets, the complimentary water in the refrigerator. ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>253</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Buenos Aires, Argentina - Everything But The Kidneys</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We found the hotel we wanted, and this time we called ahead and reserved a room like normal people. The Apartur is an "apartment hotel," centrally located, a block from the Obelisk. Our room is so neat, with a full kitchen, living room with a single bed (another bed pulls out from underneath) and table and chairs, bedroom and bathroom (with bidet, of course). This is setting us back between $40 and $45 per night. ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>251</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Buenos Aires, Argentina - BA, Buenos Aires, Big Apple</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The Buquebus ferry to Buenos Aires was very cool, and very easy. We just took a cab down to the terminal, checked in, stamped out of Uruguay and into Argentina in about five minutes (Argentina stamped right in the middle of the page again) and then lined up for the boat. It was all so quick that Michael didn't even realize we'd already stamped into Argentina. I wouldn't have realized either, if I hadn't noticed their trademark middle-of-the-page stamp.
]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>250</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Montevideo, Uruguay - We'll Be Back</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We took our last "extra day" today. The weekend in Montevideo was so nice that we wanted to get a glimpse of the city on a weekday too, and also we kind of let the planning slip a little bit. So instead of leaving this moring, we're going to leave tomorrow morning. ]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>249</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Montevideo, Uruguay - Milling Around the Mercado del Puerto</title>
			<description><![CDATA[It's really, really cold in Montevideo at the moment, so before heading out to see the city, we bundled up in all our Salkantay/Uyuni gear. I felt scruffy and mismatched now that we're in a glam city and not the wilderness and I wasn't quite warm enough, but what can you do? We took a cab over to the Mercado del Puerto (Port Market) which is a huge indoor cluster of restaurants and shops down by the water.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>248</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Montevideo, Uruguay - Uruguay, Who Knew?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[It was very, very hard to drag ourselves out of bed this morning, but we had little choice. Our hotel rate included breakfast (dang well better, for thirty dollars) so we ate and then went out to look for a bus. We found the bus company that makes the border crossing and found that the bus would not be leaving for a bit over an hour. But the bus company also had an Internet cafe, so we whiled away the time online.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>247</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Concordia, Argentina - Whose Silly Idea Was It To Take A Bus Trip?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[I've been feeling like time is running out since February. But now we are literally counting the days. So even though we have to physically get through part of Uruguay on our way to Buenos Aires, the only place we really have time to see is the capital, Montevideo. So we looked at the map with the purpose of finding someplace that's a) a good midway-ish point between Puerto Iguazu and Montevideo that would allow us to put a lot of miles behind us at once without hurting ourselves and b) a place to cross the border from Argentina into Uruguay. We came up with Concordia. A seventeen hour trip from Porto Iguazu, and we'd be able to cross the border into Salto, Uruguay the next day.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>246</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Iguaz� Falls, Argentina - No Hay Agua.</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Busses marked "cataratas" leave the Puerto Iguaz� bus station every half hour, 3.50 pesos for the thirty-minute ride to the national park that contains Iguaz� Falls. Michael and I caught one and made it to the falls by 10:00 a.m. Admission was 30 pesos each, about $10 USD each. We paid it, but we were worried.

Apparently the falls are at their lowest level in either nine years or twenty years, depending on who you talk to. At any rate, the levels are low and the falls are not what they could be. This is a result of a dam upstream being turned off because of low rain levels in Brazil this year. Or something. (Again - not that kind of blog. I just know there isn't any water.) So anyway, we came all the way up to this little tongue of Argentina just for the falls and we didn't want to be let down.
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			<pubDate />
			<guid>245</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Puerto Iguaz�, Argentina - The Last Country</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Okay, today we did not wake up late. But when we got up, it was late anyway. This is because we had no idea that Argentina is one hour ahead of Paraguay. So that really messed up our heads and we decided to save Iguaz� Falls for tomorrow. We've heard they're amazing, spectacular, fantastic, etc., and we figure we need a whole day there. We're also still kind of tired from last night's border crossing, even though it turned out to be pretty simple and straightforward. ]]></description>
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			<guid>244</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Ciudad del Este, Paraguay - Itaipu Dam, Wonder of the Modern World</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The Hotel Munich's friendly owner called our room at 8:45 to remind me that breakfast ended at 9:00. Luckily I wasn't sleeping, just getting ready at a slower pace than Michael, who was already in the dining room eating. The buffet, even at that late hour, was impressive - juice, coffee, tea, hot and cold cereal, cheese and cold cuts, bread, rolls, cakes, and pastries.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>243</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Ciudad del Este, Paraguay - Sciatica. Look It Up If You Don't Believe Me</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We accidentally checked out of our hotel an hour late, but it was not a problem. What was a problem was that we had run out of money yet again, after having just taken money out of the ATM two days ago. Well, I had taken out money. Michael couldn't. And after several days of fruitless communication with his bank, he has finally found out what the problem is with his card - his bank has up and switched their debit cards from Visa to MasterCard, rendering previously held cards completely unusable. 

]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>242</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Encarnaci�n, Paraguay - Decadence in the Sinking City</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We decided to stay in Encarnaci�n one more day. The luxury, the sheer decadence of "wasting" a day when we have so few left is just stunning for me. We've taken extra days before, but this is different. Like the difference between savoring one $20 truffle and scarfing down a pound of Russell Stover on sale at Walgreens. Not that Encarnacion is such a beautiful, fabulous city. But it's being slowly swallowed by the Rio Paran� as a result of the existence of the Yacyret� Dam, and that makes it interesting. Since we arrived in the evening and spent the next day out of town we didn't really get to see much, and we want to see Encarnaci�n before it's too late.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>241</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Encarnaci�n, Paraguay - Trinidad and Jesus</title>
			<description><![CDATA[It takes about an hour to get from Encarnaci�n to Trinidad (more formally known as La Santisima Trinidad de Paran�), and it's one of those things where you just have to go out there confidently and trust that you'll be able to find a way back. But the Jesuit Reductions at Trinidad and Jesus were high on our list of places to visit in Paraguay and we had plenty of confidence. The plan was to take a bus to Trinidad in the morning, visit the site, take another bus to Jesus, visit that site, and then take a bus back to Encarnaci�n in the evening.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>240</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Encarnaci�n, Paraguay - Sushi</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We woke up late. (Do I even need to bother saying that anymore?) After one last meal at Confiteria Bolsi, we walked over to Plaza Uruguaya to try to buy bus tickets to Encarnaci�n. Naturally we arrived in the middle of the lunch break and both bus company offices were shut up tight, not a person in sight. So our only choice was to get out to the bus station and see what we could see.]]></description>
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			<guid>239</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Asunci�n, Paraguay - Walking</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Asunci�n has not been the non-stop robbery fest that it was described to be by our friendly waiter in Filadelfia. We choose not to cut through the not-very-well-lit Plaza Uruguaya after dark, but that's the only concession we've made to caution because that's the only place that's looked even slightly shady to us. Until tonight.]]></description>
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			<guid>238</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Asunci�n, Paraguay -  Avoiding The Euros At All Costs</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The thing about sleeping on a boat when you're kind of cold and a little afraid you're going to roll right off the bunk, is that you don't sleep very deeply. So when we docked at 4:30 a.m. I knew it right away. But I didn't feel like getting up. Neither did Michael, judging from the incoherent mumblings from the bottom bunk. So we didn't move. I alternated between hoping that no one would come to kick us out and fearing we'd wake up in Argentina, and eventually fell back into a doze and dreamed I was packing.]]></description>
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			<guid>237</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>R�o Paraguay, Paraguay - The Cacique II</title>
			<description><![CDATA[I woke up at 4:00 a.m. convinced that our few remaining guaranies would not be enough money for the boat. That after a week of waiting for it, we'd have to watch it sail away without us and then trudge on over to the bus station like we always do. I wasn't fully awake, just awake enough stare into the darkness and worry. As soon as the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. I told Michael my thoughts.]]></description>
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			<guid>236</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Concepci�n, Paraguay - Brazil, We Hardly Knew You</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Michael and I left Brazil for the last time today without ever having had a problem with our illegal status. But first we had a big buffet lunch. Good stuff, much better than what we'd had at the hotel the first night. Black beans galore, which are by far my favorite beans, and all kinds of grilled meats. We paid in guaranies because we had exactly one rei left, which is so beautiful that we're going to take it home and put it the Bowl of Coins From Other Countries.]]></description>
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			<guid>235</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Ponte Por�, Brazil - Parque Nacional Cerro Cor� (Paraguay)</title>
			<description><![CDATA[This morning we sneaked back out of Brazil and into Paraguay with our lunch supplies. Parque Nacional Cerro Cor� is about an hour away from Pedro Juan Caballero on the way to Concepci�n, so we found the bus station and got ourselves on a Concepci�n-bound bus. Crazy as it sounds coming from such limited Spanish-speakers, it was a huge relief to speak Spanish and express ourselves so freely.]]></description>
			<pubDate />
			<guid>234</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Ponte Por�, Brazil - I Don't Think We're In Paraguay Anymore</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We took the noon bus to Pedro Juan Caballero with just our daypacks. (Hotel Frances concierge's response to our request to leave our packs with them for a couple of days: A confused look and "You can't leave them in the room...") We were sitting on the bus waiting for it to move when a bunch of kids came on selling candy. We declined politely and they stopped offering, but they didn't go away. So we talked to them. And they were really, really sweet. ]]></description>
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			<guid>233</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Concepci�n, Paraguay - A Dog's Life</title>
			<description><![CDATA[bodyWe have decided to wait for the Sunday boat to Asunci�n, sticking with the plan of spending some of the intervening time going to the town of Pedro Juan Caballero to visit Parque Nacional Cerro Cor�. But for now we're just chilling in Concepci�n, which is a really chill town to chill in. I'm certainly not going to say no one does anything, but whatever they're doing, they're sure not doing it in a hurry.]]></description>
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			<guid>232</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Concepci�n, Paraguay - We Are Two People Who Want to Go to Asunci�n By Boat</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Hotel Frances's breakfast buffet is pretty okay. They had scrambled eggs with hot dog slices in them - yay for Michael, yuck for me, but either way pretty impressive because usually it's just bread and butter and jelly. The other good thing is that breakfast is served until 10:00 a.m., which is a relief after the freakishly early breakfasts in Filadelfia and Loma Plata. After this meal of mixed reviews, we went to go find out about boats to Asunci�n. ]]></description>
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			<guid>231</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Concepci�n, Paraguay - Two Bus Rides, No Mas</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Filadelfia on Sunday is shut down tight, just like Walter had promised. When Michael and I went for a post-breakfast walk over to the bus station to find out our options, we found the streets almost completely deserted. The bus station was closed and we sat down on the bench in front of it,trying to decide what to do. As we sat, a Guarani guy on a bike came over to chat with us.]]></description>
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			<guid>230</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Filadelfia, Paraguay - Our First Surly Paraguayans</title>
			<description><![CDATA[We were up for breakfast again. Hotel Mora's breakfast was much more elaborate than Hotel Safari's, but still in the German style, with lots of cold meats and cheeses. The English guy, David, was staying at the same hotel and we compared guidebook information with him while eating. His book was an older edition than ours, but he'd supplemented it with the Paraguay section torn out of some hostel's guidebook. "No one goes to Paraguay," he said in justification. ]]></description>
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			<guid>229</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Loma Plata, Paraguay - Everyone's Super Nice And There's Lots of Meat</title>
			<description><![CDATA[This morning we actually managed to get up early. We had no choice, because there's only one bus to Loma Plata, and it leaves at 8:00 a.m. This meant we were able to avail ourselves of the free breakfast provided by the hotel, a German-style buffet of ham, cheese, bread, cakes, and juice. After we settled up, the owner of the hotel sent her daughter to help us find the bus station.]]></description>
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			<guid>228</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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			<title>Filadelfia, Paraguay -  A Breath of Fresh Air</title>
			<description><![CDATA[In look and feel and taste, Paraguay is unlike any country we have visited so far on this trip. There are two official languages, Spanish and Guaran�, the language of the indigenous people. But walking around Filadelfia, you're as likely to hear splashes of German as Guaran� or Spanish, and maybe even more likely. Filadelfia is the capital of the Fernheim Colony, the largest of Paraguay's three Mennonite colonies. Most of Paraguay's population is Mestizo, but Filadelfia is full of big-boned, white-skinned, blonde-haired German Paraguayans.]]></description>
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			<guid>227</guid>
			<dc:creator>Megan Lyles</dc:creator>
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