Mercedes for Taiwanese food

We had a slow morning and let the kids play outside while we filled water and dumped the gray and cassette. The park was empty overnight but morning cyclists were coming through as the day warmed up. There were uruguay parrots around us and their large nests.

I started using chatgpt a couple days ago to help plan the next few weeks of our trip and it has been like having a conversation with someone who has been here before. It has changed our itinerary for the next few days and now we are headed to the Iberia National Park near Paraguay. We are still three days away from the park. We are not in a rush because we are also waiting for our Brazilian e visas applications to be accepted. The long six to seven hours days have been very boring for the family so we are taking it easy and having slow starts and stopping early. 

Today we were headed to a Chinese restaurant in a town ninety minutes away called Mercedes. We stopped there a little before it closed. It was a takeout place where the dishes are prepares already and you fill a tray and they weigh the tray. We went to a similar place in Ushuaia. The food here was much warmer and fresher than in Ushuaia. Both places were vegetarian. I spoke to the owner and she was from Kaohsiung, Taiwan and she was shocked to hear me speak Mandarin. She had emigrated to Argentina when she was 25 and she was 60 now. She loved it here but still went back to Taiwan every couple years. She just got back last month. We filled our trays and she packaged them up and when I asked to pay she brushed me off and said no charge. I was so humbled by her generosity and was speechless. She wished us well and we went on our way. The food was good but the kids are not super into vegetarian foods. 

We went to La Anomina for some groceries and went to find an ATM but none were working. They only limit $60 withdrawing. Strange country. We continued on for a couple hours and passed Buenos Aires and headed north. We passed Zarate, one of the ports near Buenos Aires and saw an abandoned steamship in the jungle. 

We eventually stopped at a shell gas station that had peacocks, alpaca, and rheas in the farm in back. We had leftovers for dinner and played cards.

Chatgpt tells me I will need cash for the national park and recommended exchanging USD tomorrow in a town called Concordia and the general location. We will see how that goes.