Melia`s Birthday!!

While in Resistencia we had the great pleasure of celebrating Melia`s birthday with her! We started celebrating with cake and ice cream at the Resistencia presentation and dinner, when the clock reached midnight. Here she is with one of the Resistencia club presidents, Hector (better known by his friends as Flaco).

Then she went to bed, woke up and it was still her birthday! We celebrated again at lunch that day, with the owner of the restaurant we went to, Don Abel.

Then she woke up from siesta and it was STILL her birthday!! We walked around downtown, had some more ice cream, and then Sara, Miranda`s host mom bought Melia a beautiful purple scarf as a present.

We had dinner that night at a great little restaurant that was filled with all sort of art, yet another birthday cake (you can see the new scarf)...

and we even got to see Tonya`s impressive Tango skills!

Hope it was a good one, Melia, we sure loved celebrating with you!!

Más de Resistencia

We've seen and done so many amazing things on this trip. Here's a glimpse of a few highlights from Resistencia.

It's fun having a team of four girls (well, at least WE think it's fun, Tom might have a different word to describe it). One of the Rotarians owns a beauty salon and she offered to give us all manicures, pedicures and have our hair done for FREE! What a wonderful and relaxing gift it was after a lot of traveling and living out of a suitcase.

Another Rotarian is the Director of a Forensics lab. They are in a brand new building, and we were able to take a tour to learn about everything from DNA testing to identifying fake license plates. We were accompanied by other Rotarians on the tour.

Another local Rotarian is the owner of a bio diesel plant. He is an innovative business man who used to be a high school teacher. Now he runs a successful business designing and manufacturing machines that convert all different kinds of oils into fuel. He has a truck that runs on bio diesel that is over 10 years old with over 1,000,000 kilometers on it and has never been repaired. Absolutely amazing. Lindsey and Tom were interview on one of the local news shows about our Rotary exchange. It's scary enough being interviewed on TV, but imagine having to do it in Spanish. Then again, Tom's a television pro and Lindsey's Spanish is great. Thanks for representing!

Finally, we visited a couple different technical high schools in Barranqueras. We were very impressed with the student projects we saw, especially taking into account the lack of resources they have.

Below is Melia showing off her mad wood-carving skills. You might not have known, but Melia is a very skilled furniture maker. Ok not really, but she looks like she could be, right?!

Isla del Cerritos

We visited the Isla del Cerritos (Island of the Little Hills) which has a population of 2,000 people. The Rotary Club has initiated a health education program serving the youth on the island. Dental hygiene was the topic covered the day we visited.

For lunch, we enjoyed the catch of the day, surubi, with queso roqueforte.

Paso de la Patria

A relaxing day at the beach along the Parana and Paraguay rivers with our wonderful host families from Resistencia...

Rotary Projects in Resitencia

The first morning that we were in Resistencia, we were able to observe one of the projects funded and run by the The Rotary Foundation called el Centro de Alfabetizacion. This program teaches adults to read and write who never had the opportunity or resources to do so before. They also provided glasses for those who had trouble reading. Some of the women also shared other projects like quilt making with us. We loved seeing some of the influence that the Rotary Clubs are having in their communities.

City Tour in Resistencia

Iguazu

We had an amazing time in Puerto Iguazu! Not only were the natural sights breathtaking, but the hotel we stayed at was beautiful. We had lots of group bonding time since there was just one local Rotarian who accompanied us.


It rained quite a bit the first day we arrived, but the next days were perfect for visiting the waterfalls.

Here we are at the place where you can see Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.


The Devil's Throat Waterfall.

Luis Perez, the Rotarian who planned the trip and accompanied us.



Iguazu is where the movie, "The Mission", was filmed.



We also took a tour of an animal reserve where we saw many native animals including the largets rodant on earth, the carpincha.