El Ciudad del Este

The party was last night was great, lots of food, mostly meat of course. I think I might be a vegetarian for a while when I get back home. We spent the day today checking out the sites of El Ciudad del Este. First we go to an orphanage, then we go to El Centro in el ciudad, it is a outdoor shopping area where you literally are walking through tunnels of merchandise along the side walks. Seems like you can buy anything. Its crazy. Then we walk out to the bridge over the Rio Parana, which borders Brazil so we can say we went to Brazil, actually we went to Brazil yesterday because the Itaipu Dam is on the border too. The border is crazy! Then we eat some lunch and visit the Salto Falls on the Rio Monday. They are awesome falls, but everybody here doesn't think much of them because the Iguazu falls are so much bigger, still impressive though. We see Iguazu in a couple of days. Tonight we have a Rotary Meeting and we leave for Puerto Iguazu tomorrow about mid-day. We have been well taken care of here in El Cuidad del Este and we are very grateful to our hosts.

Dam big day!

Yesterday we were in el campo of Paraguay in the town of Colonel Olviedo. We had a Rotary meeting the night before, it was outside and it was cold, but the food was good. We had a meeting with the mayor, had a TV interview, met with the university, and visited another water plant. Things are interesting when they don't tell you what you are going to do, the TV interview was a complete shock. They have many problems with water out in el campo and they need help. The differences between the cities and el campo are amazing. We left for Cuidad del Este at dusk. Its winter here and the days are short. It would be nice to travel in the day so we can see the country we are traveling through. Always interesting to arrive at night and wake up to see what is around you.

El Cuidad del Este is the city of electronics and Itaipu Dam, the biggest Dam in the world (right now, but those Chinese have to be #1). Everything about the Dam is huge, it is amazing how big it is. Very cool and interesting. A couple of girls from the Youth Rotary Exchange program join us, fun to have them on the tour and hear about their experiences in the program. We only spend a couple hours at the Dam and we really could spend all day.

We eat an amazing lunch at the Hotel Guarani in El Cuidad del Este and visit the Museo de Itaipu. Very interesting to hear about the Guarani people and their customs and history. The Dam displaced many people and animals in the process of filling, very sad.

Big fiesta for Raul tonight, the son of Nima and I's host family. Should be good! Not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow, but we visit the water falls soon.
Neil

Freezing in Paraguay!

We left the high life in Asuncion and traveled east today to el campo in Paraguay, Colonel Oviedo. We busted out of the District Conference last night and went to la casa de Marina y Miguel to hang out with our best latin amigos, Team 4845. It was so nice to see Belen, Albertina, and Gustavo, and Marina of course. Grima met up with us this morning and Ana couldn't make the conference due to some business in Buenos Aries. We have a great time hanging out with them and make plans to go dancing and spend some more time together in Corrientes in a couple of weeks, we can't wait.

We had our what we thought was our presentation this morning, but we just got called to the stage and got put on the spot to say something to the crowd. It would have been nice to know that we were not going to present our normal talk, but it worked out. Before leaving Asuncion we have lunch with the District Governor and other VIPs and guess what we had? Thats right more carne and vino! We travel to Colonel Oviedo and its cold. We have a meeting and its outside in the cold. It is winter here, but its surprising how cold it is. More carne and vino for dinner. Luckily everybody is cold and leaves shortly after dinner. We need to catch up on some sleep.

District Conference

We are at the District Conference in Asuncion at the Hotel Excelsior, very posh, but not up to the standards for some of the folks here. Last night was the opening dinner and social. Nothing like rubbing elbows and having drinks (except Rod of course) with people in another language. Everybody has been so nice. I got advice on how to pick up latin girls at my table, so I'll have to see how that goes. We have an interview with the newspaper this afternoon and our presentation is tomorrow morning, then we leave Asuncion. We are loving it here, so we are sad to go because our host families have been so wonderful.
Neil

Another great day!

Ok, so I said yesterday was the best day so far, well this one tops yesterday. We just keep meeting great people that make each day so amazing. First we went to the water treatment plant and we saw a presentation about Lake Ypacarai, then we went there. The water treatment plant in Asuncion rivals anything in the states or europe and it was great to have such an up close tour. Most of the potable water in Asuncion comes from the Paraguay River (a huge river, similar to the Columbia), but they have a a few wells. They also treat the wastewater before dumping it in the Paraguay River, but most of the people here are on septic systems. They are working on changing that though.

Then we saw a presentation about the Lake Ypacarai and the basin. Appearantly the huge lake is turning eutrophic and its caused by urbanization and some industry. Many of the wetlands around the lake are being drained and developed, leading to excessive sedimentation to the lake, along with sewage effluent from the developments. The underlying aquifer is being contaminated by the surface activities. We visited the lake and its beautiful, but the area we visited is not where most of the problems are. It is a shame to see such a beautiful place be destroyed.

We visited the town of San Bernardino and it is a beautiful place, a vacation destination. We also got to spend time with our host families tonight, which for myself has been just as great as anything else I have done. Generous people that treat us as if we are family, so I feel as if my family has grown. We are very lucky.
Neil

Best day yet! We are still in Asuncion and will be for a few more days. We went to the Direccion de Hidrographica (Navy) this morning. For being a land locked country, Paraguay has some very interesting water issues. Paraguay is the land of many rivers, each river is quite different. Afterwords, we toured the city, it is an amazing city with great sites and the people here are awesome. The Museo de Barro was amazing and the art of Paraguay is fascinating. We had another Rotary meeting tonight, this time in Asuncion and despite our poor spanish, they loved us, or at least they made it seem so. No pictures today, sorry, need to sleep.
Neil

We made it!

Since arriving in Asuncion, its been crazy. Shortly after arriving we went to a futbol game, which was great. The fans on both teams were very excited. Then we went to dinner at a former district governor´s house (magnificent) and ate authentic Paraguayian food (delicious) and drank plenty of wine. The next day, I already forgot what day it is, we woke up early and drove 4 hours to a small town in Argentina called Las Lomitas. That night we had our first presentation to the Rotary Club, and it went great. However, it started at about 10pm and didn´t get over until about 1am. We had to get up at 5 am to go to the Bañada de Estrellas, which is a wetland area created by a series of small dams. So we get out there and see lots of birds and one alligator. I don´t know why we had to get up so early but we did. Now we are still in Las Lomitas and will be driving back to Asuncion soon. If the last few days are any indication of what is to come, all I can say is sleep deprevation. More to come!
Neil