Plans had been made to meet Daniela De Garate
and her husband Fernando today. Daniela
was a Rotary exchange student in Mt Pleasant, 1999-00. She was in Mt Pleasant the first year the
high school was in the new building south of town. We had lost all contact with her (she lost
everything on her computer), but due to having her Rotary Exchange Student
business card in our exchange student file, we finally made contact with
her. Cal & I will spend the day with
Daniela and Ferd while the rest of the group does other things.
It was absolutely wonderful to see Daniela
again. As with all exchange students, it
is always great to meet them 10-15 years later, when they are mature adults instead
of teenagers (however to be an exchange student you are quite mature at that
age) - this was the case again. Daniela is a delightful young lady. Daniela and Fred live about an hour and a
half from Corrientes. They drove to
Corrientes arriving at our host around 10:00. We had such an enjoyable day with
her and her husband. They have two children, a 3 year old boy, and a 5 month
old girl. They left their 3 year old son with Grandma for the day, bringing the
baby with them. Their baby girl was so
good all day. She did not cry one time!
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| Daniela, Fernando and Catalina |
As is often the case, people do not visit sites
near their home, so several of the places we visited were places they have
never seen. Beside several churches and small museums, we visited the Corrientes
Theater. Oh, what a lovely place. The cupola in the theater was beautifully
painted with scenes of historic Argentina.
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| Cathedral in Corrientes |
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| Ceiling of the Cathedral |
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| Park in Corrientes |
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| Another San Martin Statue |
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| Government Building - Casa de Gobierno |
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| Entering the Building |
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| Courtyard |
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| Walking along a Corrientes Park - Tree Lined |
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| Inside Museum, Museo de Artesania Tradicional Folklorica - An Old House Courtyard |
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| Courtyard of another Museo |
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| Corrientes Theater - Teatro Oficial Juan De Vera |
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| Foyer of the Theater |
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| Cupola of Theater - Painted by Nenu's friend Jose Ramirez, 2005 |
We spent several hours here in Corrientes before driving to Santa Ana, a
very small quite village that is extremely old.
It is now a place where people have weekend homes. The streets are not paved. The soil in the area is sandy so the streets
were all sand. As is normal in South American towns, the important things lie
around the town square/plaza - the church, police station, town hall, and restaurants,
etc. This village was simple, which was also reflected in the church. As we were walking we saw the rest of our
group in this same village. We all ate
at the same restaurant, which when we entered at 1:00 had no one else there, but
when we left after 2:00 it was almost full.
We had a great meal of meat and fries.
We returned to our host home at approximately 6:00, rested, and
changed before going to dinner at the home of a friend. We learned this friend
is an architect and an artist. To our
surprise, he was the one who painted the cupola of the theater we saw this
morning, in 2005. His home is decorated
with wonderful pieces of art and antique furniture. He so wanted to show Nenu’s American friends
the best hospitality in Argentine. We began with great appetizers and
wine. What an evening, the table was
full of glasses, (every person had 6 glasses) and we ended with champagne. All the glasses were a real high quality
crystal from Europe. It was amazing the
sound they made when you tapped two glasses together. It was the sound of a clear bell. We have
never heard anything like this, but then we have never been around this quality
crystal. Also, the champagne glasses
were different colors – vibrant colors.
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