{"id":97,"date":"2018-07-28T19:47:24","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T00:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/?p=97"},"modified":"2022-06-07T11:51:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T16:51:22","slug":"2-prepping-for-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"2: Prepping for the Ties Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The next few days were spent running errands, prepping for the adoption trip, and dealing with the car. Tracy had some work to do for this trip, including confirming reservations for some of the activities. There are definitely some cultural differences between the U.S. and Paraguay when it comes to planning. Many Paraguayans don\u2019t think a request is serious if it is made months in advance. They are used to working more in real time. So, Tracy has to constantly follow-up with hotels, restaurants, artisans, etc to make sure she is still on their schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There was one situation where a restaurant was not returning Tracy\u2019s calls.  So, we drove downtown to the restaurant, and even though it was closed midday she was able to get someone to let her in, confirm the reservation, and walk through how they were going to serve 30 people. There was another tour stop where the owner had been hard to reach, but eventually agreed to set a time to meet with Tracy. As we arrived for the appointment the owner of the business was leaving for another appointment as she had forgotten about her meeting with Tracy. But, they were able to talk and work out the details. It\u2019s a little bit crazy. Tracy has to stay on top of everything and everyone throughout the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were also able to spend some time with Tracy\u2019s extended family in Caacupe. Her former father-in-law John is retired, but still lives next to the church camp he and his late wife Renee helped start when they moved to Paraguay decades ago. You will learn more about the camp in a future post. When we visited last year and earlier this year we stayed a few nights at a house belonging to Tracy\u2019s brother-in-law, Miguel. His house is a few hundred feet away from John’s, but he is rarely there as he currently lives elsewhere. It\u2019s a beautiful house with an incredible view from the back deck. While we were in Caacupe many plants started to bloom around the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miguel’s house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the back deck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Miguel’s bug…not sure if it runs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A late night visitor at Miguel’s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tracy & Maliya with Miguel’s family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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John’s house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Eliza Lynch: Queen of Paraguay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The night before the tour started, one of Tracy’s guides gave us free tickets to view a documentary showing at a local theater. The film is \u201cEliza Lynch: Queen of Paraguay\u201d.  Eliza Lynch was the partner (or as some describe her, mistress) of the dictator Francisco Solano Lopez.  When she arrived in Paraguay with Lopez, she was rejected by high society because she was Irish and divorced. They were never married, but Eliza still played a role in Paraguayan politics. The film also spent quite a bit of time focused on the Triple Alliance War, which was started in great part due to Lopez\u2019s inability to recognize when to stop using military tactics and switch to diplomacy. Because of Lopez\u2019s insistence on the use of his military, an alliance was formed between Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay to wipe him out, which resulted in Paraguay losing 60% of its total population and 90% of its male population. The effects are still felt today, 150 years later. If you\u2019re a history buff the Triple Alliance War, and the Chaco War, are worth checking out. One thing I find hard to understand is the fact Lopez is a national hero in Paraguay. He almost single-handedly put an end to Paraguay, but there is a holiday in his name and statues honoring him throughout the country. I can understand nationalism, but at what price?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember the car? The new tank of gas seemed to help somewhat, but did not fix all of the issues. So, it was off to the mechanic. They found an issue with an air intake hose that had become dislodged and need to be reconnected. The car seemed much happier after that repair. But not happy enough as we\u2019ll find out later\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next few days were spent running errands, prepping for the adoption trip, and dealing with the car. Tracy had some work to do for this trip, including confirming reservations for some of the activities. There are definitely some cultural differences between the U.S. and Paraguay when it comes to planning. Many Paraguayans don\u2019t think … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “2: Prepping for the Ties Trip”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paraguay"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Will","author_link":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/?author=2"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Paraguay<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Paraguay<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 8 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 28, 2018","modified":"Updated on June 7, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 28, 2018 7:47 pm","modified":"Updated on June 7, 2022 11:51 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2936,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/2936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maycas.us\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}