4 Day Weekend and a Helicopter Ride

It turned out that this weekend was 4 days long and jammed pack of things to do. Thursday, May 14th, was Paraguayan Independence Day and as part of the celebration, my school was going to take part in the parade. For several weeks I have been practicing everyday at school as a batoner (batonist?...I'm not sure). The past week we upped it to 2-a-day practices, marching through the streets around the school breaking in our high heeled leather boots. Oh no, they do not joke around with their batoning! Wednesday afternoon I arrived home, completely exhausted from practicing in the sun all afternoon and lied down to take a nap. I awoke at 7 AM the next morning to pouring down rain. While I was fully rested, the downpour meant that the parade would have to be postponed. Paraguayans don't do rain! So instead of spending the morning waiting around in lines for the parade to start, I snuggled up with a warm cup of coffee and the 7th and final Harry Potter book.
Friday was Paraguayan's Mother's Day and as such there was no school. I woke up relatively early and gave my host mom her present (a photo album filled with pictures of the two of us from throughout the year). I must say it is fairly difficult to buy a Mother's Day present when you have no Dad to take you shopping, although I managed (had classmates make the purchases for me). She seemed to like the gift as she took it with her out to the farm to show off to everyone. On the way we stopped and picked up a "Feliz Dia Mama" cake for my grandmother. As part of the celebration we had a big lunch (although I must admit I can't ever remember a time we ate "lightly" out on the farm). Mid-afternoon my mom, Aunt Mauchi, and I made a pit-stop at the house to pick up my passport and headed off to Argentina. However, as we got near downtown, we realized there was a huge line to get through the border and decided to turn around. I was a little bummed, but 2 hours waiting through traffic just to get there didn't sound like too much fun either.
Saturday was my grandfather's birthday and with yet another cake in hand, we headed to the farm. After a big barbecue and more cake consumption, my mom and I set off to check out the "Exposition" going on in Santa Rita, a town about an hour away from our house. The Expo was filled with every kind of booth you could imagine. There was tractor equipment and farm animals, not to mention car dealerships and radio stations. The kids section resembled fair grounds, complete with a ferris wheel and rodeo. We moseyed about until a concert began at 8ish and listened for an hour or so until we finally gave into the fact that we were freezing our butts off. As soon as we got home, both of us crawled up under the covers and called it a night.
Sundays we usually go out to the farm, but seeing how the two previous days had been spent there, we opted against it. Instead, midmorning we bundled up and headed to Brazil to check out the "Parque de las Aves" which is more or less a botanical gardens and bird sanctuary. We were able to get surprisingly close to some toucans which was fun. After walking through the park, we walked across the street where my mom signed me up for a helicopter tour of the Iguazu Falls. It was incredible!!! First of all, it was my first time in a helicopter and secondly, the Falls are breathtakingly beautiful. It truly was a once in a life time experience and I enjoyed every second of it, even the few seconds when my stomach was knotted up and jumping about. The experience left me with a high the rest of the afternoon (there may still be a trace of it now) as we lunched at an all you can eat seafood restaurant and returned home to admire all our pictures. I still can't believe that only a matter of hours ago I was soaring above some of the largest waterfalls in the world. I think I can fairly say that I took advantage of our 4 day break and truly enjoyed it.