He told us about the history of the town and welcomed us as our visit was being broadcast on the radio as well as being covered by several newspapers. After the visit, Juan Jesus took us for breakfast at a small bocateria where we each enjoyed ham and cheese sandwiches (what else) and café. During the course of desayuno, we convinced the district governor to have his picture made with each of us wearing a red nose (for those of you that got to know the inbound group from the canaries in our district, you will remember that Sylvia made everyone where the red nose in her pictures including our very own Rich Waugh).
Once we had consumed the breakfast, we headed out down a street when all of the sudden, a magnificent church rose in front of us. 
We walked up to the Templo Parroguial de Arucas. This church was constructed in the early 1900s and is designed similar to the church that stands in Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia. We received a special tour from a fellow Rotarian who knew all things that related to this Iglesia (that is Spanish for church, Ken). The group walked around and was all amazed at the sculptures in the church as well as the church itself. Another thing that we found interesting was the fact that the entire church was constructed in eight years with all of the intricate work completed by hand by local artisans. Once our tour was finished, we headed back to the bus where we were transported through the city to a facility that houses the stone crafters that are direct descendents from the sculptors that completed the church façade. The family now owns a business that carves rock for residential and commercial businesses as well as has a mock up area where they show how their jobs were completed in the old days. 
After we saw the facility, we headed for the real fun…the distillery of Arucas. Apparently in the olden days, sugarcane was a huge crop for the people of this town. As it was, they created rum with this resource and so was born the trade of rum in the canaries. There was a small debate among our tour guides as to the origin of rum. Some of them said that rum was first made here, others said elsewhere. We really didn’t care as long as there were samples.
Our guide led us through the factory where we saw oak casks full of rum that is aging…The owners had various famous people that have visited over the years sign the outside of the casket. There were signatures from huge dignitaries including the King and Queen of Spain, Cesar Manrique, Placido Domingo and of course…Tom Jones (somehow he didn’t seem to fit). As we passed through the facility, we saw the assembly line and learned that eighty percent of the Canaries market uses this brand of rum. After the tour, we were led into the tasting room where we each sampled a handful (yes handful) of flavors. Carla had two handfuls. We all liked the chocolate flavored rum the best, some of us sampled more than others. As we walked out, the CEO of the company met us with a kind word and some gift bags which included a bottle of rum for the road.As we boarded the bus, Juan Jesus told us that we all looked very tired and he was pulling the district governor card and cancelling the dinner that was planned at the Rotary Club in the south this evening. Our lunch club would be the last presentation because he was the boss and he said so. We all delighted in this new revelation because we really were (and are) tired from the culmination of all of the activities over the past three and a half weeks.
As we arrived at the RC of Arucas, we walked into the restaraunte past a crowd of people gathered for a dinner with one of the candiates for President of the Cabildo. Tong and I stayed to listen to part of Jose Manuel Soria’s speech that was made to a sold out crowd. A few minutes later, we were summoned to the back room for the meeting. We enjoyed a fine dinner as we prepared ourselves for out last presentation in the Canaries. The meeting began and during several breaks, the club had brought in a folkloric band to perform as a special treat. The group sang a few special songs…one of which was our favorite…Hay, Hay, Hay, Hay, Canta y no llores….
After the concert, we made our final presentation and probably one of the best as we got several ovations throughout our time on stage. Once we had finished, the Governor had several gifts to pass out for us and had nothing but good things to say about us and the GSE program.
Juan Jesus has become a friend. A few minutes later, we received a visit from the very important candidate for President, Jose, who to my liking was a conservative. We promised him that we would vote for him if we could but told him that we would be leaving on Sunday and would follow up on the results when we returned to the states. He made his rounds throughout our Rotary meeting to lock us some final votes before heading out. The final meeting was a great success and we enjoyed meeting so many new friends in the town of Arucas.With the afternoon granted free by our best friend, we each went our separate ways. I visited the beach for an hour before dinner at Suzie’s house with Tong and Carla while Bert, Chris and Catherine all had dinner at Marian’s house with their host families. After dinner, Carla and I came back to have a few glasses of wine with my host family before calling it a night.
As I get ready for bed, I remember the sign that I saw in the factory today that said…”A day without rum is a bad one…”
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