Home at last

Well eventually after about 24 hours on the go we arrived at Heathrow to be greeted by some trusty supporters. It was good to be back but what an experience - unbelieveable

Thank you 1110

Up Up and Away

Last view of Port Alegre from the airport

Well it's finally arrived our last taste of Brazil before the long flight home.

We spent the morning having a quick trip into Gramado and then lunch - barbeque! but very tasty. Then the trip back to Port Alegre for the flight.

We were met at the airport by Ingo the GSE co-ordinator and we said our last farewells and flew from Port Alegre to Rio a 2 hour flight.

The change to the international flight at Rio was a lot easier than it had been coming in as our baggage was loaded in Port Alegre and would go all the way through to Heathrow (we hoped) and we only had to find the right gate. The airport was pretty devoid of shops and anywhere to get anything to eat only one food outlet and a little expensive £5.00 for an iced tea. It was dark so we could see little of Rio only the lights. Then on to the plane for the 11.5 hour flight home.

Good bye Brazil its been great.

Oh no - last day

Home James

Our final dinner

The runaway train

The distillery

Entry to Canela

Today we were to go to a post conference lunch event organised by the RC Canela - well that's what we found out when we got there. A pretty miserable day - rain and drizzle.

We had some time to look round Canela there were a few strange 'statues' placed arround the ton as they had had a recent conference about children's issues.

The lunch was good - barbequed meat but good all done by the club for about 100. Lunch over some entertainment a few musical moments by Rotarians - pretty professional.

After lunch we went to a cashasa distillery and a few samples - hic! Like many new businesses this was way out in the sticks but seemed to be happy with their location and producing some excellent cashasa.

Back to Gramado and on the way we saw the runaway train coming through a building which was a great tourist attraction.

Back to the hotel until we went to a restaurant for the DG's farewell dinner - a small ffair with the team, the DG, the RI Presidents Represenative from Portugal and the President of Gramado Rc and one of the conference organisers in a very up market Portuguese establishment. A great meal and a fitting end to our visit and our culinary experience.

The icing of this final event was the ride from the restaurant to our hotel in a stretch limo - we tried for the disco and bar but they weren't there.

To bed and to pack

Conference

Being presented at Conference with the banner from RC Canela

We had a reasonably easy start to the day then off to Canela to the District conference - work on the presentation - panic no one to translate our experiences - ok someone will translate as we speak on the experience.

Lunch was good but a bit of a scrum and then have a quick look in the conference hall - oh lots of people - it will all be ok. After tea break in the afternoon it's us

It went extremely well with Richard starting the crowd reaction off with the football team support - Grameo (one of the 2 premier teams in Rio Grand Du Sol - the other being Internacional) The presentations were well received and there were congratulations being offer by Rotarians - they may have been being nice! We were each presented with a chocolate bar for presenting - does that say anything!!

Another part of the great experience

Later there was the DG's dinner which was a much more sedate affair to lunch and very enjoyable and then back toe the hotel in Gramado for our penultimate night.

A rest day !!!!!!!!!!!

The entry to Gramado

The park

The cinema where there is film festival later in the year

Today we had a some time to ourselves - some did a little shopping - but in true Brazilian style our hosts the RC of Gramado didn't want to leave alone for too long so they came and collected us for lunch which was at the hotel (Hotel Bangalos Serra) we visited the previous day - excellent meal and the weather was better than the previous day so could see the magificent views.

After lunch we visited the city 'park' Lago Negro an area with a lake with even pedalos.

We then went back to the hotel we were staying out for a while - packed as we thought to move to the conference hotel in Canela - wrong - were only being taken there for the cocktail party - doh!!!

12th May - On the home stretch now

Time at the Zoo

The newspaper press

Today we moved on to Gramado where you can see a very clear European influence in the layout and buildings which look Tyrolean - very pretty, but starting to move to higher ground and it certainly was cooler

We arrived and went to the local school where the head teacher was a Rotarian and we spoke to about 120 children about us, England and whether we had met the Queen. The scholl had a project where they were harvesting the rainwater for the toilets etc. We then had lunch at a small hotel whose selling point was that they did all they could to ensure they were as environmentally friendly as they could be with their own cows, chickens and blankets made from recycled material.

We visited the Mayor's office and met the Environment Secretary who explained what they were doing and they seemed to be ahead of many other 'cities' we had visited and wanted to progress further. Then off to one of the local papers for a interview and from there to another where we saw the paper presses - this one seemed to be a 5 or 6 man operation but behold the next day we were in their publication.

Then it was off to the Zoo a fairly small zoo but well stocked with a variety of indigenous animals. It seemed some of the nclosures may have been a little small but the animals seemed healthy and an all round enjoyable visit.

Taquara 11th May

We collected by RC Taquara and were starting to get into the higher ground and it was getting cooler. Firstly we visited the local radio station and did an inteview for both the radio and newspaper. The interview asked the standard question about the Wedding and which footbal team would win but a reasonably pleasant experience with an American who translated.

A pretty damp and dismal day from the weather point of view. WE visited the University which was small and talked to the Principal who had been a GSE member a while ago but he was very open about many parts of Brazilian life.

Then it was the Mayor a very pleasant lady where Paul M tried very hard to talk about strategy and plans and made a little progress

The we went higher after a storm to a Buddhist temple which had some magnifient views and was a very serene place.

We then moved on to the water treatment plant where we met a great guy who explained in detail all the processes and how they are looking to the future requirements