Ilha das Flores

Crossing over the numerous bridges to Guiabe we passed a sign for the Island of Flowers, which used to be the municipal waste dump. A documentary produced by a Brazillian seemed to spur action to clean up the island and help its people.... it was mentioned a few times so I found the link - it is in two parts the second relating to the ilha so I have put it below.

The Ilha is here

Half-way through the trip

The last week has seen a myriad of visits and experiences - and again such a welcoming atmosphere from all our hosts. We are now in Canoas and have been for the past week or so.... some highlights and pictures / videos are below.

The storm approaching before the dash down the hill following the Easter procession in Porte Alegre - the following storm caused 2 deaths in the city - and the following Sunday paper was full of stories about how homes had been destroyed by the heavy rain - it was a proper tropical storm and the heaviest I think I have been in.

Saturday 23rd April

After the procession we attended a famous resturante in Porte Alegre which demonstrated the affection that the people of Rio Grande de Sul have for their Goucho heritage! As well as love of meat.

The resturante had its own entertainment - some exceptional dancing

One of the many thoughtprovoking cartoons in the oldest power station in Porte Alegre which has now been turned into a culture scentre - reminiscent of the Tate Gallery - although much smaller.

Sunday consisted of a trip to a Country House where we enjoyed BBQ and a rest in the Sun - Richard and myself also decided to take a dip in the Pool althrough I have no photos of this occasion!

Monday 25th April

This was the day of our transfer to Canoas - however before this we had a packed schedule, being escorted to 3 sites relating to the production of paper and celluse. The first site was a Forset Farm - consisting of plantations of Eucalyptus Trees. These trees have been selected due to their fast growing nature (typically a 7 year cycle) and other properties relating to density and amount of production. Additionally the company was keen to emphasise that a signicant proportion of the plantations were given over to native varietes - about 30% I seem to remember.  The industry in the region is signifcant - but the plantations themselves only make up about 2% of the land area - however considering the size of the region this is still a signifcant land area by our standards I guess.

The Forest Farm - a modern operation with industrual quantities of trees being propogated.

We then visited the Celluse factory itself - where we had a presentation on the processes and environmental standards. The company had impressive environmental qualifications including ISO 14001 and 9001, the impact of the industry itself can me severe without mitigation - other plants seemed not to be making such investment. The last site we visited was a recycling facility for the not inconsiderable waste produced by the celluose plant - the site was initiated by José Lutzenberger who was a prominant critic of the plants operations. He went on to work for them and did alot of work to clean up the operation - including this facility.

More inforamtion on this interesting individual can be found here

http://www.brasil.gov.br/sobre/history/historical-figures/jose-lutzenberger-1926-2002/br_model1?set_language=en

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Lutzenberger

His daughter who continues to run the operation accompanied us for the tour of the facility - she was also leading on a number of other projects.


A video-pan of the recycling site.

After all this - we went back to porte alegre and were picked up by Jiro who would be co-ordinating our visit to Canoas.

Tuesday 26th April

Today we visited the offices of Project Aguape and heard about the progress and future plans for the last year of the project. After a presentation to a lunchtime Rotary Club in Canoas we had a boat trip exploring the mouth of the River Gravatai as it passes into the lake. We had some troubles with the boat which overturned last time! But it was good to see the river that had initiated this exchange visit.

Some boat problems! It does seem to be cursed for Rotarians

Travelling back towards the mouth of the River - there seems to be some jovial boat jousting going on here....


At the Environmental Polices HQ near the mouth of the River Gravatai



Visit to the project which produces the seedlings for replanting of the beds of the River.

Wednesday 27th April

Hospital, the Surgeon who showed us round replied to my question what is the biggest health problem in Brazil - Money and Corruption.  - then Rotary meeting - Refinery and also visiting many of the womens projects which the Canoas Industrial Rotary Club supports.

This ambulance was purchased with support from Rotary Club Canoas Industrial and a Japanese Club

We are wowing the clubs with our fluent portuguese

PetroGras Oil Refinery visit

Thursday

In the morning we visited a clean-up operation on a Tributary of the River Gravatai, the operation involves a number of agencies working together including volunteer paramedics. 

The clean-up operation.... basically anything that cannot be sold by the horse and cart collectors who travel around collecting rubbish and selling that which they can is likely to be dumped in this fashion. Our conversation with city hall last week informed of us of a project to work with these very poor people and discontinue this practice - but it appears to be a long process - as is the general education process. George - our interpretor for the day - talked of a project he was engineering involving elimination of the middle man who purchases waste from the horse and cart persons and sells it on - and replacement with an NGO with facilities to compact waste for sale - the profits would then be used to benefit the local community by for instance purchasing I.T equipment.

These are very popular vechicles in this area - and apparently can be picked up for a couple of thousand $real.

Well prepared for a trip to the source of the River Gravatai

Travelling to the source of the River Gravatai - the reflection in the water was very stark. The river has been altered with the construction of a canal to aid irrigation of the surrounding agriculture - however this has caused some issues with rapid through-flow of water during flood, so remedial action is underway. The chap who explained about the river is a weath of knowledge - althrough we are still a little weary of his boat! He seemed to have a connection with the river that was beyond the mere identification of features and processes - for instance mentioning that the location for the source of the water had good energy. The River is widely understood as the most polluted in Brazil - however he was keen to point out that this only refers to the bottom 1/3 the top 2/3 being pretty good.... with extraction of the city of Gravatais water coming from this part of the River.

The source - this part is in public ownership

Friday... Saturday

This is taking a long time to catch up!

Friday we had some free time - so I wondered around the city of Canoas. The city as of so much of Brazil is charactorised by modern buildings - with residential areas consisting of modern villa like buildings with no two being alike - these are contrasted with the areas of poor housing - often in areas of scrap land such as between buildings or alongside roads. The noticable issue is the security measures on the homes which are not inconsiderable - often with electric fencing above a surrounding fence - almost all homes having dogs and private security - due to a lack of confidence in the metropoliton police.  Crime and fear of it - incuding muggings is very real - but being very niaeve this day (hearing about all this on the Saturday!) I wondered around with a tourists nochalance... and enjoyed the city park the bustle and the traffic. These not insubstantial lunches and dinners are also requiring me to return to running in the mornings so as to fit on the plane for return to the UK!

In the afternoon we visited the University of Canoas - notably the Engineering and Environmental departments. We also visited the Church - services are screened on the unis own TV channel - I did press them on the churches influence on the university but it appears to be pretty benign in an educational sense and does not really influence the choice of students. We also visited the vetinary school and saw lots of cute animals. Apparently Rabies is not a problem at all here in Brazil - and they were somewhat puzzled about the recommendation for immunisation in NHS guidence.



We visited the itati water factory - the two local football teams international and Gremio have a fierce rivialry whcih has to be taken into account when considering any marketing the area using them



The food and hospitality has been amazing consistantly

 OK - just to bring me up to date with things - the group prepared an authentic english dish of roast pork and beef with banoffee pie (richards doing) / yorkshire puddings and the like... which seemed to go down well - and hopefully going someway to repay the amazing hospitality we have recieved from the Rotarians of Canoas... I have been a bit exhausted today... every day has been packed with visits etc... and the effort of taking it all in mentally seems to take its toll... however some rest a visit to the mall and finishing this blog appear to have revived me somewhat! Tomorrow we say bye to our host famillies once again and move on to S Leopoldo.

last few days

29 April:

University (vets, engineering, petrochemical research) and Itati mineral water company - very interesting.

28 April:

Visit to an upmarket slum to see a clean-up operation of a section of the River Gravatai where people have been using the river as a dump. The slum was surprisingly nice with well-tended gardens etc. The people are stealing electricity from the grid and the wiring looked decidedly unsafe! Everyone has running water too but the buildings are still slum buildings.

Speed boat trip with an environmental foundation to the headwaters and swamp of the River Gravatai - beautiful.

Dinner at Alenca´s or "Alan Carr's"!

27 April:

Visited a hospital (oncology, intensive care, public and private wings), a refinery, two women's charities and a project for homeless people.

Presented to Canaos Industrial Rotary Club at lunch.

26 April:

Presentation on River Gravatai in the morning, then speed boat trip on the polluted section of the River Gravatai with the military police. Rich and Paul´s boat broke down unfortunately! Thankfully no crocs or snakes. Then visit to seedling project where they are growing trees for reforestation of Gravatai headwaters. This also includes educational programmes.

Presented to the local Rotary Club at lunch.

25 April:

Cellulose plant (eucalyptus) to make paper including farming, processing and recycling aspects.

Move to Canoas from Porto Alegre in the evening.

24 April (easter):

Gaucho BBQ at a house in the country!

(photos to follow!)

Laura

A Goucho night out

We had a great evening out with our hosts at a Goucho restaurant where the food kept coming managing to fulfill all appetites

The rains coming

This was the cloud that formed just prior to the tremendous storm with rain that flooded areas - thunder, lightening - no power in places , fallen trees

Was it all symbloic or was the director some magician?

Procession and a soaking!

Today after a little tennis, we attended a Easter March in Porto Alegre where we were introduced to the Mayor of the City. The march up a steep hill, was a re-inactment of the story of Jesus, with various scenes played out on a stage at the begining and then at various points to the top of the hill where the cruficiction is re-inacted.

Jesus being tempted by the devil

Walking up the hill

This time round there was an environmental message - with the Japanese readioactive incident being used to highlight our impact on the planet - and the need to conserve the environment.

After the procession it absolutely bucketed down.... and the march down the hill was much quicker than the march up it! We went through one of the poorer areas of porte alegre, and although we were told to keep hold of valuables - never really felt unsafe - althrough we were kind of in a protected area behind the march with security around us - althrough I think they were mainly looking after the mayor!

Myself and Richard came in like drowned rats but soon were dryed off and shown a slide show of the different areas of Brazil and Porto Alegre. It is amazing the sheer variety of landscapes and also the distances to travel the country - it is about 2 days to Rio from here.

There has been a thunderstorm ever since the march and I am hoping it will clear up by tomorrow so that we can go on the city tour - which only runs if dry as it is an open top bus.

Chow!

During Friday no meat is eaten apart from fish

Day 3 Evening

We all had a very relaxing time last night going to a local bar till 2am.

It was really nice to just shut off with a ice cold beer in our hands.

We also meent a English man who is from Brighton who moved over here in january to teach English with his Brazilian wife and he was loving our British accents instead of the American ones that most English speaking people have.

Somehow myself and Paul agreed to play tennis this morning at 10:30am, sould be very intersting to say the least.
At least we will have the rest of the day to recover!!!!!! As we have a free day till 2:30pm when we will be off to see the Via Sacra Morro da Cruz.

Day 3 - Visit to Winery

Today we visited a winery in the dos Vinhedos a wonderful region 2 hours North of `Porte Alegre. We saw some of the beautiful Brazaillian sub-tropical forest - the area is too far south for tropical rainforest - it reaches the top of the region only. 


This region was colonised in the late 19th Century by Italians who setup wine growing in the region. We had a tour of the cellars and the process of making wines in a famous local winery - which included the opening of a bottle of champagne with a sword - a common practice in the region.  The architecture etc.. is similar to what you would find in the wine growing regions of italy.


The we were treated to what has to be one of the best meals I personally have ever had - a real italian 5 course meal - where the pasta and meat just kept flowing. Even Richard had trouble in the end finishing every course off as the waiters came to the table!


We are being treated wonderfully well by our hosts, and today was another great experience. 


Tonight some of us are venturing out to see how the Porto Alegrians relax at night.

The translation of these sweets is something to do with inside out underpants - but we need to check that on arrival back at UK!

Outside the vineyard (yet to consume any wine)

day 2 of visits - orphanage and university

Today we visited an orphanage for disabled children. They have nearly 50 children in two rooms but they are building a new orphanage with help from rotary and other volunteers which ws great to see.

Next we visited the university PUCRS, with a tour of the new sports facilities and lunch in the olympic cafe. Food was great and Rich ate a rediculous amount.

In the afternoon we visited the university´s Institute for the Environment, which hosts professionals from across the university from geography, biology, pharmacy, architecture, etc. They have a large conservation porject nearby with links to universities in Germany and elsewhere.

After that we visited CEPAC, which is a Brazilian Carbon Capture and Storage project with funding from Brazilian petrochemicals companies, which was really interesting. In gneral, campus and the facilities are fantastic, as good as or better than home. Microsoft, Dell etc also have a notable presence on campus.

Then off for dinner at Ingo´s!

Laura

First couple of days in Porto Alegre

We arrived in Porto Alegre airport on Monday at about 10:43am after a transfer flight from Sao Paulo. We were greeted at the airport by District Governor Edwardo Werneck, Ingo Seitz, Mario Steffan, Paulo Arpini and photographer Carta Mensai.


Where we were guided into an executive lounge and immediately snapped! Although we were not feeling too hot after almost 22.5 hrs travelling, it was great to have such a welcoming party.

We then went to each of our hosts houses - where some of us slept for 6 hours! and others were shown some sites. Myself and Richard are staying with Ingo and his familly who welcomed us into their home and served us some homemade lasuagne for lunch.

Myself and Richards sleeping quarters.

Living area for guests

After freshing up - In the evening we had a group meeting in Vanessas hosts house - Sergio Thomaz with another delicious meal, just the job for weary travellers. 

In the morning after a good nights rest, we had a very packed day full of activities. 

• We visited City Hall and talked with a representative of the City Council - where we learned that Porto Alegre is a innovative city for participartory budget making - which reminded some of us of the BIG society. They also are hosting the World Social Forum next year - and are very busy at the moment having been asked to host  a cities conference which was cancelled from its planned location of Cairo.
• Underneath City hall we visited a preview of an indian exhibition - which marked indian day in Brazil. Also the cellars were where slaves lived and also parts were used for a prison. We escaped however from there and went upstairs and visited the Governors Office and reception rooms. 

Room at City Hall

• The city hall is over about 100 years old and one of the oldest buildings in Porto Alegre.
• We then were given a tour of the Governors Palace where we saw the state rooms and some of the early cars that the early governors drove, from here the parliment building was not far, where we were introduced to a representative from the President where we were presented with a photo book of the Grouchos area (this seems to be the name which the south of Brazil ;Urgaguay and parts of Northern Argentina are called) Here we witnessed the end somewhat enthusiastic debate and subsequent vote on the admission on of English words into the Brazillian Vocabluary - the deputies voted on a bill and it passed 26-24. We found this a bit awkward as the president preciding over the session of the assembley then introducted us and we had to stand to and raise our hands as each of us was introduced! We hoped that we were a more welcome english invasion!

• We then had coffee at the beautiful opera house in the centre of Porto Alegre before heading one of the cities oldest newspapers which according to the editor was the first to take up environmental issues...... our picture was taken again... and we will post up the subsequent news article soon!

... there are a couple of famous residents whcih I cannot remember the names of a famous poet - and famous environmental reporter (note to find these names and report them back!)

We then attended Rotary Club de Porto Alegre Iguatemi in the evening, where we met more rotary numbers who were very friendly - despite our dubious portuguese!

Then after starting this blog post bed!  Myself and Richard finished this post off this morning - which is Wednesday our Third day in Brazi!

We were greeted in the morning by an article about our visit in the local daily newspaper which we visited yesterday!

Made it

Now in Brazil and in with our host after about 22hrs of traviling in total. Looking foward to eating and getting my head down for a couple of hours and having a well needed shower.

Heathrow Airport

Finally all arrived at Heathrow, now ready to check-in.

Only another 2 hours before take-off and then 11.5 hours to Brazil.

Its really happening!!

Farewell Dinner

This was at the farewell dinner at St Leonards Hotel on 8th April.

Don't forget to come and see the return match on 3rd June - same time same place

Up Up and Away

For all those watching think of us on our long flight to Brazil starting Sunday 17th April at 10.30pm then 11.5 hours to San Paulo, then 3 hours at the airport and another 1 hour 45 mins on an internal flight to Port Alegre. I think a good lie down after that may be required

Brazil Baby!!!!

Things are hotting up!

I've wrapped my presents in union jack wrapping paper and have checked out the blog!
Now I'm going to check out our programme and I'll share with you the anticipated highlights.
Vanessa