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.