Final Days - District Conference

We arrived in Linhares on Friday evening and were surprised and pleased to find out we would all be staying in a great hotel, Linhatur, not far from the conference. In fact, the hotel is owned by Kristy and Hillary´s host stay parents in Linhares!

We had some time to freshen up and then head over for our final presentation of the trip!! Yay! We were also lucky enough to meet the outgoing team from Brazil to Oregon and see their presentation with pictures of their trip.

After the meeting, it was on to an amazing dinner banquet. We of course ate way too much and were able to connect with the Rotarians we had met throughout our month in Espirito Santo. It was quite a fun reunion for the team. But by 1 a.m. we were ready to hit the sheets.

Day two in Linhares we were able to sleep in and do some walking and shopping around Linhares. Then it was off to social hour and an elegant dinner with dancing! It was the perfect last big hurrah before we say goodbye to Brazil. The party included good friends, good food, good dancing and good cerveja -- everything we love about Brazil!!! It makes it all the harder to say goodbye. Today we had a final bbq in with the Rotarians and headed back to Vitoria.

Now its a mad rush of packing and organizing to make sure we can get all our souviners in for the long trip home! Cross your fingers that there will be no broken cachaca in our bags when we arrive in Eugene. See everyone soon!

Back to home base... for a few days

Well, it has been a flurry of activity with little time for rest or updates. After three wonderful days in Venda Nova seeing the beautiful Pedra Azual, giving a Rotary presentation and visiting small family farms (all while expanding our waistlines trying everything from home made cheeses, meats, coffees, and cachaca) we bid our fabulous host family goodbye and made our way back to Vitoria.

It felt like a homecoming of sorts for us to be renunited with our families. We had a busy three days in Vitoria. Our first day back we visited Rotary Club Vitoria Mata da Praia a new club that has only been in existance for 1 year but you would never know it from their warmth and passion for service.

The next day was spend visiting ArcellorMittal steel plant. The company is worldwide and produces the largest percentage of steel in all of Brazil. They have a wonderful company headquarters campus which includes a beautiful green space with ponds and their very own alligator!

After learning the ins and outs of the local steel industry, we headed out to Marca Ambiental, Vitoria´s landfill and recycling center. We saw some very interesting recycling projects including the re-use of plastic bottles into bristles for brooms, clay brick making and the use of shredded coconut shells for soil errosion coverage on hillsides.

The day was topped off with a dinner presentation at the join Rotary Clubs of Praia Jucutuquara and Vitoria-Praia Comprida.

The following day the group had a morning of free time followed by a visit to Acacci - Association Against Child Cancer, a wonderful Non-profit organization that help provides housing and services for familes of children who are recieving cancer treatment at the hospital in Vitoria. Next it was onto Vale Mining company for a informative session on the mining industry.

Friday the team was able to get some sun time on the beach before heading to the Rotary District Conference in Linhares.

Next stop Venda Nova!

After an 8:30 breakfast with our hosts, we leave Guaçui at around 10 for the 36KM drive to Venda Nova Do Imigrante. It is Sunday and we arrive to a champagne reception at a large and beautiful home owned by Rotarian Ana Lucia and Deorgens Perim where will all be staying. The fist time we are all in the same place together.

Venda Nova is the capital of agro tourism and carries the title of best little city in all of Brazil. 90% of the residents are of Italian decent. The main industry - agro tourism - consists of many famliy owned businesses growing and producing coffee, cheese, cachaça, wine and palenta. If you´re looking for a great place for a honeymoon, vacation, or whatever, this is the place to come. It is also the home to Pedro Azul, Espirito Santo´s most famous peak. We visit Pedro Azul after being treated to lunch at Fazenda Saude where the food is prepared over wood stoves.

We relax with our hosts and then have a pizza dinner at a fabulous restaurant. More later...

Our Time in Guaçui

As has been everywhere we´ve been, we recieved a warm welcome to Guaçui by our hosts on Friday afternoon after a stop in Alegre to meet the mayor, visit local Rotarian businesses and a fabulous lunch. As we travel further inland, the towns are smaller and the principal industry is agriculture. We started our afternoon in Guaçui with a tour of the Coca Cola distributor - Aguicol - owned by one of the club members. Then it was off to Colagua, a local milk cooperative. Next stop was to the second Cristo Redentor erected in Brazil. We had a quick tour of the town and dinner with our hosts ending a very long day that began at 8 and ended after 11.

On Saturday we were out by 8:30 and drove to a hydroelectric facility - Bem Vino - a 55MW facility completed in December 1999. As is with many such visits, we travel about an hour over dirt roads to get there. We are then treated to a relaxing afternoon lunch at vale das Quaresmeiras, a quaint resort nestled in one of the many valleys surrounding the town.

We arrive back at our host families in time to shower change and get ready for the club meeting for another presentation. The meeting begins at 8 and Rotarians from Allegre have driven up to see our presentation. There are over 60 in attendance for a club that has 30 members. The meeting lasts until after 11, and by the time we return to our host homes, re-pack to leave in the morning, none of us gets to bed before 12:30. In the morning we will leave for Venda Nova at 8:30, so it is another long day followed by a short night. But it has been worth it. We find out we are the first GSE team to visit these clubs and our hosts are more than gracious with their time, treasures and talents.

Our time in Cachoeiro

Our last few days have been spent in Cachoeiro, the name of the city comes from the Portuguese word for "waterfalls". The city is inland and surrounded by beautiful mountainous landscapes. A river runs through the center of the city and the temperatures are known to be very hot. Lucky for us, we are visiting during the winter so the temperature has been in the 80s. In the summertime it can get up into the 100's.

The morning of our first day was spent doing vocational visits. Hillary and Kristy visited the Gazeta affiliate station in Cachoeiro, Paul visited an insurance company and Luke and Marc were off to the firestation, which we discovered had a cobra as its mascot.

Then it was off ot the town of Mimosso do Sul to meet the local rotarians and tour the city. The tour included a visit to the old historic city where Mimoso was originally founded. It had beautiful architecture and the feel of a small European city. There we were treated to live traditional Brazilian music with accordian and guitar.

Later that night we had our first presentation at the Rotary Club of Cachoeiro - Oeste.

Our second day in Cachoeiro we toured a Rotary school in one of the poor neighborhoods of town, visited a marble factory and then took a drive out to a hydroelectric plant build in 1912, with a beautiful waterfall nearby called Cachoeiro Alta. That evening we had our second presentation of the visit at the Rotary Club of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim.

The third day, we visited Incaper Farm and Burarama Agriculture Research Center where the farmers use practices that decrease the amount of farmland used and help re-vitialized the forests for natural animal habitats. On the farm they also grow coffee, guava, bananas and produce milk.

Then we had lunch with the Roatry Club Cachoeiro de Itapemirim- Sudeste which is only one year old and one of the few lunch time rotary groups. Tomorrow we will say goodbye to Cachoeiro for a busy day of stops in Jeronimo Monteiro and Alegre before ending in Guacui.

Team x-tudo passes the half-way mark in style...

Team x-tudo is now 18 days into our trip with only 16 days remaning. It's hard to believe we've fit so much into so little time...and even harder to imagine how we will fit the rest in before we leave here in a few weeks.  To "celebrate" our mid-way point, the team had a few days of relative rest. On our way back to Vitoria from Aracruz, we were invited to an incredible BBQ at Aloisilo's country farm.  It was really more of an ESTATE than a farm, and there our team enjoyed life music, more excellent churrasco food and many drinks and dips in the refreshing pool.  The scenery was stunning...just what the doctor ordered.

After the BBQ, we headed back down to Vitoria where we met our wonderful hosts and trip organizers Michelle,Thompson, and Helvio for our mid-trip meeting. We discussed how things were going and how they could make improvement to increase our enjoyment of the trip. Overall there are very few complaints.  We've all had our rough moments (err...days), but in general we are in good spirits and are still ready to tackle anything that comes our way. Well, ALMOST anything :)  After the meeting, we headed to the local artesans market where the team purchased and split our VERY FIRST X-tudo hamburger.  Thumbs up all around.

After a short night with our families in Vitoria, and ANOTHER repack of all our gear, we headed out the next morning for Guarapari.  We had heard nothing but raves about the place and the real thing did not disappoint. There are 55 beaches there...each one more stunning than the next. We only had a chance to visit 9 so we will need to return as soon as possible to see the rest ;)  Thanks SO much for our local rotary hosts who recognized how exhausted we were and cancelled many things on our never-ending schedule to allow us some SOLID relaxation time.  More beautiful people. More beautiful places.

After as much beach and sun time as we could manage, the team headed off to Cachoiero, where we will be for the next four days. We have four club presentation while we are here and our schedules look pretty packed.  More updates when we have completed our days here. Below is a view of the famous rock in Cachoiero named "The monk and the nun." I think you can see why.

More Photos From Aracruz