When In Brazil...

It had been only one month since I stepped into Logan International on my way to Brazil. One month seems like too brief a time for all that occurred and all that we learned but somehow we managed to fit it in. Our journey over, we now have time to stop and reflect on all that happened.

Week 1:

Within the first couple days of being in Brazil we experienced their version of the T or subway which is possibly the fastest and most efficient version I have ever seen. The cars came one after another and I do not think we ever waited more than five minutes except for the one time when there was a problem. Meanwhile in Boston or New York you are lucky if you wait less than ten minutes. Furthermore, there were pieces of art scattered throughout the many different stations which was a neat aspect. It should be noted however that while the subway was efficient and fast, the stops on the lines were not the best. There are many places that are inaccessible unless walking for thirty minutes or more due to the placement of the stops. Also there is no commuter line or park and ride option for people on the outskirts of the city so they are forced to take the bus which is far less efficient, far slower, and often a lot more crowded. After all the bus system is one of the major complaints of the protests.

After a lesson on transportation in Sao Paulo, we took a tour of Downtown where we learned the city was settled by Catholics who supposedly built this grand church for monkeys according to Gus.

He also informed us that in the area in front of the Church people would always rant about whatever was on their mind and it was a pretty common gathering place. I found this interesting as the same can be said in most cities in the US. People love church courtyards for raving I guess. Anyways we continued our trip through downtown and then took the subway up Vila Madalena which is a nice area filled with bars and clubs. We were told it was the place to be at night although the only time we went was for the Bar Crawl which I will get to in a bit. Anyway along with the many bars there was also a ton of graffiti including an entire street covered with it. It seems no city is safe from the hand of the street artist.

The following day was the Fourth of July so naturally we had to celebrate. That was when we went one of the nicest places in all of the city, Skye Bar at Unique Hotel.

This was perhaps the only place in all of Sao Paulo were more than ten percent of the people there could speak English. That night we spent six hours on top of the city sipping champagne and enjoying the view.

The following night we had our first taste of a Brazilian Club and it was terrible. The average age in the club was probably close to seventeen and the music was American, but from a decade ago. Needless to say that was not what we were expecting and unfortunately all of the other clubs we went to were more of the same. High School kids and American music, most of us just gave up on the club life.

We concluded our first week by going to a soccer game which, despite the fact that both teams were terrible, was really cool. The stadium is broken up into neutral sections and both the home team and away team supporting sections. We naturally sat in home team supporting section and had a blast watching everyone cheering and jeering. We even got involved in some of the chants even though we had no idea what we were saying.

Week 2:

Most of our second week was spent in class or trying to find good clubs/ bars and we all had spent way too much money in the first week so it was for the most part uneventful. We did however visit a couple of areas of interest including an art museum and street market. Both of which were nothing really out of the ordinary and similar stuff can be found in any major city. What we did establish during that week however was that caipirinhas are amazing. Caipirinhas are Brazil’s national drink made with fruit, sugar, and cachaça which is sugar cane hard liquor. Every place we went had them and oftentimes different places offered different fruits to go in them. Lemon, Lime, and Strawberry were the most common though.

Also during that week we attended Samba lessons as our first experience with the dance was at a dive bar which was not the most conducive place to learn. Samba was a relatively simple dance to learn, but other than that night we never really had an opportunity to do it again.

The best part however of week 2 turned out to be the best part in all of Sao Paulo, and that was finding Ibirapuera park. This was hands down my favorite place to be and I would have spent every day there if I could have. The park is filled with lakes, pathways, fields, courts, and even museums. Not only that, but I interacted with other Brazilian kids here more so than all of the other places combined. Ibirapuera was more of a cultural hotspot and gathering place than anywhere else in Sao Paulo as there were easily more than 10k people there a day.

Week 2 concluded with the aforementioned Bar Crawl which was a ton of fun as we went from one bar to another bar to a Samba bar to a club. Nothing really significant about it other than the Samba club but it was cool to go to a bunch of the different places in Vila Madalena.

Brochure for Bar Crawl:

Week 3:

Our third week in Brazil was one of the best as it was filled with a bunch of different site visits including ones to the Solar Plant, Bosch, and Henry Borden which I already blogged about in other posts. Also during that week we visited the fruit marketplace which I also already blogged about as well as the best and worst of the museums, the former being the soccer museum and the latter being the Afro Brazilian museum. Brazil as expected, has a deep history with the sport and it was really cool to see everything from their perspective as it relates to soccer. The museum itself was moderately interactive plus it was about soccer so naturally it was enjoyable. The Afro Museum on the other hand was relatively dull as most of what we were told was the same thing I was told in elementary history about our own Afro American population.

It also did not help that the tour guide talked for nearly two hours and we only had twenty minutes to explore it ourselves.

Our week concluded with us spending a day at Guaraja beach which was an amazing place. The beach itself was immense and the sand was very level and hard packed which made it great for playing soccer or anything else on. Furthermore, despite the fact that it was winter season for Brazil it was in the high 70’s and many Brazilians were at the beach swimming and enjoying the sun. Benefits of being a tropical nation I suppose.

Week 4:

During this week was the most miserable time of our trip to Sao Paulo as we actually experienced winter like weather for the first time since our arrival. It was cold and rainy for the better portion of the week and this was when we had to walk around a landfill. Prior to that day however we listened to a lecture from Milton Lautenschlager who is the Sub-Secretary of Energy and focuses on renewable technology. I actually liked his lecture as he was very straightforward and honest. He informed us of what technologies he believes needs to be a focus as well as some other things. Again I already blogged about both him and the landfill so please see my other posts for more info on these visits.

Near the end of the week things brightened up as it got warmer and sunnier and we even attended a Capoeira class. That was an interesting experience and I am forever convinced in order to be good at it you must have a rubber spine. Despite the fact that my spine is not rubber it was still a lot of fun participating in it and even more fun playing the instruments.

The week concluded with our trip to Veloso which hands down was the best meal I had since being in Brazil. The caipirinhas were the best there and the coxinhas are legendary. To top it all off we had some churros with caramel and Nutella, yeah we might have gained some weight there but oh well.

Final Days:

Our final week started off amazingly and that was thanks to our trip to Angra Nuclear Plant being cancelled due to a strike. We spent the Sunday at Ubatuba beach where we had a soccer game and juggled with a Brazilian kid who was maybe half our age and easily twice as good. We also climbed some rocks and got a marvelous view of the ocean. Unfortunately one of our classmates was not the most graceful and actually was saved by a Brazilian who just happened to be on the rock as well. Shortly after that we left and continued on our way to Paraty which was where we would spend the night.

Paraty was a neat coastal town which has lived and died many times and is now being sustained by the tourism industry. As such there was vibrant nightlife and a lot of cultural things to see.

  

The following morning was supposed to be our trip to Angra but instead we spent the day on a boat island hopping.

  

Once we were back in Sao Paulo we spent the rest of the days going to our favorite places; Veloso, the fruit market, and Ibirapuera two more times.

Overall our journey to Sao Paulo was full of interesting experiences and neat places. The most amazing aspect of it to me though is that it seems we barely scratched the surface. The city is so vast it is impossible to have seen it all in a month but I think we saw more of Sao Paulo than most of the people who live there.

Sao Joao Landfill

Our visit to the landfill done in freezing temperatures and rain made the overall experience rather dismal. That being said we were taught about the operation of a landfill and how they use layers upon layers of compressed garbage to produce methane and then most of the time they end up simply burning this methane. The most surprising thing to me about this is that it is in most cases not worth the investment to harness the methane and use it for energy, but instead it is economically better to just burn it. I thought that, especially with the tax credits, producing energy would equal in importance as finding a place to store the garbage but I guess I was wrong. That being said I think that the government should provide more incentive to landfills to produce methane because otherwise the gasses produced there will all be wasted and some will end up in the atmosphere which is obviously not what we need. Lastly, I think that the fact that economically it is not worth producing energy is the reason why this technology is not used in the US. As we've seen time and again, unless there is a profit to be made nothing will happen. Economics trumps social and environmental factors every time.

Picture Time.

So this is our TA clearly enjoying the warmth of the bus and excited about the day ahead.

These are the enclosed flares where the gas is burned and most of it is contained.

This is part of the flare system. The gas is compressed here and separated to go to the two different towers.

This is a pretty picture of the lovely day and mountain of garbage covered by grass.

One of the electric generators

The rest of the generators.

And that concludes our trip to the landfill.

Milton Lautenschlager

We had the privilege to be given a presentation by the Sub-Secretary of Energy Milton Lautenshlager in which he informed us a great deal about Sao Paulo's energy plans for the future, especially on the renewable side. Overall his presentation was pretty good as he had no problems pointing out weaknesses of both the US and Brazil in terms of clean energy production. Furthermore he is strongly against fracking and says he hopes the US can proves as the example of why fracking should not be done in Brazil. He also told us that Sao Paulo has maximized their use of hydroelectric power and as such needs to use other means to produce renewable energy as he does not want to be reliant on Petrobras for energy. I believe that this is exactly what needs to happen in Brazil because if they become too heavily reliant on sugar cane for energy, than eventually they will have to decide whether producing food or energy is more important and either way the fallout from the decision made would be catastrophic. Thus the Brazilian policy of focusing on using Solar Energy to heat water and increasing their wind energy production is an excellent step to take in terms of moving towards renewable energy. I just wish the US would be as aggressive as Brazil is in their movement towards clean energy and away from fossil fuels and oil.

Dia en o Marcadao

Yesterday we went to the market and I was able to try a ton of different exotic fruits as well as a mortadella sandwich. It was quite an experience especially since I did not end up purchasing any fruit so I just got everything for free via taste testing. The following are some pictures of what I had but eventually I stopped taking pictures and just enjoyed all the different fruits.

Mangostim-Purple Mangosteen

Weird texture but tasted decent.

Lichia Rambuta-Lychee Rambuta

Not too much flavor- tasted similar to a grape.

Our TA Christian eating Lichia Rambuta

Figos roxos-Purple Figs

Atemoia-Sugar Apple

The texture of this fruit was grainy and overall ended up ruining the flavor of the fruit which was rather sweet.

Nesperas-Loquat

Tamaras-No English Translation

When eaten with a strawberry it tastes amazing!

Acerola-West Indian Cherry

Jabuticaba-Same in English

Pitaya-Columbian Pitaya

This fruit was similar to passion fruit in texture but the taste was different. Also the vendor

told us that this fruit as certain arousal characteristics when eaten by a man.

These were our massive Mortadella sandwiches. They are definitely worth having once, but not worth getting again.

Caju-Cashew (The fruit not the nut)

Some random pictures of fish found in the market.

And that was our day at the market.

Henry Borden Hydroelecrtic Plant

Henry Borden is a hydroelectric plant that has been around since around 1926 and harnesses both above ground and cave water for energy. This visit was really interesting because all of what we saw had been around for nearly 90 years which makes it even more interesting. That being said our guide did tell us that Brazil has a plant that creates more energy in one turbine than that plant does via all 16 so although it was not the most efficient, it still works well and it is almost all natural so it does not disrupt the environment as much.

While on this visit I learned a great deal about how hydroelectric plants function. The use the potential energy and focus it through a conical valve towards the turbines in order to spin them which then creates a magnetic field thus providing energy. The overall effectiveness of hydroelectric power in Brazil is relatively high as it results in 90% of Brazil's electricity production however when there is a drought this causes massive price jumps so although effective, it is highly volatile.
 The major difference between the US and Brazil is that Brazil uses rivers and waterfalls and other things to produce hydro power where as the US utilizes only dams. Thus, if the US were to follow Brazil's lead and use natural flow of things to provide hydro power it would be a huge improvement. The major thing that stands in the way though is that by doing this, the fish population is damaged severely as they are not able to swim up river and the rivers often become polluted so they would need to figure out a way to prevent this before implementation in the states. As for policies that regulate hydro power, the US has virtually abandoned using hydro power and has been destroying more hydro plants than it has built over the years. Meanwhile Brazil is trying to build yet another plant in the Amazon however there is a great deal of controversy over it due to the damage that would be done to the environment and to the indigenous people as a result of it. During our visit the environment was only briefly mentioned as having an impact in this technology through trying to use the natural flow of the rivers in their construction. The economic factors on the other hand were not even touched on.

Energy Conference

The Energy Conference was really interesting and probably the most fun to visit out of all the sites especially because we got free food and drinks. But in all seriousness there were a ton of different companies there and it was really interesting to see all of the new types of technology being developed. Some of the things that struck me as really interesting were the flexible solar panels, strangely shaped wind turbines, the the solar truck, and the fact that every solar company was basically looking to either buy another company or sell themselves. I also talked to a woman from Alabama who was their on behalf of her company determining if they would be interested in acquiring the companies there. According to her the solar business is full of a bunch of small start-ups that either crash and fail or get bought out by bigger companies that can handle the fluctuation that comes with this relatively new technology. As for answering the assigned questions, this does not apply to the conference or if it does the answers would be the same as what I wrote about the solar technologies so that is it for this blog post. Oh and if you want to see pictures from it look on this blog as he was in my group and took all the pics from the conference.

http://brazilneu.blogspot.com.br

Bosch Site Visit

During our visit to Bosch we learned more than we would ever want to know about Flex Fuel and the advancement of the engines that use ethanol. To me I do not think that this was that important because I believe that we will never really use FlexFuel because electric cars are going to take over especially once Tesla releases their budget car. FlexFuel to me does not seem like a solution but instead just another way to prolong actually solving the problem. With that being said I did learn a lot about the technology that was interesting.

At the end of our visit we got a complete breakdown of how the engine worked so that was all new information but way too highly technical to include on a blog and personally I thought it was too technical to include in our visit but oh well. Some of the easier to discuss stuff I learned was that 70% of Americans who have a FlexFuel engine do not even know it. The reason being that we as a country do not really promote the use of ethanol more so than including it standard in our gasoline. This is a major reason why this technology is not really effective in America meanwhile hear in Brazil cars are capable of running on 100% Ethanol which allows the technology to be much more effective in terms of being used. However it is important to note that a full tank of 100% Ethanol will not go nearly as far as a tank filled with gasoline.

These technologies could be improved by providing FlexFuel engines with better mileage and by promoting the use of Ethanol gasoline more by making it cheaper per BTU than gasoline via government grants and tax brakes but as of now, with a two year development time and a generally $8000 higher price, these vehicles just are not practical. As for policies that regulate it, Brazil focuses on it while the US has no real desire to use it which I am okay with because, as I already mentioned, I do not believe that this technology really serves that much of a purpose and I would 10x rather have an electric car than a FlexFuel vehicle. The money factor was already discussed above and the environmental factor is really the only driving force behind this technology as burning gasoline mixed with Ethanol produces less CO2 than burning straight gasoline does, but using electric causes 0 CO2 emmissions, especially if the charging station is solar-powered. Just saying. Oh and one last thing, Bosch didn't allow pictures and referred to their 2013 products only as "project A B C..." and so on so evidently this is a very hush hush industry which I don't really understand seeing as how all one has to do would be take apart the engine to figure out how it is built but whatever.