Quantum Forest

As a traveller in a foreign country I need all the help that I can get, particularly referring to customs and to ‘how things work’^TM. Now, when someone offers me enlightenment on dealing with taxis, much better.

Taxi instructions over the baggage conveyor at Vitoria airport, Espirito Santo, Brazil.

Weather report back home, in Christchurch, New Zealand, 43.5 degrees latitude South:

• Maximum temperature: 13 C.
• Minimum temperature: 6 C.
• Relative humidity: 86%.

Weather report in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil 20.3 degrees latitude North:

• Maximum temperature: 32 C.
• Minimum temperature: 24 C.
• Relative humidity: 89%.

Vitoria, Brazil

Mechanised forestry operations at Rigesa near Canoinhas, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The trees are 45-50 m tall at age 17 years. The use of a feller buncher (in the picture) has reduced log breakages from 50% to less than 5%.

While in a forestry tour in Brazil we came across this car in one of the companies’ carpark in Canoinhas, Santa Catarina, Brazil. According to Brazilians the dealer’s German surname is pronounced ‘fukeh’.

I arrived about two hours ago, after 30.5 hours of travel: NZ0510, LA800, LA5951 and JJ3335 to end up in Curitiba, Brazil.

Hotel.

I am planning a short trip to Brazil later this year, so one of my ‘resolutions’ is to learn basic Portuguese.

I bought a couple of books to help me on this:

• Portuguese on 10 minutes a day, which is an easy and (very) gentle introduction to the language. It comes with stickers to stick on everything — including on ‘o computador’, flashcards and a detachable menu. I am using this one to learn the language.
• Brazilian Portuguese: Lonely Planet Phrasebook, which I will carry, but not really use much before the trip. I haven’t read this one much.

Both of them have the same problem for me, the pronunciation guide is for English speakers, which means that I have to think of the phonetics in English and then take it in my head to Spanish before getting the pronunciation. For example, the word ‘quanto’ is presented as ‘kwahntoo’, which I then interpret as ‘cuantu’.

Looking for a good, simple site and free site for learning the language I stumbled upon Sonia Portuguese: worth a look.

I am back from Chile. After six years without visiting my birth country I went — mostly for business — for one week. It has taken a while to get back in to my natural rhythm and to absorb everything that happened during this trip.

We had a very interesting set of meetings with companies, a good visit to the Centro de Biotecnología of the Universidad de Concepción and very good reception from the New Zealand Embassy in Santiago. There is scope for very interesting collaboration with Chilean organisations and there is the intention — from both sides — of making things happen.

Itinerary

Sunday: Christchurch – Auckland (Qantas, 1.5 hours), Auckland – Santiago (Lan Chile, 14 hours) and Santiago – Concepción (Lan Chile, 50 minutes). Arrived Sunday 6 pm to the hotel in Concepción.

Wednesday: Concepción – Valdivia (Lan Chile, 50 minutes).

Thursday: Valdivia – Temuco – Santiago (Lan Chile, 2 hours).

Sunday: Santiago – Auckland (Lan Chile, 14 hours), Auckland – Christchurch (Qantas, 1.5 hours).

Departures from Carriel Sur airport, Concepción.

Comments on airline quality? Qantas is better than Air New Zealand, which in turn is better than Lan Chile. Lan had a two hours delay when leaving New Zealand and four hours delay when leaving Chile. That meant missing connecting flights going there and coming back. Good point for Lan: they got me emergency exit seats — with a bit more leg room — at last minute request.

Bureaucratic stupidity: having to pay USD 56 as an entrance fee because I was travelling with an Australian passport. Essentially it is revenge: Australia charges the same amount to Chilean visitors.

Santiago is chaotic

We were extremely lucky weather wise. It did not rain while we were in Valdivia. I had told John and Dave than most likely we would not see the Andes from Santiago, because of the dense wall of smog. However, it was raining in Santiago the night that we arrived from Valdivia. Next morning (Friday) it was completely clear and it was possible to see the Andes with snow going almost all the way down to Santiago. Very impressive, postcard like view. After the first few hours it was possible to see how smog started creeping up the mountains, in such a way that by Sunday morning one could only see the top. I expect that by Monday the Andes would have been completely invisible.

Santiago was chaotic. The implementation of TranSantiago (see Wikipedia entry as well) — the new(ish) public transportation system — has been clearly a failure. People queuing everywhere, road works galore trying to put new bays for large buses, fare evasion, highly stressed Chileans, etc. People in the provinces seem to be having fun at the cost of ‘Santiaguinos’. As in many (most?) countries, people from the capital city are not always held in high esteem by the rest of the population.

What about the post title?

There is a song called ‘Vuelvo’ (I return) by Patricio Manns and Horacio Salinas, which I have always liked. The lyrics start:

Con cenizas, con desgarros,
con nuestra altiva impaciencia,
con una honesta conciencia,
con enfado, con sospecha,
con activa certidumbre

pongo el pie en mi país,
y en lugar de sollozar,
de moler mi pena al viento,
abro el ojo y su mirar
y contengo el descontento.

I have lived half of my life outside Chile, and that song reflects my mood quite well (or not). I am perfectly inconsistent with regards to this topic. I like ‘activa certidumbre’ (active certainty), certainty that I understand as either overpowering or that requires work to be really certain.

If you a. live in Chile, b. you know me and c. you think I should have contacted you while I was there… sorry. I made the decision to limit my non-business time (i.e. two days) to family only. Next trip should be a bit longer, but do not hold your breath: it took six years for this one to happen.

I am still processing information and drafting some messages for people that I met during this trip. I will write to you, but it still may take another couple of weeks. I will keep documenting my impressions of this very short (in time) and long (in distance) trip in coming posts.

It has been a busy week with two trips to Rotorua. While I was studying at university I had a romantic idea of business trips. It was an opportunity to visit new places. From my rather parochial point of view someone else was paying me to be exposed to exotic, or at least different, places. The first couple of times it was probably close to my expectations: the exhilaration of going ‘somewhere else’. However, the novelty quickly disappeared. The reasons? They are an interruption to what I consider ‘normal life’; I like my family routine, sharing a meal, playing with my son, etc. Clearly spending time in a restaurant eating by oneself does not cut it.

Airports are funny places, with business travellers forming a distinct, alas subdued, group. A more formal attire, carrying black laptop bags, permanently checking emails, and with a focus on the destination. The trip is — or tends to be — a hassle. The engines of a Bombardier Q300 are humming in the background, the seat cushions are ‘flotation devices’ and row ten is the emergency exit. A strangely looking flight attendant whose hair and make up remind me of the cover of Björk’s Homogenic album. The fat guy sitting next to me is falling asleep and ‘spreading’ towards my seat. An spectacular sunset is framed by the airplane windows, but most people are nodding off or reading a magazine.

As with everything, there are exceptions. Some destinations include old friends; those who create that ‘instant click’. I mean, you haven’t seen each other for five years but after one minute is like we have never been apart. With others one come to the painful realisation that a process of unavoidable divergence has broken the connection: there is no click.

Taxis, restaurants, going through airport security, browsing an airport bookshop, looking for wireless connection, collecting receipts, etc. A duty more than a joy.

This has been the longest break in the last two years without posting in this blog: one month. Life has been busy, looking for a place to live, childcare, a car, and a few other things necessary to settle in.

People were extraordinarily nice on arrival; wishing us well on immigration and customs officers helping us to carry our over hundred kilograms of luggage. The good thing is that they only took our bags through the X-ray machine, without the need for opening any bag. Considering the amount of luggage, it saved us a lot of pain.

Orlando behaved really well during the trip, falling asleep just before landing, and going through customs without waking up. He is happy now at childcare.

We are still staying at a temporary university house (only until next week I hope). The condition of the house is… dodgy but survivable. The university facilities manager will certainly receive a letter describing things that need to be fixed or change.

Christchurch’s climate seems to be similar—at least during summer—to Hobart’s. Some days hot and sunny (but under 30C), some days cold and cloudy (around 15C), some days overcast but not that cold (around 19C).

And how are the removalists performing?

We received the first part of our unaccompanied luggage on the 9^th of January. We sent around 100kg of luggage using the services of Jetta Express. They promised to have the luggage in 7 business days and it took them 8. However, they screwed up and lost all my paperwork so I neded to contact them a couple of times to arrange payment and delivery. Score from 1 to 10: 6.

We are also sending a container full of household items using Allied-Pickfords. They were supposed to have organised the packing, transportation, customs, quarantine and delivery of the container. We should get our container by next week, but I can say that service is pretty average. Packing took forever and was quite undiscriminate, processing of the paperwork in New Zealand has been extremely slow and it would have taken even longer if I have not been calling all the time. The customs processed is already approved and now customs wants to have a look at the vaccuum cleaner, bicycles, hiking boots (which were fumigated before packing) and other items. Next week I will put a final score on the service.

This is in lieu of a proper post. We are spending the last four days in Australia before moving to New Zealand. The house is full of boxes and there are only the last minute jobs:

• Cleaning the office and storing papers.
• Setting up snail mail forwarding.
• Cleaning a few things at home and confirming that all services will be cancelled on time.
• Gigantic et cetera here.

I think that the next post will most likely be published on early January 2006 from Christchurch, New Zealand.