Gringo

At six in the morning we were all in Amsterdam to catch our flight. With a transfer in Madrid and a 12 hour layover in Medelline, the most trendy city in Colombia, we had a long trip. We are writing this blog during our first hours in Cartagena.

Our first couple of days in Rio can be described as an adventure in itself. Our greatest fear about the Brazilian English language skill has become true. The further you move away from the beaches, the lower the skill level becomes and it is virtually non-existent three blocks into every district. Fortunately hand gestures and some Spanish gets us half way, but we can’t avoid awkwardness every time.

We have quite a story to tell concerning our state of the art drone: while flying above a favela, we lost contact with it. It took us seven hours of some serious Sherlock Holmes reasoning to locate it. Apparently the tallest building on the Copacabana blocked the line of sight and made us lose contact. The automatic return home function propelled it back into our direction. Unfortunately for us, the Orton Palace was two metres higher than our drone was flying. It crashed on the rooftop beside the pool area. We had given up all hope when we went to the concierge only to find out that, besides some scuffing, it was still intact and functioning.

After our trip to Rio de Janeiro we flew towards our permanent residence in Barra de Lagoa. It is a small but beautiful village surrounded by rocky headlands and windy beaches. Life here is simple, we have running water, electricity and a gas furnace but no heating and no hot water. Instead, the showerhead has a heater in it, which is plugged into an outlet that is also located in the shower. As an engineer this feels like a bad idea, but we haven’t been electrocuted so far.

Starting Monday, we will be working on our project. The work ethics appear to be a bit different here so we’re definitely in for a surprise. But we have heard the northern European mentality is appreciated. Next Friday we have our first meeting with CB&I, which is the company currently modelling the harbour of Imbituba. Hopefully they can give us a head start.