What you leave behind

When things finally came together on the last day we realized that we made it. Eight weeks of hard work resulting in over a hundred pages of report. All that is left is a spell check and a presentation for the people at the laboratory we have been working at.

With the final days slowly progressing we realized that from the start of our project, attempts had been made by the people of the laboratory at organizing a churrasco (BBQ) as a welcoming party. It only took until the very last week to be organized. With everybody suddenly available, a last minute arrangement was made and the churrasco was a fact. The bottles of “Duvel” we took with us from the Netherlands, for the traditional welcoming ceremony, were finally be exchange included with some going away presents from us to the supervising professor.

Now that the end of our stay in Brazil is in sight it is time to look back on the great time we have had here, the people we’ve met, our experiences, and the things we learned. We learned that Brazil is a little disorganized but diverse; people are laid back and enjoy life, the stereotypes we had were wrong and it is very easy to fall in love with Brazil and Brazilians. Of all things the people we will miss most, friends we’ve made whom we’ll probably never see again. It’s a strange feeling to leave everything behind but we’re glad we’ve had the opportunity to be here and meet these wonderful people.

After the presentation next week the gringos will all go their separate ways. Arno and Laurens will go to Peru to experience the Inca trail and visit the Nasca lines. Koen and Marius will both wait for their girlfriends to arrive after which they will travel towards the North of Brazil. With so much to see in so little time some choices are hard to make; yet as the Brazilians say: Tranquilo, take it easy and relax, and that we will.

We would like to thank our family, friends and followers for their support of our project. We would also like to thank our fellow students, supervising professor, and supporting staff at LOC (Laboratoria de Oceanographia Costeira) for their support during the last eight weeks, without you guys we wouldn’t have made it.

Greetings,

Quatro gringos