We are here! We have arrived at our IBD (International Business Development) project destination in
Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil [click here for google map...]. Tefé is quite literally in the middle of nowhere - situated about ~500 kilometers up river, west, of Manaus (capital of Brazil´s Amazon province) Tefé is home to about 50,000 people + a significant number of Urubu birds (large trash eating vultures), stray dogs and crazy motor-cyclists. It is also the gateway to the
Mamiraua Reserve, the beneficiaries of our project, which consists in developing a plan for how they can become more financially self-sustaining (and thus reduce their dependency of government funding), through increased monitization of assets like locally produce handi crafts, eco tourism and a variety of fundraising intiatives.
While there is not much exciting to be said for the town of Tefé, being right on the Amazon in the middle of the rain forest is
AMAZING. We chartered a boat yesterday afternoon (Sunday) to take us out on the river and it is simply incredible. The sheer size of the river (width + amount of water in it) and the fact that all you see until the end of the horizon is either water or endless, lush, green is just very, very cool -- made me want to immediately buy a hammock and pitch in in a hut or under a tree somewhere to just get closer to all of it. Hopefully we will get the chance to do something along those lines. While Tefé is the reserve gateway, and where its administration sits, there is a research station in the midst of the reserve (about another hour up river) that we will hopefully be spending some time at while we are here. We took a ton of pictures and movies yesterday, which I will try to post momentarily - currently we have not be able to access the admin office yet, so we are confined to internet cafe web access.
In other good news - we have been having a lot of fun as a team (I am here with three other Haas students: Moriah, Stephan & Steve). In order to maintain a civilized atmosphere, despite being "in the wild tropics", we have decided to follow the british colonial example and have instituted an end of day cocktail hour for example. And we are doing our utmost to make sure that we try and taste every possible brazilian food delicacy of which there are quite a few (beef and fried stuff being the stables).
Well - we are off to try to get some work done - we are still getting used to the Brazilian work customs, as such being asked to come to the office at 2.30 in the afternoon on our first day was a bit surprising, but hopefully we can start getting into the "meat" of things soon.
One last note: make sure to check our Moriah´s blog as well (link posted on the left) as she is also "reporting life from Tefé".
Até logo!
Figured I should take the time to introduce you to the people who are my "three best friends" over these next couple of weeks. First (pictured left) we have Stephan K. Stephan is our team's "Token Brazilian" - born in Rio and before coming to Haas living in Sao Paulo, he is obviously fluent not only in Portuguese but also in the little nuances of Brazilian office life, negotiations, communications and so forth - all of which has proven invaluable! Stephan also happens to be the President of the Haas Soccer Club and is a master of the "Brazilian way of life" in general -- he keeps the group together and in good spirits at all times, with frequent encouragements to "relax - this is brazil", excellent cocktails and skillful selection of best places to consume grilled meat. On a side note: Stephan has promised to appear on this blog as a ghost writer - stay tuned!!! 
"River Princess" Moriah is a former Ohio native, turned San Francisco native, turned Hawaiian native and our team's "Kim Bassinger in Out of Africa" look-a-like (tropical humidity does magic things to curly hair!). Moriah also has the special honor(?!) of being my room mate as has provided extraordinary services when it comes to tugging in mosquito nets, sanitizing floors (with lavender scent), employing mid-night air condition management, not to mention much laughter and general entertainment. She insists on trying to teach the locals french and is currently stalking our local high school neighbors, not-so-secretly, coveting their cute school uniforms. 
Last but not least we have Steven, aka Steve, aka Stevo, aka Stevie Ray, aka Stevao. Steve is our secret Illinois weapon, who with tricks and spanish learned from a three year peace corps stint in bolivia, continuously manages to outsmart the locals and cause the rest of the team to drop the chicken (see Moriah's blog for an explanation of this term). Steve will turn 30 (yes the big 3-0) during our trip and is in for a very local style hair-cut and a largish amount of Caipirinhas to celebrate the event. Steve is also married to the lovely Kenia who is currently partying it up in Berkeley with Stephan's wife Fabi...
