Today we started moderately early with a walk in the park. Some of the team who had been out clubbing after the concert the night before were slightly late down (surprise!) so we got off to a late start but quickly caught up. We had a short visit to the Country Club where we have been given honorary membership for a month. Lots of sports options (but not golf) and a lovely pool to enjoy. Not to mention the view.
The team at the Club.
Then on to the park which has a boating pond and various amenities around it - apparently it is the thing to go for a moonlight walk at full moon - they organise groups to walk round it.
Because of our late start we had to skoot from the park to the restaurant for lunch - it was a churrascaria which roughly translates into barbecue, but not as we know it at home. It was more in the style of Wildfire in Auckland (which I know is Argentinian but is similar) where the waiters bring round large cuts of flame-grilled meats on a very large skewer - mostly various cuts of beef but also pork, lamb, chicken and (the specialty of the house) chicken hearts - for you to have with your salad and carbs. They carve slices off for you at the table and they keep coming until you push your plate away from your setting. Carnivore heaven! My particular favourite was a cut off the neck of the steer absolutely soaked in garlic and tender as anything - unfortunately other than remembering it started with P I can't recall its name. But it was even better than the fillet steak. Mind you, I think anyone that hadn't eaten it avoided those who had for the rest of the day, we must have reeked. The chicken hearts are probably an acquired taste, I found them a bit gristly - maybe you aren't meant to eat all of it. The salads are really good too and I was very sorry I didn't leave room for some of the delicious-looking Gorgonzola I spotted as we were leaving. I'll be back! They were very good at letting us in to see the meats being barbecued and giving us a shot.
I suspect if I'd dropped it I might have ended up on the wrong end of a skewer. As this was taken all the waiters were busy running in and out - putting skewers back on to do another turn and taking ready ones away.
After a couple of hours to recover back at the hotel we met for a team building exercise. Now, having participated in many of these over the years I guess I've become just slightly cynical of the value of these. However this one was completely different and fresh, and really did help us bond with our team-mates - 10/10 Bruno! I am not going to give away his secret other than to say that, in our project groups, we explained to each other some of our journey through life and with the group at large we shared two events that we felt made a significant difference in our lives. Travel of one form or another featured strongly in the group as a whole, perhaps we self-selected on that! Marriage and children were another common theme. And? Oh alright then, mine were getting married and returning to work in the UK for four or so years. Sorry kids, I couldn't select all three of you and it didn't seem fair just to select one (and we all know who that would have been) but you did all feature on the project team discussion, honest!
Afterwards around half of us went downtown to one of the squares where there were a number of bars and restaurants and it was really a very pleasant spot. No-one was very hungry, we were still all digesting a month's worth of meat, so we had a selection of nibbles and a couple of drinks.
And then it was time to return and get ready for our first working day, more of which later.... (and yes, I know I am running a day late!)
#ibmcsc brazil
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