Brazil – Weeks 2 and 3

After Carnabeirão, I travelled to Niteroi to attend the XI Conference on Community Based Tourism. The conference attracted many delegates from some of the key tourism universities in the Country. The conference was an opportunity to meet again academics I already knew, but also make new contacts. A number of guest lectures have been pre-arranged for a future visit to Brazil, including Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro and Universidade Federal de São Carlos and USP (main campus). I am looking forward to visit these universities in the near future. While at Niteroi, I also delivered another guest lecture at Universidade Federal Fluminense to room packed of students and staff. I believe there were in excess of 120 students.

After an additional short stay in São Paulo, I went further south, first to Curitiba and then to Porto Alegre. In Curitiba I delivered two guests lectures. The first one was to students of Universidade Positivo. Universidade Positivo is a private university owned by the largest education group in Brazil. I was truly impressed with their campus. It is very modern and very well equipped. Besides numerous buildings that host the various faculties, it features a modern library a number of sports halls and two auditoria – one for 2200 and another for 700 people.

With Prof. Dário Paixão from Positivo University

The next day I was hosted by Professor José Gândara at Universidade Federal do Paraná, where I delivered another guest lecture to a packed lecture theatre. While in Curitiba, I also had the chance to meet by friends Zé and Cris (actually I stayed at their place), as well as João, another Portuguese friend. My last night in Curitiba was spend at a football match. The local team Atlético Paranaense played against Palmeiras (from São Paulo) for the Brazil cup. Despite the negative result for the home team (and hence very disappointed supporters) it was an interesting experience – in Brazil they do live the game at a different level.

Me inside the stadium - Go Atletico go!!!



The 'warm up' before the match in a 'boteco' close to the stadium with Zé (the one with the funny smile) and three of his friends

The last stop of the trip was Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state in Brazil. I had never been to this state before – I have now been to 12 states in Brazil (one day I will be able to say I’ve been to all!!). In Porto Alegre I visited PUC-RS, the Catholic University. Their campus is also of a very good standard and the brand new library is outstanding.

All in all, this was a very productive trip. Besides the numerous meetings and the TV/Radio interview, I delivered 7 guest lectures to nearly 500 students and 25 lecturers.