Luis Eduardo Magalhaes

Wow, what a pain in the butt traveling is. We were 2 hours delayed leaving Chicago, which put us in a bind when we got to Sao Paulo. We were late getting checked in, so late that we were called "no-shows" so we had to wait 5 hours for our next flight to Brasilia. After that was all said and done, we had a short tour around Brasilia which is the capital of Brazil. Similar to the United States, all the government offices (congress, department of defense, president, etc.) were located on the same campus. After our grueling travel, we were treated to our first Brazilian meal. I had steak and it sure was a treat after what I had gone through.

The next day (Wednesday) we were up early for a 6 hour van ride to Luis Eduardo Magalhaes (LEM). This trip started out just like our last, a mess. Within 30 minutes our van stalled, and the dirty diesel was to blame. After that we had a quick stop at a random diesel station for a snack and drink. After a few hours the van once again stalled, bad enough the driver actually had to check under the hood this time. After 10 minutes we were back on the road. The closer we got to LEM the more agriculture we were seeing. Syngenta, John Deere, Pioneer, Bunge, Case-New Holland were EVERYWHERE!! I really started to feel at home, except for the volcanic red soil color all over.

Once we arrived in LEM we continued to see things similar to the United States. Agriculture stores were everywhere. LEM 3 years ago was only 20,000 people, but because of the local agriculture boom it now inhabits 50,000 people!! A couple things; the Bunge crushing plant was once the 3rd largest in South America, and the John Deere dealership in town, once sold 40% of JD's cotton pickers in the world and has already sold 180 JD 8430s for the year!!! Holy COW!! The rest of the day was spent looking around town and visiting Global Ag Investment's office in town. We ended the night at the CEO's place having adult beverages and pizza. Surprisingly the the pizza was some of the best I have ever had.

Today (Thursday) we went out to a couple of the farms that are farmed by GAI. First off, their road system is not very good compared to the United States. Their secondary roads (like our gravel roads) are crap. Potholes everywhere and they are made out of that red dirt that I talked about earlier. Since it rained last night, we were in for a day full of "muddin" just to get to the farms. The farms were neat, out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by flat red dirt that can be seen for miles. GAI's biggest FIELD is 1500 acres, and nothing is smaller than 250 acres. Quite a bit of a difference to Iowa. Finishing the country visit, we took a look at a place called "The Edge". The Edge is a natural border between the states of Bahia and Tocantins. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon but smaller and greener.

Well that is all I have so far folks. I think this trip is going to become even more interesting as I learn more portugese and am able to converse with the locals. Thanks for reading and add posts if you would like. Take a peek at the photos as well....

Signing off..........

-Hrubes