Travel Log Brazil 2012 Part 4

by Tina Erwin

         The slash and burn philosophy was sadly evident as huge areas of rain forest and natural vegetation were destroyed to make way for grazing lands. Erosion has begun. Many areas were smoking as we drove by them. All I could think of was the loss of habitat. There were even pictures on signs warning people not to kill various creatures who must have lived there. I had never seen most of these animals. The Brazilians raise Brahma cattle, not Texas Longhorns. The white beasts require many acres of land to graze and that is what has happened. The land is stripped of every single tree to make way for cattle grazing or even goats, horses and sheep. Entire hillsides have either red or brown grassy dirt or have finally greened up. There is a sharply defined line where the forest ends and barrenness begins.

         But all is not lost. There is an ecological zone that is at least 10 miles long that is restoring this land – it was encouraging. Then we noticed acres of terribly destroyed land covered in Eucalyptus trees perhaps for its oil – we weren’t sure. Then in watching local news, there is a new law requiring land owners to replant rain forest trees on more and more of their land. Apparently the critical issue is actually finding rain forest tree seeds to do the replanting. This is another encouraging sign. They interviewed a farmer who said before he never gave a thought to slashing and burning the forest but now he feels he should return it to its previous condition. You could see as we drove by some property which had been allowed to re-grow itself but it just takes time and rain. The Brazilians are hopefully becoming increasingly eco-conscious.

         Speaking of eco-conscious, I noticed that at each park, in all hotels and on the beachfront, there are separate re-cycling bins for paper, plastic, glass and metal. It is national policy. People were trying. The homeless were dedicated to collecting aluminum cans. Also, all power to your room is turned off every single time you leave. You have to put your room card into a slot to have power to the room. I can only imagine how much electricity is saved with this policy.

         Macae is an industrial town and there is a tremendous amount of big business here. No only is Transocean here but also Halliburton, General Electric and Swiss, German, and Japanese companies as well. All these firms use or make oil-drilling equipment or are in the oil finding business. Emotionally it feels cold here. This isn’t a tourist town even though it is right on another gorgeous beach.

                  The Sheraton we stayed in overlooks the sea. That beach is empty, no brightly colored umbrellas or relaxing tourists. This is a business town. There was no place to explore no shopping to do – so I wrote this travel log to share our Brazilian experience. Tomorrow we leave Macae for the Rio airport and then back to San Diego.

         I will take precious few souvenirs but a great deal of memories. The people who work for Transocean have been wonderful. Men and women and citizens of all countries work in the Brazilian oil fields. The infrastructure required to keep the oil flowing is mind-boggling.         
        Transocean just opened a state of the art school in Macae to provide more local training and Transocean trains their people constantly. This is an extremely dangerous business. You’re sipping oil through a 10,000 foot straw, hence Transocean’s laser focus is on safety. Their new school will continue to ensure that all who work these dangerous platforms are fully trained in how to do their jobs safely. This is critical to maintaining the ecology of the sea and the safety of the crews. It’s also an expensive business. Consider that there are at least 163 platforms each with two complete crews who have to fly from wherever they live to Brazil and then take another helo to the rig and there are returning crews that need airfare, hotels etc. The teams ashore in Rio, Macae an Houston and all over the world that manage all of Transocean’s crews must handle every conceivable situation seven days a week. Truly they do a remarkable job. This is also a company that believes in treating their people well – something rare to see in such a large company.

         Transocean takes very good care of their customer be it Petrobras or Shell and they are also heavily focused on taking outstanding care of their employees.

         Troy learned a lot in his conference. I had a break from email and my own day to day work. For a brief time I got to be a part of Troy’s world in South America. I now have a much better understanding of who he works for, what he does and how dynamic it is being captain of an oil platform 150 miles at sea off the coast of Brazil.

         I hope you have enjoyed this travel log. When someone asked me how my trip was I say that it was great, but I can’t truly begin to express what I saw and felt. This is how my trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil went!