Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio

We jumped into a taxi to Ipanema. Ipanema beach was subtly different from the Copacabana. It had the same white sand, it was surrounded by similiar lush green mountains, but the apartment buildings seemed newer and better kept, and the beachgoers were different, more relaxed.

Phone boots like giant motor-cycle helmets in yellow and orange sprouted out in clusters every hundred yards or so. In most of them girls in shorts and bikin tops laughed and cahtted. Ipanema had sun, sea and money.

• Avenida Atlântica

It is an extraordinary city, physically one of the most beutiful I have ever seen. It is an absurd mix of sea, beach, fores and mountain, all four in such close proximity that it seemed impossible a city in among them.

Everywhere you went there seemed to be a beach in front of you and a mountain behind. The buildings themselvers were nothing special, abything old in Rio was run down and shabby, but even the starkest modern building was overwhelmed by the beuty suurounding it.

Eventually we came to a small plateau, which supported a tiny makeshift church, and a larger rectangular structre, decorated with brightly coloured murals. I turned and and paused for a breath. Bneath me was one of the most spectacular views I had ever seen.

The white buildings of the city snaked between green-clad hills down to the sea glistening in the distance. I looked for the statue of Christ, visible from almost everywhere in Rio. You would think someone would pa a lot for this location. I could also see the favelas.

Brazil

They say about Brazil that it is the country of the future and it always will be. It's a fascinating country. I'd like to find out more about it.

The caiprinha turned out to be some kind of coarse rum in lime juice. The sweetness of the rum, the sourness of lime juice, the coldness of the ice, and the kick of alcohol created a delicious mix of sensations

• Travel to the Aracruz Pulp plant
• Other pulp and paper mills in Brazil
• Engineering companies planning new pulp mills
• The floating pulp mill at the Amazonas river

Off Shore

Customers and suppliers concerned about rising costs in India are evaluating alternative geographies. Meanwhile, many countries are anxious to inherit the designation as the next great offshore destination.

Local Market

One of these is Brazil, Latin America's largest economy with a strong local market just now turning to a focus on software and services exports. Brazil has strength in financial systems, extensive legacy skills, and competitive billing rates. However, Brazil's robust IT sector is overwhelmingly local in orientation, and software/services exports remain minimal.

Qualified Personnel

Brazil's smaller scale in terms of qualified personnel resources and limited English language competency prevents the country from having massive impact à la India or China. But Brazil provides great promise as a secondary offshore destination, particularly for customers who have complementary commercial interests in Latin America's largest economy and are willing to embrace a captive approach.

I did travel to Aracruz via Rio de Janeiro. There was a pulp and paper seminar in Sao Paulo. Before that I visited Buenos Aires, Montevideo and several places in Chile