Spencer's Brazil business trip

Saturday I returned from a trip to Brazil.  I traveled as part of a team visiting biotech accounts and developing opportunities.  Here are some shots:

We left Cache Valley on a Saturday morning and arrived in Belo Horizonte on Sunday morning.  Here's the view from my hotel room, looking down upon a very nice mall that has sports facilities on its roof.

 Again out the same hotel window, but looking at the street in front of the mall which passes by the hotel.

 While there are economic problems with this BRIC country (Brazil, Russia, India, and China - emerging markets), there are obviously those who are doing well, as this vehicle in front of the hotel demonstrates.

 Fruit is plentiful.  My colleague, Tariq Haq, stands in front of a mango tree growing on site at Inova Biotecnologia near Belo Horizonte.

 Ouro Fino makes animal vaccines and has a beautiful campus near Ribeirao Preto, amidst the fazendas (haciendas) of sugar cane.

 The display showing some of Ouro Fino's products, in particular Foot and Mouth vaccine made using our cell culture media.

 Ouro Fino was rated as one of the top companies to work for in Brazil in its category (pharma), and it proclaims this on the building.  Portuguese and Spanish are relatives, but still quite different languages.

 Tariq couldn't resist getting a shot of this.

Our next city was Campinas.  I liked running through the park with the zoo one morning.  And here I'm in front of a downtown cathedral at dusk.

 Our team, standing in a parking lot at Cristalia, an up and coming biotech outside of Campinas.  With me are Tariq Haq and Jake McNeil (both from Cache Valley), Rosario Roose (living in Maryland and covering all of Latin America), and Pablo Fernandez (our technical field person who lives in Xalapa, Veracruz state in Mexico).

 We had plants like these in Saugus, California, but we had to baby them to keep them alive.  These in Campinas seemed to be thriving.

 Our final stop was for two days in Sao Paulo where we visited Libbs Labs, Butantan Institute, Orygen, and Bionovis.  Here's a bridge not far from our hotel.  This river, as dirty as it may seem, is far cleaner now than years ago.  Note the bike/jogging path next to it and the train tracks.

 Each mall seemed to have its Lego play area.  Tariq's showing his inner kid with this Lego tiger.

A pause on a walking bridge leaving one mall to go to another across the street - and showing a random lighted tower in the background.


A shot through my hotel window to show some of the ever growing skyline in Sao Paulo.  Tall buildings in every direction.

From the same window but a few degrees to my left.  Another building under construction and high rises extending into the horizon.