The fun part - Dana Roberts with Navigant Travel (the company that handled most of Noble travel) invited me to join her on a flight to visit the Noble Drilling Brazil division, I readily accepted and we departed Houston For Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sept. 11, 2002, exactly one year after the terrorist attack on U.S. by terrorist group Al-Qaeda. It was very obvious that most people had decided not to travel on that anniversary out of fear of a possible repeat attack. There were such few people on that large airplane it seemed we were on a private flight. We arrived in Brazil very well rested as there was ample empty seats to stretch out and sleep on.
A driver was waiting to take us to Macae, which was about a 3 1/2 hr. drive. I was fascinated with the large farms and cattle ranches that we saw during the drive as my brother Rob and wife Joyce exported Simmentals and had exported to Brazil. The Brazilian cattle buyers had been to Alberta,
The best part - meeting Bob Douglas again as well as Don Rankin and all of the staff in the Macae office. and enjoying the surroundings and food, the Brazilian barbecue is amazing. Joel and Deborah from Noble Brazil introduced us to all of the office staff and the Manager of Navigant took us to the markets and to the wonderful Brazilian Barbecue.. They as well as other staff members also introduced Dana and I to Buzios with its lovely beaches and amazing architecture.
The night before our flight home we overnighted in Rio so had the chance to have another lovely dinner in a restaurant overlooking the beautiful Copacabana Beach. This was definitely not the toughest part of my job!!
The stress part - Getting visas for the crews going to work in Brazil was not a quick easy feat, it could easily take 4 - 6 weeks.. In the beginning we spoke directly with the Brazilian consulate in Vancouver and I became acquainted with Marco Castro at the consulate.
Not long after we had started getting the visas from that Consulate, Marco started his own company - Provisa, and we turned all of the visa requests over to him. This man could "pull a rabbit out of a hat". It seemed especially true if there was an extra urgency, then he truly managed to do his magic and get that visa extra quickly. We were so thankful to have his expertise and dedication, he saved the day so many times for me.
The Navigant staff
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