18 October 2010

We went from Vancouver to Jasper to Calgary to San Francisco to Yosemite.

As I said in my previous entry we planned to have some time off before our assault on the US. Time off is a nominal term as work never leaves me alone. I put together a presentation for Queensland’s Trade Commissioner to the Americas on the first day of our train trip from Vancouver to Jasper. Each afternoon the phone starts chirping as the following Australian work day starts and my priority after checking in to a new accommodation is to work out the internet. Having said that, we are enjoying an amazing time.

Preparations for the conference are going well and have received a boost from our new Business Development Director for North America. He has tied down a Platinum Sponsor and accessed a number of highly credentialed speakers from the US.

In the last two weeks we started with two days on a train from Vancouver to Jasper (overnight in Kamloops). Train travel is definitely something I could get used to. Vancouver surprised us. It is very affluent. We were told that more than 5% of the population earns over $1M per annum. Talk about a concentration of fancy cars.

Following the train trip we were on a number of organised day tours in the Rocky Mountains as we moved from Jasper (2 nights) to Lake Louise (1 night) to Banff (1 night) and finally Calgary (1 night). There were so many highlights but our favourite was Lake Louise. It is simply stunning. A huge emerald green lake; mountains with sheer faces and a number of glaciers; it really does deserve its reputation as one of the most photographed places in Canada (second after Niagra Falls).

We flew from Calgary to San Francisco. While in the air I caught a view of Mt St Helens. It is really interesting. The top and north side is blown away from the 1980 eruption and the arc where the eruption destroyed everything in its path is very evident from the air.

In San Francisco we spent a day and a half around the city and the wharves. We rode on the cable cars, saw the “crookedist street in the world”, took a harbour cruise and walked over the Golden Gate Bridge (that was scary for someone who hates heights – what as amazing structure). It is the “hilliest” city I have ever seen (including Ipswich). It apparently has 43 hills!! The architecture is typically American, although my impression of American architecture is created by movies and of course many were filmed in San Francisco.

We drove across to Yosemite National Park which is where we are now. This is another amazing place (I keep using that word – amazing). I will write more about it next time.

There is a heatwave following us in Canada and the US. Jasper had the hottest October day on record when we were there; San Francisco was well into the 30’s and on the drive from San Francisco to Yosemite the temperature peaked at 38 deg C in Madera. It is supposed to be cooling down and we have seen our share of coloured, falling leaves. It snowed in the Rocky Mountains in September and often snows here in October. No sign of it yet. All the signs suggest that by mid November all the lakes will be frozen over and snow skiing will be the activity of choice.

No planes for a week. Hooray!!!

Sometimes signs in other countries leave you dumfounded. I haven’t quite worked one out from the side of a van in San Francisco. “Urgent Rooters Plumbing”. I probably shouldn’t say any more.

4 October 2010

It has been a while since I last put pen to paper. We went to Iguazu Falls for a long weekend 16-19 September. This amazing piece of Nature lies on the border of Argentina and Brazil and really is something that everyone should try to get to. A waterfall over two km length made up of over 270 individual waterfalls. Four times as much water as Niagra Falls. Don’t think there will be mining here any time soon. Simply awesome.

Unfortunately Judy came down with a virus and pretty soon I also had it. Judy’s flight back to Rio was difficult with ears blocked but we got back OK. As people who aren’t superstitious we wonder whether we should be. On our 13^th flight to Iguazu falls the airline broke the handle on one of our suitcases. On the flight back to Rio they completely destroyed it. Luckily the airline agreed to have it repaired. I didn’t believe it was possible to repair it. It was very sick. Despite my cynicism they did repair it and six flights later it still looks OK.

Monday and Tuesday 19 & 20 September were more office work; debriefing on Brazil and planning for Chile. Planning for Chile has proven to be difficult with their bicentenary of mining celebrations. We gave up trying to get into the mines near Antofagasta in the North and decided to focus on Santiago. We also could not get into the mines near Santiago as there has been an embargo on site visits. Even suppliers are limited to four visits per year. Because of their proximity to Santiago every bloke and his dog were going there for a visit. Add to that a massive upgrade with multitudes of contractors and you can understand the stopping of outside visitors.

The flight from Rio to Santiago was one to forget. Both of us were unwell with stuffed up sinus’s and ears. The end result was a very painful descent. We met Ivan who was to help us in Santiago and he took us to an emergency clinic. We both had virus’s but my left eardrum ruptured during the descent and there was blood in it. Consequently I was wheeled off to an ENT specialist. Seven medications later between us (with all directions in Spanish) we were let go. Now that was fun trying to decipher. Apart from me taking one of Judy’s for the first 24 hours and having to get Ivan to help us write everything out in English, we seemed to get what we needed.

Our time in Santiago was fruitful. In particular we had meetings with four potential distributors. All were very interested. One in particular we are pretty keen on and we will start the ball rolling to get GBI profiled in Chile. In between we had a meeting with the Vice President Mining for Anglo Chile which was also good. I am sure that there is plenty of work in this country propped up by the copper industry. However, the Santiago locals are very quick to extol the economic virtues of the local wine industry. I am sure the pleasure for many of them in partaking in what has been described as one of the best white wine localities in the world also has something to do with their support for this industry.

Santiago is an amazing city of six million people. It sits up against the Andes mountain range which rises up to a peak of nearly seven thousand metres about 50km north of Santiago. This is the highest mountain in the world apart from 56 mountains in the Himalayas. Most of the mountains near Santiago are 4,500 – 5,000 metres above sea level and are snow capped. Keep in mind that the highest peak in Australia is less than 2,300 metres. It is the creation of the Andes which has also been responsible for the massive copper ore bodies which spread from the south to the north of this very narrow country bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Andes on the East.

On the weekend Ivan’s brother took us to the port of Valparaiso and the resort area of Vina Del Mar. They are about 120km from Santiago. Again, a really interesting day. Sunday was the end of the ski season and the snow we could see from Santiago was getting thin on the ground. We had decided not to visit the snow (50km from Santiago). Sunday night, for the first time in over five weeks it snowed in the mountains. I am sure the ski resorts were not impressed but that sort of timing is pretty typical of nature. I am sure after four months of being sold out at US$800 per night they were not too worried. It was an amazing site on Monday morning. Monday was busy all day (got back at 7.30pm) but we decided to make a quick trip the snow on Tuesday morning. After 40 hairpin bends and thousands of other bends we made it to the closest ski resort which despite having brilliantly white snow was packing up the ski slopes. It was over 3,000 metres and we found the air a little thin. How you drive on this road when it is really icy is beyond me. A number of people die every year sliding off the road – and it is a long way down in places. Back to Santiago for an afternoon meeting. Snow in the morning – business in the afternoon.

Wednesday, after another meeting and a week’s deliberations on whether to delay the flight for the sake of our ears we got on the plane to Dallas and on to Milwaukee. Thank-goodness we arrived without too many issues although even now we are not 100% well.

Milwaukee is a very industrial city where our conference is to be held in the first week of November. Above everything else it is cold!!! Saturday had a maximum of 10C with a bitterly cold wind. A number of people have told us that snow is a distinct possibility from now on. Having said that, it also might not be that cold. (21 is forecast for Thursday this week so who knows.) The venue is good. The accommodation rooms are good and the conference rooms are big.

I am not sure if it is a good thing but there is a heated waterpark in the Hilton Hotel. (Hmmmm). Maybe attendees would like to bring their families.

We had meetings with Bucyrus and P&H on the conference. Both are supporting us and what they have planned is brilliant. Bucyrus will do a case study on the Tuesday morning as part of the conference. After lunch everyone will go to Bucyrus. It is about 20-30 mins. Bucyrus will do a group presentation and will have an area set up like a trade show next to the Museum. They will do the tours with 15-20 people and the others will spend time in the set up area. The Museum is really interesting. We went back to the museum on Saturday morning to spend more time there. You wouldn’t want to miss this if you are a mining person. P&H will do a case study on the Wednesday morning in the conference. After lunch they want to speak to everyone together in the conference room before going out to the P&H facility. It is about 15-20 mins away. It is again a very impressive facility.

We had our new representative in the US, Dick Adsero join us for the day. It was great to catch up and plot the way ahead with him. He will be helping us market and set up the distribution network in the US. Welcome aboard Dick.

There is a mall right next to the Hotel so Judy is looking forward to some female company!!! I think putting up with a mining nut for six weeks now is starting to take its toll.

We are off to Vancouver now for a week off in the Rocky Mountains. We have had a very busy time with site visits, seminars, meetings, overnight flights and other early ones. We have flown 20 times, been sick, been in temperatures between 3deg and 39 deg, had two broken suitcases and a broken video camera. Apart from that we are doing OK. The week off will be good before we start our US assault. Oh, talking about “welcome aboard”…..there is our boarding call……….again!!!!

Nothing really mining which we photographed so will post some of the amazing scenes we have seen since my last entry.