Mexico and Brazil

After the Middle East trip we saw the Houston Grand Opera version of Götterdämmerung (Wagner) and then drove to Fort Worth for their version of Carmen (Bizet). Back to Houston for The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart). Great time for opera considering that we had just had a backstage tour and joined HGO as patrons.

The Mexico trip was awesome as we spent time at UNAM, PEMEX and with the local SPE section. UNAM's Petrobowl team won the 2015 International contest and I had promised to visit. We also visited the Mexico City LDS temple briefly.

We flew to Merida for more students and the LDS temple there. The next day we took some personal time and drove to Tulum and had dinner at Noma Mexico. We had previously eaten at Noma in Copenhagen when it was rated the number one restaurant in the world. Two of the Mexico City restaurants we had (in prior trips) enjoyed are now in the world's "top 15." Noma Mexico was an unbelievable treat and we managed to see the local ruins. The a quick drive to Carmen and a flight home.

Not much time at home and then off to Brazil. I flew to Sao Paulo and drove to Campinas for a meeting with UNICAMP and then a quick flight to Rio. In Rio we met with the local SPE section, Petrobras, Young Professionals and at UFRJ, the 2016 Petrobowl champions! Nice lunch and meeting with local Baker Hughes leaders.

At UNICAMP there is the Fundação de Desenvolvimento da Unicamp or FUNCAMP. This does not seem as hilarious to the locals as it does to me.

Great group at UNICAMP.

Also toured a lot of labs. Just a few of those pics.

At UFRJ we had a lot of enthusiasm. Three consecutive female SPE Chapter Presidents!

It was back to Houston and a keynote speech at the Gulf Coast Section Awards banquet.

Only a few more days and then off to Europe again.

Other Blogs

You can of course read about my barbecue at This site
My Baker Hughes reservoir blog is here.
My (old) blog detailing my 18 months in Hong Kong is here,

Travel this trip (basically includes airport to airport) 13,015 miles. SPE travel to date 533,465 miles. Round trip earth to moon is 477,800 so almost back!

Countries to date (my counting rule is basically that I spent the night there with some sort of SPE content...not just went through the airport like New Zealand or Panama): 43
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Belgium
Brunei
Canada
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Kuwait
Indonesia
India
Ireland
Italy
Malaysia
Mexico
Nigeria
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Trinidad & Tobago
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom (Scotland, England)
USA
Vietnam

Operas this month =3 Operas to date = 77