Welcome to March, the beginnings of spring! Here’s a special note from Co-Author Rita Foley about how she used a recent travel trip to Reboot…
There is nothing like a mini Reboot Break to feed the soul. I have recently returned from two weeks in Brazil that met so many of the criteria we here at Reboot Partners espouse.
How my trip was turned into a Reboot Break:
- My travel mate was one of my closest friends who has never been to Brazil so I had the pleasure of seeing her big smile and eyes open with amazement around every corner.
- I reconnected with old friends in our destination – I first worked with Mark in 1999, he and his partner Roberto are like brothers to me. We loved seeing Brazil through their eyes but our favorite times were just relaxing and being with them.
- We disconnected – We both told our workplaces that we were unable to work those two weeks and for the most part stayed away from technology. Except my camera – you’ll see a few shots below.
- We had a central base – Our base was Ipanema, where we loved walking around as locals, through farmer markets, parks, beaches, and yes, we did hit some of the trendy local restaurants too!
We had adventures – We took a two-day trip to beautiful and stunning Iguacu Falls(1.7 miles of falls), the Bird Sanctuary and Iguacu Dam – an engineering feet that provides 75% of all of Uruguay’s electricity and 17% of Brazil’s needs.
- We got to interact with the culture in a meaningful way – The second week, I attended two conferences – with friends I get to see once a year from all over the world. The panels in the morning were diverse and stimulating and the afternoons were left free for relaxing or sightseeing. My favorite afternoon was when one of the attendees, a senior executive from Coca Cola, arranged for some of us to go to a favela (slum) where Coke is working in conjunction with the community setting up the recycling of materials that they then turn into folk art. We also visited a leadership after-school program for kids 15 to 25. We asked them what they hopes and aspirations were and they shot right back asking us what ours were. They wanted to know if we had slums like theirs in the US and if it were safe to come and visit our country one day. They were great kids; we got into the most fascinating discussions for about 45 minutes but it could have gone on for 5 more hours.
It was a perfect Reboot break. We disconnected from work and technology, which in turn cleared our minds to see and learn all sorts of new things. That and reconnecting with friends refueled our creativity and spirits as we headed back home. As always, we would love to hear from you – how are you using travel this spring to Reboot?