A day in Portland with the Peruvian GSE Team from District 4450

Written by Kristie Hernandez, Alternate Team Member

WOW, what a great time we had meeting the inbound Peruvian GSE team from District 4450!  The inbound team from Peru met us, the outbound team to Peru, for a day trip to Portland.  On their way north from Eugene up the I5 corridor, they stopped at A&W All American Food and tasted our oh so famous Root beer Floats.  They were of course, big fans!  RIGHT(from left to right): Julio Chavez-Ferrer, Claudia Arispe, Rebeca Serpa, and Luis Donayre (Inbound Team Members).

We started our day off with some hot coffee from Floyd's Coffee, in OldTown Portland, Oregon.  The Peruvians were pleased to come indoors and out of the cold brisk weather.  Shortly after, we headed outdoors and enjoyed a mid-morning stroll through the Portland Saturday Market, this just happens to be the largest outdoor market in the entire USA.  We saw lots of great local products and artwork and a few of Peruvian team members purchased products made from our wonderful maple woods.  Portland was so beautiful with all the cheery trees blooming on the river front.  It was a perfect picture opportunity for the inbound team.  

For lunch, we enjoyed tasting 3 different pizza pies at Old Town Pizza, and of course posed for another photo.  Old Town Pizza is not only famous for it's great pizza, but also for it's haunted past.  We were hopeful of spotting "Nina", a presence that has occupied the building for more than 100 years, but no such luck.  We then headed off to Powell's Books where some of the group shopped and found some great books.  Carlos Arevalo (Team Leader) found several great history books of the US and left excited to read them. 

We then made our way to Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, the central meeting point for all of downtown plaza and observed Portland's historic courthouse and posed with our famous bronze umbrella man.  The group headed to Pioneer Shopping Center to look for some sunglasses and then on to the Nike Store.  LEFT: Center, Carlos Arevalo (Team Leader), Top right following clockwise is Claudia, Julio, Luis, and Rebeca.  


After so much shopping, we headed Departure Lounge on the 16th floor of The Nines Hotel to enjoy the view and refreshments.

At the top of The Nines Building
overlooking downtown
Portland, Oregon

Enjoying Happy Hour at Departure Lounge
and practicing our Spanish skills!

After relaxing and socializing for a while it was time to start heading home.  We hopped on the transit back to where we started, a parking lot in Old Town, Portland's Historical District.  We had such a great time meeting the inbound team, and I feel that I can speak for the entire group on that.  A special thanks to Guistina and Christy for planning such a great day and of course to Ginny (our Team Leader) and the Rotary Club for making this amazing exchange experience possible.


Sincerely,
Team Colibri