Tours With That Extra Touch

Enlarge Image Image Gallery [1] Distilleries, like this one near Sao Paolo, turn sugar cane into alcohol fuel. [2] Brazil's ""liquid energy"" powers utility company fleets and privately owned cars. [3] Our Brazilian tour schedule will allow time to sun on the Copacabana. [4] When winter grips the U.S., Brazil is a tropical paradise. [5] Sun-powered houses on an Israeli kibbutz. [6] Finnish pottery is only one of the crafts we'll study on our Scandinavian tour. [7] Another sample of Israeli solar collectors. [8] Visits to Israel's ancient ruins will be included in our solar tour. [9] Don't miss the wares and displays in Helsinki's market.

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MOTHER has some great adventures in store for you on our 1981 . . .

We've all heard it said that there's nothing quite so educational as travel. Well, Mother's Tours expand on that truism, seeking out adventures that not only offer the usual cultural, historical, and recreational travel attractions .. . but also provide a chance to meet with experts in fields that we believe will be of interest (and of lasting value) to our readers!

CHECKING OUT CHINA

For example, about the time you receive this issue, 32 of MOTHER's tourists will board a Japan Airlines flight in San Francisco for the long journey to Beijing and southern China's semitropical agricultural regions. Once there, we'll study—for almost three weeks—some of the intensive farming methods used to feed that country's huge population.

This unusual tour filled up within weeks after it was announced . . . so we're now in negotiation with the Chinese government to plan another such trip next summer. Our second excursion will visit China's northern "grain belt" .. . and we hope to give you more details in the next issue of this publication.

BRAZIL'S "LIQUID SUNSHINE"

Brazil is often referred to as South America's "sleeping giant", but during the 1973 OPEC embargo that nation's government was wide awake to the country's energy situation. Because the land has almost no petroleum resources of its own, Brazil began—at that time—serious research into the possibility of switching its gasoline and diesel vehicles to renewable fuels.

The Brazilian people have since made remarkable progress, and—from January 16 to February 1, 1981—you'll have a chance to see for yourself what they've accomplished on a nationwide basis, and an opportunity to talk to some of the growers, distillers, engineers, scientists, and government officials who are helping to complete the switch from a petroleum-based to an alcohol-fuel-based economy.

Since no trip to Brazil would be complete without a look at the mysterious Amazon, our journey will begin in Manaus, an old rubber boom town located 1,000 miles up this mighty river and in the very heart of the great South American jungle. From there, we'll move on to Recife, an old colonial city called the "Venice of Brazil", where large alcohol fuel distilleries will be in full operation.

Our next stop will be Sao Paulo, one of the world's largest and most dynamic urban areas. While in this friendly and sophisticated metropolis, we'll drop by the Volkswagen and Ford plants for a look at their new alcoholfueled cars, and talk to Mercedes-Benz engineers about that firm's conversion of diesel engines to alcohol (and more recent experiments with other renewable diesel fuels). We'll also visit research centers, a small farm distillery, and a medium-sized installation that's experimenting with resources other than sugar cane for ethanol production.

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