April 27, 2006

Preview: Markus Lehmann - From Calgary to Rio De Janeiro - Builder of the Tocorimé Tall Ship & Supporter of Brazilian Street Kids

Once you start opening your eyes, you will find interesting individuals all around you. Markus Lehmann's personal story is probably a little more unusual than most. I first heard about him at the Wonders of Brazil travel presentation that I attended a while ago at Toronto's G.A.P Store and when I heard about him I thought: this is a guy I just have to interview.

Markus grew up in Calgary and at about 18 years of age he went to Australia to work on a farm. During the Australian 200 Year Celebrations a whole series of tall ships stopped by in the harbour of his town and Marcus fell in love with these sailing vessels.

He had never been on a sailboat before, but this first encounter would change his life. Marcus quit his farm job and hired on with one of the sailboats. Several years and trials and tribulations later he and two of his friends decided that they would build their own sailboat.

This is where the really interesting part of the story begins, where Markus and his friends started building this boat, only using hand tools, historic and ecologically sustainable construction methods, in the heart of the Amazon River basin. All in all it took them 6 years and finally in 2000 the "Tocorimé Pamatojari” (which means “Adventurous Spirit” in the native tongue of the Kulina tribe of the Brazilian Amazon) went on its maiden voyage.

This ship is the dream of his life and Markus and his partners have used it, among other things, to hold cultural and training displays on the vessel, particularly to create educational sessions dedicated to children from underprivileged families in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, his vessel has been used for private and corporate charters, and most recently, Markus started a cooperation with Toronto's well-known adventure travel company, G.A.P Adventures, to offer his "Brazilian Tall Ship Sailing Adventures" to an international audience.

In his upcoming interview Markus will tell us about all the interesting twists and turns that took him to this stage and all the persistence and tenacity it took to fulfil this life-long dream. He'll also talk to us about his life in Rio, one of the most fascinating cities in the world.