In two weeks I will be on my way to South America.

My maternal grandfather, the Lutheran missionary Albert Lehenbauer, was the man who brought the first soybeans to Brazil. This year is the hundredth anniversary of that event, and Grandpa is being honored at the Fenasoja soybean festival in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul.

I’ve never been to Brazil before, and I figured if I was ever going to visit the place where my mother was born, this was the time to do it. Because of the centennial, many of the surviving Lehenbauers will be there, as well as a number of my grandmother’s people, the Priebes, so I’m sure I’ll hear lots of great stories about the old days.

Even in the twenty-first century, Santa Rosa remains a remote location. To travel there by air from Seattle requires a minimum of four flights: three to reach the state capital of Porto Alegre, and then a hop to the interior on a commuter plane that only operates three times a week. Fortunately, my Argentine cousins Silvia and Tony are also planning to attend, and they invited me to tag along with them, so what I’m actually going to do is fly to Buenos Aires, embark on an epic 700-mile road trip to southern Brazil, and then, after the festival, return to Argentina and spend some more time exploring B.A. before I head home.

I’ve been anticipating this trip for more than a year, and it’s hard to believe that it’s almost here. All the important preparations were taken care of months ago, and now I’m down to making sure I haven’t forgotten anything and compiling a wish list of stuff I want to see while I’m there.

People who know me will not be surprised to learn that the list includes wildlife. Capybaras are native to the region, and I am going to do my best to meet one, or a dozen (in 2020, an army of capybaras invaded the Nordelta suburb of Buenos Aires, but alas, Silvia tells me they’ve since been relocated).

I’ll be taking lots of pictures and posting them to my Twitter feed (whether this happens during the trip or after will depend on the wifi situation and Elon Musk’s relationship status with the governments of Brazil and Argentina). And there’ll be a detailed trip report here on the blog when I get home. Stay tuned.