A few weeks after I had started working for Orient-Express in Peru, a small hotel committee -which grew bigger and bigger as the 23rd of May 2003 approached- initiated a series of meetings with the “advance team” (in plain english, the organizers 🙂 ) of the 17th Cumbre de Rio…

The “Grupo do Rio”, as the name suggests, was created in Rio de Janeiro, on the 18th of December 1986.  It is an international organization of Latin American and some Caribbean states. Its founding members were Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, also the members of the Contadora Group and the Contadora Support Group.

The Rio Group, unlike the European Union, does not have a secretariat or permanent body, its continuity relies on yearly summits of heads of states.

In 2003, on the 23rd and 24th of May, Peru was to host the “XVII Cumbre del Grupo de Río”, and the Hotel Monasterio in Cusco would welcome 19 Heads of State : the leaders of República del Perú, República de Costa Rica, República Argentina, República de Colombia, República del Ecuador, República de Guatemala, República de Honduras, República de Nicaragua, República de Paraguay, República Oriental del Uruguay, República Federativa del Brasil, República de Bolivia, República de Chile, República de El Salvador, República Cooperativa de Guyana -representing the Caribbean community, CARICOM-, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, República de Panamá, República Dominicana, República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

Preparing any official state visit, for even “just” one President or Minister takes an enormous amount of time, patience, and diplomacy… it’s a bit like preparing a 3 star Michelin dish, hours of preparation for just a few minutes of intensity….

But, with 19 of them and the respective delegations is a different story altogether, and our preparative meetings took just about a year… trying to meet the requirements of these special guests, their culinary preferences (I will tell you in a post later about Hugo Chavez’s breakfasts… :)), time constraints, flight schedules, but most importantly, security!!

Our main interlocutors were from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lima, they regularly paid us a visit at The Monasterio, to discuss the intricate details of the organization of events that were to take place in the hotel, but also in nearby sites : Saqsayhuaman Archeological Site, the MAP Museum, the Convento de la Merced, and Koricancha Temple…

Dream events for any Food & Beverage Director, the Chef and I had an amazing time putting together menus, and then changing them as the various meetings took place…

For those considering a career in the hospitality field, prepare to be very flexible with timings, menus, and many other details, and not just for presidents 🙂

Cusco had never, in its long history, seen such a gathering, and the Peruvian chief of police decided to send an extra 2000 policemen from Lima, in order to secure the airport and the city… of course, each presidential convoy would also be surrounded by impressive numbers of guards, snipers, bomb squad members… as you can imagine, most Cusco’s hotel rooms would be fully booked before, during and after the gathering.

By the way, what is the purpose of such meetings, what is being agreed on, talked about?

It turns out the main theme was the eradication of poverty, which is unfortunately always a priority in this part of the world, security in Mexico or Colombia were also on the Rio Group’s agenda.

For those who are interested in the exact contents, here is the link of the declaration of Rio (in Spanish) : 

www.resdal.org/ultimos…/docs-presidentes.html

As hoteliers our main objective was to limit the number of last minute surprises, so that everything would go flawlessly, which it did -fortunately!- … 

Here is a preview, in images, of the preparation of the various events, in the city, in the hotel and on the catering sites :

 

 

 

 

Hasta la próxima semana….