To Brasil in 2 Days.

I have arrived. My journey down started out great and gradually spiraled downward (although in the end everything was fine). One of the concerns was my Miami-Sao Paulo connection, because I had less than two hours to get my two huge bags off the carousel, recheck them, get my ticket, find my proper gate, and go through security. However, after asking very nicely at the check in counter, the very nice lady (her niceness was boosted because one of my bags was exactly 50.0 pounds and the other was 5 pounds over. Instead of paying $50 for those 5 pounds, I took out a box of gummi bears and a bunch of pixie sticks and gave them to her. Sugar makes everyone happy. Except two year olds. It makes them bratty. Not that they do not start out bratty.) checked my bags all the way to GRU, where I had a substantial layover. This was great, and in Miami, I made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare. I even got to help a little old Brasilian guy find his way. He had been away from Brasil (and therefore his wife and kids) for about two years, living and working in the States to earn a bit of money. He barely spoke a word of English, the poor guy.

After this point, things started to go a bit downhill. When I arrived in Sao Paulo, I found that my bags had not made the flight with me. Which was actually kind of nice, because it meant that I did not have to take my bags through customs. They ended up being delivered right to my door in Recife. And I had a bit of a scare when I was looking for my parents number, realized that I lost my notebook with all my contact information and could not find my cellphone. I found my phone after upending my backpack, but the consequences of not being able to find it would have left my stranded at the Recife airport with no way of talking with my parents to let them know what was going on.

Upon arriving in Recife, I found (or rather, didn’t) that my parents had not come to pick me up. Calling them, it turned out that they could not leave our neighborhood because of the water levels. Having been traveling for far too long, I decided to take a taxi as far as I could, and then walk the rest of the way. I rationalized this potentially risky maneuver by convincing myself that Recife’s sewers had alligators of a size easily killed, the wombats lacked the numbers to be a true threat (they are small furry creatures who overwhelm their prey through the sheer weight of their numbers, biting with little teeth.) and than no criminals would be out in the rain. The taxi made it through without ever stopping, keeping death matches with Recife’s wild animals to a bare minimum of zero. Since then, I have been home doing nothing. It is boring here. But it is Brasil, containing very nice people, and lots of Guarana and Acai.

--Andy