How Did I Get Here

Once the big issues
(A) Quitting my job
(B) Giving my dog to my parents
(C) Preparing the house for our absence
had been taken care of, we still had to actually GET to Brazil. That turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. We had two major factors in our favor
(1) We live within driving distance of JFK, one of the world's greatest international hubs
(2) This is tourist season in Porto Seguro (and most of the rest of Brazil), so a lot more flights are scheduled
That isn't to say it wasn't an incredibly long trip.

A limo (ok, a Lincoln Towncar, but there was a cheaufer) came and picked us up at 2 PM Wednesday. That drove us to JFK, which took about 4 hours with the traffic in NYC. I slept for about an hour in the car. Then we get to the airport, had to check in, go through security, go find our gate. We flew business class, so by the time we got to the gate it was about time to board for our 8:25 PM flight. We settle in to our nifty business class seats (4F and 4G see SeatGuru for details). No, they weren't the cool kind that fold out into a bed. But it's still way better than coach. And yes, they really do go around offering champaign/mimosas/orange juice while you wait at the gate. That part rocks. The food was pretty good, although I wish I'd selected a different dinner. The kid in front of me's ravioli looked absolutely scrumptious. Nothing against the quality of the food, but I took a gamble and ordered beef spare rib with brussel sprouts purred parsnips. I was trying to be all high class and get something fancy. The beef was quite good. I'm sure the other stuff was too - I just don't like brussel sprouts or parsnips very much. Even without eating my side and veggie, dinner was filling. There were some h'ordevoirs to start, a fancy green salad with balsamic, then the main course, a fruit tray to finish, and an icecream sundae after all that. I was full before they even came around and asked about dessert. But I am incapable of saying no to hot fudge sauce.

In flight entertainment wasn't bad. They didn't have video on demand, or the full array of TV channels that I've seen on other planes. But you did get your own personal video screen and your choice of 6 channels of video entertainment (a dozen audio channels and some simple games were also available). We watched Balls of Fury during dinner, but due to technical difficulties we never saw the ending. It started over from the beginning like 20 minutes before the end because they realized they'd only turned it on in business class - coach just had blank screens and it was their featured film. After dinner Billy went to sleep, but I stayed up to watch another movie (they had all the films on loop). Hairspray was pretty good. After that I tried to get some shut-eye, but only managed maybe an hour of sleep on the plane. Eventually it was morning and they offered us breakfast. I managed to eat a bowl of Special K and some fruit. I was still stuffed from the night before and declined the tasty looking breakfast quesadilla, bagels with cream cheese, muffins, etc. We touched down smoothly and on time.

Which meant we were off the plane around 10 AM local time. That would be 7 AM EST, I think. We breezed through customs and picked up our luggage (that part took nearly an hour). Our flight wasn't until almost 6 PM. Luckily (and I think this is be best idea EVER) there's a a place in the Sao Paulo airport where you can go rent a tiny little room by the hour to sleep in. They have showers, internet, TV, a place to plug your electronics, everything you need after a long flight. Most importantly, they have a fully horizontal, stationary bed with sheets and everything. Rooms have bunk beds, so I grabbed the top one and hit the sack. I got about 3 hours of sleep there (we rented the room for 4 hours), then showered, brushed my teeth, and actually felt human enough to start a new day. By the time we checked out of our cubby hole it was time to check into our flight. That killed at least another half hour. With our checked luggage off our hands, Billy gave me the full tour of the airport's available food options. We eventually headed back to the first coffee shop we'd been to (it won out due to the gelato place next to it). I had a tuna salad sandwich. They cut the crusts off all the sandwiches here. Why do people do that anyway? Billy had these tasty fried chicken balls that reminded me of chicken croquettes. We slip a small chocolate gelato and headed through security to our gate. Less than a half hour of waiting later we were back on a plane. This time it was smaller and we were packed in like sardines on an all-coach regional jet.

At least it was a flight to Porto Seguro. Normally you have to go to a smaller regional airport and then get on an even smaller jet for the last leg. But like I said earlier, it's tourist season so they run extra flights. That flight was about 2 hours. Due to the strangeness that is daylight savings time, and the Bahia state's choice not to participate, Porto Seguro is EAST of Sao Paulo, yet the time there is an hour behind. The other half of the year, they're in the same time zone. So that makes it 2 hours ahead of EST here right now, but 3 hours ahead of EST to our west in Sao Paulo. Weird. I also learned that either due to a short runway, or pilots getting a kick out of doing a seat belt check, they land nice in soft in Porto Seguro and then SLAM on the breaks. I was fastened in, but not as tight as I should have been. I was literally lifted off my seat. We got our bags (hurray - no lost luggage!) and got picked up at the airport by Billy's colleague Elias. We barely got the three of us and our luggage into the tiny rental Fiat. At any rate, we made it to the hotel in time for a 7:30 PM dinner. With the time difference, that's a travel time of 27 hours.