Day 1 Continued....

There are many helpful people at the terminal in Rio. I have no idea how, but Elaine chose the right people to speak to and guide us to our next point in the adventure. We had to go to the ticket transfer counter to get the next flight towards our destination. I don't know where he came from but I found us escorted by a man that took over the movement of our backage. We had three large suitcases (each weighing 49.5 lbs) and two carry on bags. Up until that point I was very guarded over who touched our baggage and where it went. I was so tired that I didn't care anymore how things went. The man loaded all of our baggage onto a cart and he could have taken it anywhere as far as I was concerned at that point.
Elaine had to get us new tickets that would get us to Victoria. I had to smile and entertain our attendant. Smile and entertain? Yeah I am sure I was very entertaining. I was very proud of the shirt I was wearing with the words "Projeto Tamar" on it. Our assistant noted it and asked me if I spoke Portuguese. I responded with the only words I know when someone asks me that. I said "Um puquinho" These words always strike up a conversation. This time the man continued to ask if I spoke Spanish. My response was "Un poco." I tried to say that I speak English in Portuguese. It came out something like this, "Fala Ingles." Now that might sound like an intelligent response but I really should have said "Falo Ingles." But my response led the attendant to tell me that he spoke some English and he got to practice his foreign language skills.
At this point though Elaine was becoming very intent and aggravated as we had to make choices. We had three choices. Our first was to stay in Rio until 3 pm and wait for the next flight to Victoria. Our other two choices were to fly to different cities and catch a flight to Victoria. She told me of these choices and I don't recall what she said exactly. What I heard was basically sit and wait somewhere. I was looking for adventure and that choice was to take a taxicab to the other airport in Rio. If I was traveling alone, I would not have chosen the adventurous sightseeing option. Putting my confidence in Elaine and our trusty assistant, we chose the taxicab tour through Rio De Janeiro on the busiest highway I ever saw. On these roads it is truly bumper to bumper traffic three lanes across at speeds that leave no room for error. I can throw my "two second rule" out the window and forget the brakes as well. To survive on this expressway one must approach it like they are playing a game of chess. Think two moves ahead, don't stop and get out of the way of oncoming motorcycles that have the right of way between the lanes of traffic. Motorcyclists have the right of way unless you want to sacrifice a mirror to the angry kick by one of them as our driver so explained.
We had a very kind taxi driver or let me say a very wise taxi driver. It took us a little time to get a taxicab where the driver was willing to take us to the other side of the city. Our fine assistant spent a little time trying to convince a couple of drivers to take us. His first choice was an operator with an SUV type cab. It had plenty of room in it for our nearly 200 pounds of luggage. But the operator chose to take the people behind us with much more luggage. The second choice was a cab with very little room for luggage and the operator was looking for a much simpler job. Our fine assistant was a bit aggressive in trying to find the right taxicab. He finally did find the right one. The man had a good eye for tourists with money and was very accommodating all the way to the next airport. He deserved what I thought was a good tip. I handed the man 20 Reals. (Reais/R$) As time goes on I am learning that 20 Reais does not go very far and perhaps the tip I gave him was cheap.
We arrived at Santos Dumont Airport at 8:15 am. Our next flight was supposed to leave at 9:30 am. It gave us a little time to relax. Of course I say that our next flight was supposed to leave at 9:30 am. But of course I jinxed our flight early on. When we were sitting in the terminal at JFK airport I thought I would be funny. (You know me). I walked from one side of the terminal to the other to see if our plane arrived at the gate. Upon returning to Elaine I said to her "the plane has a flat tire." This didn't help our situation in the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio De Janeiro. The plane we were supposed to take to Victoria actually did have a flat tire. Oh so surreal. You have got to be kidding me. They told us that it only takes 8 minutes to change a tire. Well it took 8 minutes to give us all new tickets for boarding and 30 minutes to tell us we going to board a different airplane. Elaine and I had to laugh at this point. We really were exhausted. It had been at least 24 hours now with very little sleep and whole lot of frustration.
I believe we arrived Victoria at about 1:30 pm. We were supposed to be there around 8:30 am. Elaine's mother and sister were there waiting for us. It was a very small airport. There are no terminal gates at this airport. We disembarked the plane right on the taxi-way for the planes.
It didn't take us long to get our luggage onto the cart and out to the car and hit the road. Hit the road we did. Elaine's sister is practicing for the Indy 500 and has been showing us how good she has become. If she could find a few sponsors I think she could be the next Danica Patrick. The speed limit between Victoria and Espirito Santo seems to be about 60 Kilometers per hour on average. This would seem to be understandable because the roads are in very poor condition. There are many curves and many potholes. Speed bumps are strategically placed everywhere. I think our "Danica" has memorized the location of all of them and knows precisely when to slow down, what angle to approach and just how fast she can go over them. I have a very good view of the dashboard from the back seat of the car and I could easily observe that our chauffer never travels at a rate of less than 100 kph. If the signs say 40 kph then I would expect that we will be traveling at at rate of 120 kph. But I do have respect for Adriana and so do the motorcyclists. In Rio the cars get out of the way of the many motorcyclists that control the road. In Espirito Santo the motorcyclists get out of Adriana's way.
I don't think we were on the road for more than 10 minutes and Elaine said to me that we have to stop to get some beer. I thought we were buying some beer for the party. We stopped at a gas station to fill the car. Which by the way costs R$165.00 to do. Convert that to U.S. dollars and that is about the equivalent of, let's just say $100.00. And so at $2.91 per gallon in the U.S. we should not complain.
Elaine and I went into the store which I would compare to a 7-Eleven and purchased 3 beers and 1 Coke. The beer here is called Skol. I have my limits as to how much beer I would drink back home. Here in Espirito Santo, I have a much tighter limit as to how much beer I drink and it isn't because the beer is stronger. No far from it. The beer is much weaker and I might compare it to drinking water. That would be unfair and unrealistic because I have had beer that tastes similar to the Skol beer in Brasil. It was a fine, well aged brew that was unintentionally aged for several years and still had the label on it called Milwaukee's Best.
I don't recall how long it took us to get to the lake house from Victoria. It was supposed to be a two hour drive. It was probably much less. We went from an incredibly large city with traffic everywhere to a secluded place secured by a series of gated fences along the road paved in sand and dirt.
We were greeted by Elaine's father and nephew at the lake house. They would have been at the airport to join us but the little car had all it could take to bring the four of us and 175 pounds of luggage to them. It was finally time to relax.
Our first objective was to go jump into the lake. Yes after 26 hours in the same clothes it doesn't matter what you wear next. I gladly put on my Speedo. After all if Elaine's nephew and father can do it, so can I. It only took a few minor adjustments with Elaine's help and I was fitting in the best I could.
We went swimming with both of Elaine's parents, her sister and her nephew. We had a continuous flow of open cans of beer compliments of Elaine's mother. She provided us with a fresh snack that one would marginally compare to pork rinds found in the snack isle at Wegman's. I say marginally compare because these fried treats were a tasty delight. The commercial product could never compare.
I think Elaine could have stayed in the lake all night. But at some point we found ourselves sitting on the veranda as her mother was cooking (?) in the kitchen and her father was cooking steak, chicken, chicken hearts and sausage on the grill. We spent the evening just talking and eating.
Oh yeah and down here the mosquitos love New Yorkers. OMG...I don't recall ever getting bit so much in such a short time frame. I was tethered to a cell phone that needed re-charging as I was calling Mark. I could not move from the space I was standing just off the edge of the veranda. In five minutes I had more bites than I could count with one that swelled up to the size of a dime. I had at that point just remembered the one thing we forgot. Elaine bought 2 cans of OFF prior to our trip and I left them in the garage back home. LOL
I found myself very tired and took refuge in the hammock that was on the veranda. I fell asleep and missed quite a bit of the conversations that were going on into the evening. Elaine's parents took Giovanni (Elaine's nephew) home as Elaine, Adriana and I finally went to bed. Thus ending our first day in Brasil

Did you enjoy your flight?

Tuesday April 27, 2010
The adventure begins.
We started off at Rochester International Airport at about 10:15 in the morning. That would be plenty of time for our 11:30 flight to JFK Airport in New York. But of course as luck would have it, our flight was delayed. Delayed? Delayed indefinitely. It never fails. Our flight was delayed without any guidance, due to weather and traffic at JFK. As you can imagine my nerves were already on edge. Elaine of course was mildly aggravated and expected these little set backs.
As I am such a figity person, and endured enough delay without guidance I chose to walk over to posting board to see if there was an update. On my way I encountered a special friend to Elaine and I. It was Lesley. Lesley is actually the person that brought Elaine and I together. Lesley set up the meetup group Rochester Learns to Cook. And of course as you all know it was at Leslie's place that Elaine and I first worked together as partners in the kitchen.
It was great having someone like Leslie at the airport to talk with. We passed the hour and a half delay so quickly talking to Leslie. And yes, as you can imagine and know that talking with me can be (to say the least) an experience. We shared many stories since our first encounter:)
At any rate it was such a bizarre experience to encounter Leslie at the airport and fly with her to New York City.
We got into JFK at some point near 3:00 pm. Just in time to check in with the immigration department for international travel. This would be the next step where my nerves would be set on edge. To me it felt like I just stepped out of the country. The language changes and the signs are all in Portuguese. I felt intimidated just by the looks of some of the people traveling with us. I am so grateful that the person that assisted us in our check-in was so kind. He spoke both English and Portuguese fluently and readily joked with Elaine and I in both languages as he eased our tension. We passed swiftly through the check-in. I won't say so much for the security check point that was run by the U.S. Security.
We approached the security check point and anticipated the procedures we were to follow. There was a security guard belting out instructions to the travelers as if we were part of his platoon. The platoon leader belted out "Remove all types of footware. There should be nothing on your feet. If there is something on your feet then it is probably still alive and will kill you...." Bela looked at me and asked if he was joking. I was in no mood at the time for someone joking with me. To me his timing was poor. To Elaine he was just a man tired of droning out the same phrase every day all day long and was just looking to liven up the atmosphere.
We finally left JFK Airport around 7:30 pm. This would suggest that we were going to arrive in Rio De Janeiro after our connecting flight left. Go figure.
Our seats were at the back of the bus (airplane) or as Elaine said, "in the kitchen." Sitting in the tail of an Airbus A330 is not the most comfortable place to be. On take off, the tail of the airplane wobbles like a 'duck's ass." It feels like the plane is falling apart. The tail of the plane has the kitchen as well as the restrooms. All night long you get to hear the nonstop activity in both areas.
I will say that the airplanes are cool as they have free audio and video entertainment for our personal viewing and listening pleasure. I wanted so much to (as Elaine would say) immerse myself in the culture. We both watched a documentary put together by Marissa Monte about the origins of Samba. The documentary gave me a completely different perspective of what Samba music was all about. I think we always picture beautiful dancers parading in the street during Carnival with lively upbeat music. The documentary gave me the impression that the songs written for Samba music schools tell a story. And quite often the story is a sad story of love and a hard life.
As for the rest of the night on our trip. I thought I would be wise and taking a sleeping pill. At that point we had eight hours to go. This wonderous little pill keeps me flat for at least 6 hours. Oh did I say flat? LOL. When it comes to flying there is nothing flat about it. And because I was not flat, I did not sleep through the insane flight. I think the only time I felt really comfortable was when Bela let me rest my legs on her lap. Beyond that it was a bone crushing experience.
Much to my surprise though, I did sleep some. I woke up at about 4:00 am and turned on the cool map video feed of our flight position on my personal console. We made up lost time and were going to arrive one hour before our connecting flight would leave for Victoria.
Oh I failed to mention that they fed us dinner and breakfast on this flight. I had something that resembled chicken breast and rice for dinner. The chicken reminded me of chicken I have had in the past where dinner wasn't so important and quite often left in the oven near to the point it could have passed off as a jerky treat for the dog. I also had a glass of red wine with my dinner. Yes it was red wine. It's funny too as I remember asking for my glass of whine. The flight attendants spoke Portuguese to all of the passengers around me. I keep trying to practice my Portuguese. I keep my phrases brief and clear. I said "vinho por favor." The attendant quickly responded with a word I took to mean white wine. My poor communication skill was a dead giveaway as I confusingly looked to Bela and she quickly spoke up and clarified to the attendant in plain English "red."
Never mind the breakfast they fed us on the flight. At the moment I can't remember what it was.
Did I mention we both caught a cold last week. Both of us are congested to this day. The congestion doesn't help either on long flights. I have trouble with high altitude flights and narrow passages in my ear canals. I lose my hearing and the pain is excruciating. I love to travel but I wish I could keep the flights at 10,000 feet not 39,000 feet above sea level.
Well we did get to Rio De Janeiro at about 6:00 am. Our next flight was leaving at 6:30. We had to go through customs again. The line for non-citizens in Rio is very short. The line for citizens is obviously very long. And of course everyone is tired and the attendants don't want any crap from anyone. I had no idea what was going on and was very afraid to be anywhere without Elaine. We stood together for a few minutes in the resident line. Of course then she suggested to me to talk to the head attendant and ask for special treatment as I am a visitor about to miss my connecting flight. Oh yeah that went over like a lead balloon. But it was a good idea. So I stepped out of the line and prepared my sob story as I walked down the long corridor as if I was Dorothy in "The Wizard of OZ" as she was going to see the wizard for the first time. I got half way to the window and the "Wizard" was too far away to quietly ask him for his assistance. It was time for me to practice Portuguese again. Oh yeah and how do I do this without drawing attention to myself in a way that doesn't land me face down on the floor with a gun to my head. ( Don't worry, the security in Rio isn't that scarey.) So all I could think of was which word do I use? Desculpe or com licensa? I think I chose desculpe and then in a non-threatening way (so I believe) I waved to the man with the radio. He quickly approached. I began with "I am a visitor here with my fiance." I quickly showed him my ticket with a flight that was boarding in ten minutes. He got on the radio and spoke with someone. Looking at me he then said "You cannot make this flight, I am transferring you to...." I got real nervous now. It sounded like the attendant just changed my flight plans. I had to repeat how important it was for me to have my fiance by my side. The radio attendant looked to the head attendant and waved him over. He slowly approached and only nodded his head to me to acknowledge that he was prepared to hear my pathetic story. He looked at me with disapproving eyes. I found myself moving to the next mode of desperation and told him I was very nervous and needed to keep my fiance by my side to explain what we needed. I pointed far off in the crowded line of people and suggested that she was too far away to speak with. At that point he spoke (in words that I could not understand) to the man with the radio. They exchanged some words and then looked at me and just nodded with approval. I got permission to get Elaine to the front of the line with me. By the way, being at the front of the line and a visitor doesn't mean a thing. When I started there were two lines for non-residents. As we approached the window, the head attendant closed one of them to non-residents and began to use it as the window for residents only. He quickly stopped the Japanese lady as she approached the window and sent her back to the line that at this point only had Elaine and I in it.
By the time we got through customs, the plane we were supposed to take was already loaded. Our baggage wasn't even in the terminal yet. At this point I found myself being the one relaxed and Elaine was the one stressing out. It was a nice change of pace. I was at the mercy of all who were around me. There was nothing I could do to change my situation. I was beginning to have fun. Elaine had to do all of the speaking. I just smiled.

I will continue with the saga...

But that's all for now.

Bags are packed and we are ready to go

Yippy