not what we expected
Tue, 3 Apr 2007 07:49:24 -0700 (PDT)
Dear everyone,
Well, after a very considerable time in an airplane, we touched down in Sao Paulo (our last stop before going to our final destination of Manaus), and picked up our bagggage and checked it in to go to our next flight. This was the first airport we were in where they didn't translate anything into English for tourists, so it took us a while to find what we thought was the right gate to go to Manaus.I don't know how this could have happened, but not only did we choose the wrong gate (the flight even left about the same time our real flight should have left), but they must not have looked too carefully at our tickets, because they let us on! Turns out the flight was to Lima, Peru! We managed to find a hostel from the airport, and it is nice that i can speak some Spanish, so... Hopefully we can sort this out with the airline and get back to Brazil in time to catch the right flight out of South America. April Fools! The real story is...
We *almost* could have gone to the wrong gate, since it was changed from what our tickets said. But, we found the right one, and the only hitch is that it left an hour late, making our past few days look something like this: Saturday, wake up at 4. Shuttle to Vegas. Fly out at 8. Arrive in Denver. Layover 7hours. Fly to Miami, arrive midnight. Layover (and sleep on the floor Sat night) 8 hours. Wake up 6:00. Flight to SALVADOR (which we didn't know about) wait while others deplane, continue on to Sao Paulo, arriving about 10 their time (an hour and a half ahead of Michigan time). The flight to Manaus was delayed an hour, so instead of getting in at 2 am, we got in at a little after 3. Because of this, we opted to wait for the 5 am bus to town instead of taking a taxi for $25. The bus costs 50 cents.
Long story short, if we'd taken the taxi, we would have arrived at our hostel around 4 or 5 am. As it was, we got off the bus much sooner than we should have, having taken what was NOT our landmark for our landmark (our hostel had instructions online for how to get there from the airport). So then we walked back, got on the bus, went the wrong way, back to the airport, and THEN the bus parked for a half hour break.... Long story, but we got to our hostel blessedly in time for breakfast around 9. Then we decided we needed the room with AC (2 bucks more) and we slept. Ohhhh, what a long journey that was! And God bless real beds and mangoes and bananas & coffee for breakfast.
Today is our second day, and we feel much better rested . Our hostel is wonderful. It includes free internet, which i am using right now. It's nice & close to anything we want to do in town. Digger & i took a nice long walk yesterday, and today we're going to try to find a good place to use for a jungle trip. It's hot as anything, and humid. Probably a little less extreme than the temps in India when we first got there. Like, i'm sweating just sitting here. Also, last night for dinner Digger and i got to play the Korea eating game like Lille and Lindsay. We found a restaurant that sold food by the kilo and just heaped unidentifiable stuff on our plates that we thought would taste good. It did taste good. We also got juice-Mango for D and acerola for me. Delicious :) My dinner had something like pasta in a lot more sauce and i think there was fish involved, too. And rice & beans. That i could identify. I think we have an advanage of L&L in that we see our food before choosing it. Still a fun adventure :)
Much love to everyone. More to come.
Emily
Dear everyone,
Well, after a very considerable time in an airplane, we touched down in Sao Paulo (our last stop before going to our final destination of Manaus), and picked up our bagggage and checked it in to go to our next flight. This was the first airport we were in where they didn't translate anything into English for tourists, so it took us a while to find what we thought was the right gate to go to Manaus.I don't know how this could have happened, but not only did we choose the wrong gate (the flight even left about the same time our real flight should have left), but they must not have looked too carefully at our tickets, because they let us on! Turns out the flight was to Lima, Peru! We managed to find a hostel from the airport, and it is nice that i can speak some Spanish, so... Hopefully we can sort this out with the airline and get back to Brazil in time to catch the right flight out of South America. April Fools! The real story is...
We *almost* could have gone to the wrong gate, since it was changed from what our tickets said. But, we found the right one, and the only hitch is that it left an hour late, making our past few days look something like this: Saturday, wake up at 4. Shuttle to Vegas. Fly out at 8. Arrive in Denver. Layover 7hours. Fly to Miami, arrive midnight. Layover (and sleep on the floor Sat night) 8 hours. Wake up 6:00. Flight to SALVADOR (which we didn't know about) wait while others deplane, continue on to Sao Paulo, arriving about 10 their time (an hour and a half ahead of Michigan time). The flight to Manaus was delayed an hour, so instead of getting in at 2 am, we got in at a little after 3. Because of this, we opted to wait for the 5 am bus to town instead of taking a taxi for $25. The bus costs 50 cents.
Long story short, if we'd taken the taxi, we would have arrived at our hostel around 4 or 5 am. As it was, we got off the bus much sooner than we should have, having taken what was NOT our landmark for our landmark (our hostel had instructions online for how to get there from the airport). So then we walked back, got on the bus, went the wrong way, back to the airport, and THEN the bus parked for a half hour break.... Long story, but we got to our hostel blessedly in time for breakfast around 9. Then we decided we needed the room with AC (2 bucks more) and we slept. Ohhhh, what a long journey that was! And God bless real beds and mangoes and bananas & coffee for breakfast.
Today is our second day, and we feel much better rested . Our hostel is wonderful. It includes free internet, which i am using right now. It's nice & close to anything we want to do in town. Digger & i took a nice long walk yesterday, and today we're going to try to find a good place to use for a jungle trip. It's hot as anything, and humid. Probably a little less extreme than the temps in India when we first got there. Like, i'm sweating just sitting here. Also, last night for dinner Digger and i got to play the Korea eating game like Lille and Lindsay. We found a restaurant that sold food by the kilo and just heaped unidentifiable stuff on our plates that we thought would taste good. It did taste good. We also got juice-Mango for D and acerola for me. Delicious :) My dinner had something like pasta in a lot more sauce and i think there was fish involved, too. And rice & beans. That i could identify. I think we have an advanage of L&L in that we see our food before choosing it. Still a fun adventure :)
Much love to everyone. More to come.
Emily