Valeu A Pena?


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Published: August 11th 2007
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The whole route


Valeu a pena? Was it worth it? Of course it was, although the way back home was a little hellish.

Backing up to the good ol days, the last days of the trip that is, they were pretty nice. I might have already written about it, but one of the funner things i did was just take a ferry to an island and back - not meant to be a tourist attraction but I love being on the sea. Or bay.... Bahia means bay.

I just walked around and shopped my last day, took one final capoeira class, got my pinky all numb from playing Berimbau again, and then went to the Bale Folclorico. THey did a bunch of dances about the african gods that are still worshipped in Bahia, and some of the things we do for capoeira - maculele and puxada de rede - it really gave me some ideas for our next performances. For instance, they do the fishermans dance (puxada de rede) about 50 times faster than we do, and without the net and repetitive movements. And they put strings on their hats so they dont fall off all the time (I had to sew a sock into mine because my head is so small).

After that began the epic journey home. I booked my ticket from Salvador to Sao Paulo so I would leave around midnight, get to Sao Paulo at 2 am, and wait in the Sao Paulo airport until my flight home at 6 am. I tried hard to sleep on the plane because it was going to be 2 overnight flights, and I know that makes you tired... but when I woke up, the plane was stopped and people were still on it. I thought maybe we had stopped and more people were mgoing to get on the flight and then we would go to Sao Paulo. Then I looked at my watch and it was 4 am! I had to push through a bunch of Brazilians who were partying in the aisles (I swear they never sleep) to ask the steward what was going on. Turns out, Sao Paulo was too crowded (actually, CLOUDED - fogged in) so we landed in Campinas and had to take a bus . Now, its a good thing I was not thinking straight when they landed, or I would have freaked out - I was flying TAM, and I had no intention of flying into the airport where they just crashed. But we were safe... just late for my next flight.

When I got to the correct airport by bus, it was already 6 am. There wasnt even anyone at the check in counter. I went into the office and told them what happened, and they told me that they were sorry, the flight was already closed, and they would get me on tomorrow. Only, there were no connections to LA for tomorrow. So, please call the number of the main office after they open at 8 am and they will figure it out. After this, i pretty much lost it. Even though I had a friend in Sao Paulo who would have taken care of me (and I would have loved to see him again), I really didnt want to stay 2 more days. However, the manager who was an angel, authorised them to open the flight back up so I could get on. They didnt mention this to me, but my plane was still at Campinas too, and the flight wasnt leaving for 2 more hours. So they did my paperwork and put my bags on the truck, and I went to my gate, finally. They were stamping everyone's boarding pass, I couldnt figure out why, because there was no plane at the gate. It was actually to get free breakfast from the coffee shop, which was, at that point, the best thing ever.

After that, things went exactly to plan, actually, the delay kept me from having to wait 9 hours in Lima... So that was good. The last snag was waiting like 10 years for my luggage at LAX, and then going though a 500 person customs line while poor Tommy waited for me. There wasnt even a way for me to call him and let him know I had even made the flight. But, he was right there when I got out and I went to his house, and slept real late today then had VEGETARIAN JAMAICAN FOOD!! It was soooo good.


I guess this is the end of blogging for a while. Ill add pictures when i get to a computer with a memory card port. I have a lot of schoolwork starting on Monday.

The moral of the story is that Brazil is very far way. But worth it.

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11th August 2007

Welcome back!!
Fico muito contenta de q vc volto bem!! Enjoy you last vacation weekend!!

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