Day 3 - NYC > Sao Paulo > Salvador

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Wow. Sleeping on tile without a pillow or blanket really sucks. I check in to TAM around 6am, and quickly realize I’m going to need to know more Portuguese if I want to get around. Go through security and make my way to the gate. I run into Hsaio and same others in the calls and we board the plane around 8:30am. I sat next next to a nice man from Paraguay, he introduced me to the amazing South American drink called Guarana, made from a fruit that is found in the amazonias (the jungle). I equate it to Brazillian ginger ale. On the flight there are several movie options, everyone has their own personal movie screen in the headrest of the person in front of them. My Paraguayan amigo opted to watch Iron Man in Portuguese, I tried but they made Robert Downey Jr. sound like a little kid, it was weird. The service on TAM was impeccable, far better than anything I’ve ever seen in the US. After our two meals on the flight the stewards passed out little travel pouches filled with toothbrush, toothpaste, and a little bar of soap and towel. Amazing! We land in Sao Paulo and make our way throught customs (super lax) and exchange some currency as a group (so as to minimize the service charge, 5R$ per transaction). The exchange rate was 1.52 there, not bad, not great. We find our next flight and make it to Salvador without problems. There is a travel video on the flight telling what to see and do in NYC, Grimaldi’s Pizza is one of the features, ironic. Also, they play the Simpson’s episode when Homer becomes Poochy, the voices are so weird! We arrive in Salvador about 1:30am, made it to the hotel and slept.

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