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Published: August 7th 2010
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The Beginning of the End...
... connection to Rio cancelled When the alarm went off at 4am, we had no what idea what hell was in store for us today, We thought it was bad enough that our flight from Manaus (North Brazil) to Iguazu Falls (South Brazil, on the border with Argentina) involved two changes (at Sao Paolo then Rio) and lasted from 7am to 7pm, but it got a lot lot worse.
After landing in Sao Paolo at 11:30am we had a three hour wait for our connection to Rio. We had limited options for lunch (and more expensive than UK airports! £6 for a tiny ham salad sandwich!) and settled for a ham and cheese croissant (after a ham and cheese pastry for breakfast and a ham and cheese sandwich on the plane). In the 20 minutes we spent over lunch, our flight to Rio was cancelled, with no announcement. This would mean missing our connection to Iguazu. At the info desk we were treated like madmen for asking if they spoke English, or at least Spanish. You would think that in a country surrounded by Spanish speaking countries, and in a westernized cosmopolitan city like Sao Paolo, the airport staff might consider it useful to speak
1.5 Hour Queue
After we'd already been in the airport for 7.5 hours a second language. We repeatedly discovered that the mere suggestion was preposterous, and that all of the passengers had a better grasp of languages. I mean, have you ever had to speak a language other than English at any airport you've ever been to?! I'm not usually one to be such an presumptuous, boulshy and rude tourist, but as our situation got more complex I could not explain using my mixture of sign language and Spanish with a Portuguese accent!
Anyway, the man at the info desk was hideously rude, and allowed a number of Brazilians to push in front of us. A Spanish speaking couple translated his Portuguese to Spanish for me and we were booked on a direct flight to Iguazu, leaving in half an hour. He assured us our luggage would be transferred, and we were looking forward to arriving sooner than expected. No sooner had we arrived in their boarding lounge than we were told Iguazu airport was closed due to bad weather and our flight would be delayed by one hour. One hour turned into two before we boarded the plane and went through the safety briefing. After sitting on the plane for an hour we were told Iguazu was closed again and we should disembark. This would have been a good time for the English speaking captain to relay advice on our next steps to the plane, while we were altogether. They thought it would be better to let us get off and disperse, forming unorganized crowds at information kiosks where no-one spoke English and let us fend for ourselves. A young girl (I'm talking 13) from the plane translated to English that our flight was cancelled and we would need to collect our bags, change our flights (to 8am the next day) and pick up vouchers for food and a hotel. We fell at the first hurdle - Chris's bag never showed. Trying to explain our confusing route, changed flights and current predicament demanded grammar beyond my capabilities, not that anyone understood my Spanish anyway. They called in the only English speaking woman in the airport. After 2 hours she told us they had found Chris's bag, and as soon as he checked into a new flight they would put a new tag on it and check it in for us.
The time was now 7pm - 7.5 hours after arriving in Sao Paolo airport. We joined the queue to change our flight, and were told we could actually get on one at 11pm that night. Great! But by the time we reached the front of the queue 1.5 hours later, the flight was full and we had to wait until 2:30pm the next day, 24 hours after our original booking. Frustrated at being unable to complain due to the language barrier, we returned to request Chris's bag as we needed the malaria tablets before we flew the next day. Our English speaking woman was gone, so I demanded her on the phone. She just came out with "Sorry, we don't know where you bag is." Astonished, I said "But you told me it was here in Sao Paolo!" "Sorry for the inconvenience, but two airports are closed and there are a lot of bags here. Go to your hotel and rest and return tomorrow when we will have found it and will put it on your new flight." Resisting the urge to call her a liar, as we still needed her help, I pleaded to at least be able to access the bag before it was put on our flight because of the medicines in it. She sidestepped the question.
Exhausted and hungry, we caught the bus to the hotel (now 10pm) and enjoyed its free luxuries - a fantastic buffet dinner and breakfast and our first hot shower in exactly 3 weeks. The best bit was the hot water tap in the sink - never see more than one tap everywhere else, and my first hairdryer in months! The TV switched onto a music channel when we entered the room, and the bed was huge. After being awake for nearly 24 hours, we slept like babies.
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