Arrival in Brazil

     Traveling does not seem to get any easier. My friend Sanford drove me two hours to the airport in Boston. Then I went through all the lines and waited several hours for my first flight. Because it was a smaller plane we did not have priority. We spent more time on the ground than we did in the air. Landed in New york and took a long shuttle bus ride to a different terminal. Many people checked to see if my passport and visa were current. This plane to Sao Paulo, Brazil was supposed to leave at 10:45. We probably departed about midnight. The captain spoke periodically to give various reasons why we were not leaving. I became very thankful that I had almost three hours time between the end of this flight and the next one.
     I am too tall and large to fit into airline seats. I am like a sardine in a can. So there are advantages to being a smaller person. In theory one sleeps on an overnight flight and it seems that most of my fellow passengers succeeded. I did not. I was in a group of two seats. I had the aisle seat. The woman next to me asked if we could switch. I agreed to my detriment. At least with the aisle seat one has a little more room.  One other tip. Bring a little food with you because your eating times will be unknown.
    we landed in Sao Paulo, which is a larger airport than in Rio de Janeiro, the next largest city, although not nearly as big as a typical American airport. My Portuguese is limited as is the English of most airline employees but went through customs with no problems, finally found the right ticket counter, handed off my luggage, wandered around in search of the correct departure gate. Again, thankfully had enough of a layover.
    Brazilians are very friendly. The steward offered me a better seat, and asked if I wanted him to speak in English or Portuguese. The reality is that as soon as I open my mouth, even one or two words, they know I am not Brazilian. I almost lost my backpack but he got it for me.
   On the trip I spoke with a young Hispanic man named Marcos. His Portuguese was better than mine but slow enough for me to get the idea.  Landed in Vitoria about two-thirty in the afternoon, met my friends Vinci and Valeska, and then went straight to the dentist. They took many X-rays. finally we came to the house, had a meal, a little rest. In the evening went on a constitutional with Vinci, came home, took a shower and finally a good night's sleep.
     Today had my first Portuguese lesson. tomorrow we go to a different city.