Brazil getting there 7th April 2012

Brazil No1 getting there

Leaving on the 7th April on LAN airlines 10-45am

We were wrong/ the times were changed to 9-45 am on the Thursday we only found it by accident as we tried to book in on line

We notified the shuttle but he could not find it on the airline scheduled so our times for pick up was the same then we found out we are not flying LAN but Qantas .

Booking in at 7-30am we find that Vic and I are not even seated together he is in seat53 G and I was in row 70B at the back of the plane.It is a 747/400and the plane is full to capacity no seats to swap so we are separated for the 14hour flight to Santiago.

Bruno and Nina are seated together .

We are sitting in our allocated seats waiting to take off,the Captain states that we are to heavy to take off, as he has got the weights from Hong Kong ?.

Qantas then off loads some cargo and we take off about 10-45am.

It is a non stop flight to Santiago,I found that Qantas is old and tired the hosties and Stewart's are beyond their prime.Must have been over 400 people and of course the toilets were chock a block, I never took my shoes off ;-)

The plane makes up time and we arrive in Santiago on time, after a 3hour wait for our next connection, we board a TAM airlines to Sao Paulo which is another 4hour flight.we are seated together and fed an watered and drop of to a light sleep.This plane is also chockablock

Arriving at Sao Paulo we get to the customs hall and shuttled around like cattle

Very nicely though it takes about 1 hour to clear customs and immigration,and we are greeted on the outside by Renato and his brother Renaldo.

Renato is the owner and guide for Brazil on Bikes, he tells us that he has a full compliment and the tour is full to overflowing, so he has made two private tours us Australians on one and the Asians on the other so there will not be a back up truck, and we can carry all our gear in the new panniers that he as just purchased.

The drive took about 1/2hour to get to the hotel but we are driven in a "gangsters  " type van  with black tinted windows with a hired driver .

We arrive at the Heritage hotel in down town Sao Paulo,we are so jet lagged that we don't even make ourselves known to Erica who is also on this tour, we have a shower and collapse into bed at 8-30pm.

This is still April 7