Trip
Report:
- First
Silver run to south America
- Late
departure from New York meant arrival in Rio too late for connecting
flight to Brasilia
- Managed
to get a seat on local flight to Brasilia
- An
hour and a half into the flight I saw a big city, asked the stewardess if
that was Brasilia and she said yes. (Found out later that was the extent
of her English.)
- Off
the plane and into the terminal with six bags, cursing the fact that my
“meet” wasn’t there
- Waited
around, no meet, no driver. Went to the taxi rank and after about 5 mins
found a driver who spoke English. Asked him to take me to the Canadian
Embassy
- He
said no, too far
- Saw
a sign which read “Welcome to Belo Horizonte” – said some choice
words
- Back
to the VASP counter, explained how stupid the stewardess had been as I
watched the airplane leave for Brasilia
- Got
a flight for much later in the day – sat down to wait
- At
approximately noon, four or five well armed non-English speaking men
showed up with guns at the ready. Showed them passport etc. Didn’t
impress them much
- Moved
to airport managers office where I was served beautiful lunch and much
booze
- Mid
afternoon, back on plane and off to Brasilia
- Meanwhile
– Glen Matthews was having some fun with the new Admin Officer in
Brasilia == Coin I think his name was.. When I wasn’t on the plane
Glen’s advice to the new guy was obviously I had been kidnapped. Alarm
bells were rung and the search was on which explained the guys with the
guns in Belo….
- Fact
that I was obviously enjoying the delay didn’t impress Coin
- Both
Glen and I went to Coin's for a very quick dinner and out
I
am sure you will agree that the error was the stewardess…can’t possibly
compare with WDG's nude hotel running or mirror talking.
