We touched down in São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport shortly after 5am. It was raining heavily outside and completely dark. We had already been issued seats in row 14 B/C on our connecting flight once we landed, but we did still have to get there. Latam’s own website wouldn’t allow the booking that we were doing as standbys because they felt the connection was too tight, but we aren’t normal people. Immigration wasn’t too bad. There was a lot of walking involved after that to get to the domestic terminal. Despite the walking, a temperamental Latam app, and our general grogginess, we made it to gate 256 with time to spare.
Our next flight would take us to Cuiabá, a launching point into the Pantanal. About 15 seconds after takeoff, the people in front of us violently reclined. I hope the heat of a thousand suns burns their rectums. We also shared the flight with a band called Malta. They took up several overhead bins with their guitars. We know they were in the band because they wore hats, jackets, and t-shirts that had the name of the band all over them which we found a little desperate. Based on pictures online, the lead singer was across the aisle from us, in economy. He too reclined pretty quickly after takeoff which seemed to fit with his whole personality. The internet has compared his sound to Nickelback, which is just the worst.
We did some head bobbing throughout the two hour flight — only partially succumbing to finite amounts of sleep. We had booked a hotel near the airport so we could just rest today. Unfortunately, it was 9am and check-in wasn’t until 2pm. We were informed that the room was ready, but if we wanted to go to it, we’d have to pay another full day’s rate. Nicole and I both thought that was insane, so we camped out in the lobby and a lounge area instead. Call me crazy, but maybe hotels should give out rooms on a 24 hour basis. It just seems like maybe a better look to not have 20 people trying to check in all at once while others are splayed out in the lobby. 1 star.
Eventually a loud group of elder Americans made themselves known (as they are oft known to do), disturbing our already fitful napping. Their rooms were conveniently available, so we decided to follow suit. Now by this point, the Amazon Aeroporto hotel had already well earned its one star downgrade, but getting a room that was possibly still occupied or not cleaned kind of sealed the deal. I feel I must apologize for the general terribleness of this post, but all we wanted to do was have a recovery day. We didn’t ask for much, but wow did this hotel really fail on all fronts.
The highlight of the otherwise mediocre day was heading across the street to a shopping center and grabbing some food at a Brazilian fast-food called Giraffas. They specialize in comfort food. I got a plate of beans and rice and chicken with fried manioc. The real draw, however, was that they inexplicably had a promotion tied in with Back to the Future, a movie that came out more than 40 years ago. I got Nicole a little Marty McFly figurine that will surely make her the talk of the town when she has that on display. We spent the rest of the evening around the hotel grounds. Nicole battled sleep for as long as she could whilst I battled customer service for Azul Airlines. Support in Brazil is . . .quite poor. All we are trying to do is get a frequent flyer number for Azul so we can check our bags for free, but their website is full of errors and bugs. And on that note, tomorrow we being our real adventure into the bush and may see some bugs of our own. I think we are both excited to get out of Cuiabá.
passports & pepto bismol 