A lesson in Brazilian geography and efficiency (or lack thereof)

I don't know about you, but when I travel, I try to think about the worst possible thing that could happen to me. That way when something doesn't go according to plan, it's nowhere near as bad as what could've happened. Even with these precautions, nothing could have prepared me for this.

Let me tell you a little story...

About the most confusing fifteen hours of my entire life.

It started out like any other trip... A beer at the bar with Scott, discussing our trip to beautiful Rio de Janeiro. We were on different flights because, long story short, I had reserved the wrong dates originally, realized this too late, and had to go with a different airline in order to arrive at the same time in Rio.

So, after bidding Scott farewell, I excitedly boarded my flight. The time for our departure came and went, but I was unfazed, happily listening to my audiobook. Then the power in the plane went out, just for a second or two, but enough to get people concerned. And then it happened about five more times. Still no announcement. 

At this point it's been an hour.

I'm still not too concerned as I sit there because Scott's flight hasn't even taken off yet.

Then they make an announcement. In Portuguese. And I just keep hearing the word "problema." Then they make an announcement in English, but all the Brazilians were talking about it, so I got nothing. After that, all the announcements were only in Portuguese. So all I could do was guess at what was going on based on the reactions around me. 

Perk? At least Brazilians are expressive.

It was a unique combination of stressful and entertaining. As you can see from my texts...

From eavesdropping on Portuguese and English conversations, I was able to piece this information together: people had gotten scared that there was a mechanical problem, so they left the plane, which meant that their luggage had to be retrieved, which meant that we had to wait much longer. 

Consequently, due to TSA regulations, our current crew could not bring us to Rio de Janeiro. So we were gonna go somewhere else, and I had no idea where.

Three hours behind schedule, we took off. Breathing a sigh of relief (even though the destination was unknown), I settled in for a movie. Any qualms I had about the situation disappeared as I watched Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis fall in love on the set of Friends With Benefits. Besides the fact that the power of the TVs kept going out so that I had to keep restarting the movie, it was a very relaxing experience.

I actually ended up sleeping a lot, and was overjoyed to arrive in Brazil, but then there was an announcement and the whole airplane groaned... So I went back to sleep. 

Woke up an hour later: everyone was walking around the cabin… Sooo I went back to sleep... What else was I supposed to do?!

Then I picked up the fact that we had just gotten a new crew, and then I saw them all walk on - YAY! 

After several announcements (that I haven't even the slightest clue about), there came the most ominous announcement of all. I still don't know what the announcement was, but the response from the passengers was all I needed to hear. 

Shouts of anger took over the announcement. Chants were started. People were standing on seats, screaming at the top of their lungs. I thought the poor flight attendants weren't even going to make it out alive. As the Brazilians cried out for a good fifteen minutes, it was easy to pick out the other foreigners.

We were wide eyed, frantically trying to find someone who wasn't involved in the mutinous chant to tell us what the hell was going on.

I finally found a flight attendant... He didn't speak English. Then I found an American guy who said we had to disembark, go through customs and board another flight. I would've thought that this was a joke, but one look at the lady standing atop the chair behind me was all I needed to realize this was indeed the truth. 

It wasn’t until I got to the ticket counter that I found out where I was. Brasilia. 

To be 100% honest, when I first heard this, I thought it was Portuguese for “Brazil.” I know, I really need to study up on my South American geography. Turns out, we still had an hour and a half flight to Rio. 

Meanwhile Scott was in the Rio airport waiting at my gate with two coffees. Why? Because Rio had announced that we had arrived and landed at gate 2. 

This has been a long post, I KNOW. I’ll just cut to the chase: I made it to Rio (albeit 8 hours behind schedule), and have never, EVER been so happy to have reached my destination and to run into my dear friend’s arms.