31 August 2010

REPOST - but this time with a photo

Got some funny feedback on this post (it's one of my all-time favorites), so I decided to dig into the archives and re-post it in it's entirety here, and also add a photo that captures the overall excellence of the experience.

Photo was taken after I got back from traveling all day. to nowhere. I'm waiting for the cab to take me back to a hotel, where I will sleep for about 2 hours and get up and do it again. In the rundown below, it's between steps 9 and 10.

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gave up urban for the sticks - humid times in Foz de Iguacu


writing to you now from a janky internet connection in the city of Foz de Iguacu. it is in brazil.
new place = new faces and new keyboard. we are all portugese all the time now, so maybe i~ll get used to it. the apostrophe key has swapped with the tilde. so that~s sweet.
here~s a brief rundown of the last 24 hours.
  1. wrap up my last night in BA with my new international friends. we stay out late. i get up early to check out and go to the airport.
  2. i go to the wrong airport.
  3. i pay for another taxi and go to the right airport.
  4. i don~t have a ticket because they canceled my flight.
  5. they re-book my ticket. i get on the plane.
  6. plane hits weather in planned destination. re-routed to nearby airport. after 2.5 hours in the air, we land, disembark.
  7. wait 3 hours in airport so small it feels like we stopped by someone~s house unexepectedly, only to find they have stepped away. but it is an airport.
  8. We fly back to Bs. As. why not? no explanation is offered.
  9. as soon as we land, they tell us they will fly us back to our orig destination if we wish. i say, yeah, lets do it. get my ticket, splash some water on my face, use the bathroom, and the plane LEAVES WITHOUT ME. on the ticket it said it would leave at 1030, it leaves a HALF AN HOUR EARLY. i had no issues throughout the day, but i got very angry at this point. its now midnight. i~ve been doing airport song and dance for 12 hours, and i~m no closer to my destination than i was at the start. i did get to visit posada international airport. i don~t recommend it.
  10. i get a hotel room in BA, but i don~t get there until 1. my wake up call for my early flight is at 5. i get to airport on time, but my morning flight is 2.5 hours late. so i catch some z~s on the bench.
  11. board plane, fly, land in FdI. OUTSTANDING! i need a map. i ask the aggressive tour booking guys if they have any maps. just the one on their desk. of course. so i ask the rental car companies if they have any maps. surely avis provides their customers with a map when the rent them a car? how else would they know WHERE THE HELL THEY ARE GOING? sorry, Avis says. no maps. That was good for a laugh, anyway. thanks, avis. way to try harder and lie to my face.  i ask the hertz guy, he apologizes, says he has only a photocopy, will that do? i say fine thanks, i~ll take it. so he gives it to me. then he says, i forgot we had brochures too. here you go. and he gives me 4 brochures with maps in them. for free. literally, un regalo, a gift. restoring my faith in the human race one good deed at a time. it lasts exactly 12 minutes, which is how long it takes for the cab driver to try and give me the shaft.
  12. cabbie works overtime trying to sell me on a hostel he gets a kickback from. i say, great. i~m going to the hostel i told you about. you might remember it because ITS IN BRAZIL, and the hostel you are trying to sell me on IS IN ARGENTINA. this goes on for about 12 minutes. i say no thank you. no thank you. etc. so the asshole ignores every word i~ve said and tries to pull into the parking lot of the hostel he is selling me. we had a tense moment in the car when i alerted him to the fact that i did not appreciate his sales strategy. and i finally made it.
more info on rural brazil, waterfalls, and the effect of loss of sleep on one's disposition in tomorrows issue. im off to shower so i don~t hit a new pb on the INOASq. [Ed. 'In Need Of A Shower quotient']

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That concludes a record number of posts for one month. I had a lot of nothing very much to say.
Thanks for reading.

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