Welcome to the Jungle

Well, I made it to Brazil yesterday. Belem, Brazil to be exact. When we first parked the airplane, we dealt with all the people we had to deal with... except the important one who was serving as our "concierge." So what happened? Well, we basically ended up in the police station at the airport, on what seemed to be the verge of getting arrested. Rob and I were staring at each other as the officers made phone calls and what not. Finally, I spoke up and mentioned "Lider Aviation," which were our "handlers" (a concierge of sorts- someone who handles all the legal paperwork). He made another phone call and it seemed to be in the clear. We're in!

We got our permission to stay in Brazil (for those who don't know, you need a visa to enter Brazil). As pilots, we were given five days int he country. Anyway, it took a couple of hours to handle the whole mess. It didn't help that our "concierge" spoke broken English and very limited Spanish...


So far, here's what I've learned about Brazil:
- Very few people speak anything other than Portuguese
- The cool part of the Amazon lies in the West side of Brazil
- They really don't like people without a visa
- The people are really nice and tipping isn't customary
- Bugs really like to bite
- There are some humid areas and some dry-heat areas
- The toilets flush the other way!
- Not all the girls have a big booty
- Portunol is a mix between Portuguese and Spanish (similar to Spanglish)
- They love their soccer (but we already knew that)

The flight to Brazil was very long, and we ended up diverting a couple of times for some massive thunderstorms. Apparently, Belem is known for having very strong storms. Yippy! In the end, we made it to the ground alright, but after it was all said and down, a massive storm hit the airport. I had never heard such strong rain falling. It was definitely a cool thing to witness. Everyone there was so nonchalant about it.

We get to our hotel and you definitely know you're not in Kansas anymore. The humidity is the worst I've every experienced. The bugs enjoy the smell/sight of new blood... and the hotel had a couple of interesting, colorful birds that seemed to be the norm around these neck of the woods. I take a stroll around the streets and see what the city can offer. No one speaks English here... and they barely understand Spanish. So trying to purchase some snacks for our trip seemed humorous to the cashier at the small drug store I found.

We rest up and get up at 5:30am, shower, and head to the airport. It takes a couple of hours to pay the landing fees and files the flight plans. I also had to wait for the currency exchange place to open (I really needed local currency- i.e., "reals"). The wait gave us time to eat breakfast. It's funny, we never plan to eat, we just eat when we can. It just happens to be right before a flight and immediately after a flight. This flying stuff really takes a beating on you.

We finally takeoff around close to 9am. I was a bit disappointed, thinking I would see more of the Amazon, but it all looked like the Midwest or Central California. Eh! We dodge a couple of convective weather and then it all looks clear. Phew! Thank goodness! I normally like flying through clouds and what not, but the weather out here seems to be on crack or something, cause every time we entered a cloud it seemed to be more violent than what I'm used to.

Five hours after takeoff we finally land in Palmas, Brazil. This was only suppose to be a fuel stop, but it last well over an hour cause one of their systems was down. In the U.S., everything is free for pilots, but over here we have to pay fees and taxes just for landing at an airport... this is what took forever Thankfully the guy helping me out actually spoke Spanish quite well (compared to the rest of the Brazilians). We fuel up and takeoff for Brasilia, Brazil. It was a normal 3 hour flight, but we were getting very tired. Rob slept for a good 45 minutes.. I got bored, so I decided to wake him up a la 0 g's. I dropped the airplane rapidly and made him float while he slept. Surprisingly, it didn't wake him up instantly! I found it pretty entertaining.

Well, here we are in Brasilia, Brazil. Spending the night at the airport. This FBO (where we park the airplanes) has rooms that they rent out to pilots. It's actually quite nice. Plus, it's cool having the airplane just 50 meters away (yes, I started using the metric system, ugh!).

Rob is leaving tomorrow. He's heading home. This leaves me alone for the last day of flying. Another long and arduous day; 2 legs, 8 hours total. Should be a pretty tough workload, but I just can't wait to get it all done already. Almost there... almost there...