Off to Curitiba

Before leaving for South America, I was told by several people to expect flight delays, cancellations and that nothing runs on time down here. We arrived at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport with plenty of time before our flight. The check-in line was extremely long and the departure boards showed that practically every flight on TAM, the airline we were flying, was delayed. What was even worse was that every flight to Curitiba before ours was also delayed. Not a good sign. We checked-in, got our boarding passes and made our way through "security". Things were not as strict in terms of security at this airport. We didn't have to pull out our clear plastic bags of liquids or even the net book. We didn't find out until it was just before boarding time that the flight was going to be delayed. Thankfully someone in the waiting area spoke English and told us the flight was going to be delayed because the announcement was only in Portuguese. We were delayed by about 45 minutes, but I have to say that when the new scheduled departure time came, things ran smoothly and very efficiently. We boarded a bus that took us to the plane. Our flight was about 40 minutes and during this short flight, we had in-flight service consisting of a warm sandwich and beverage. The flight attendants were very efficient and the one that served our row was also very formal, serving me first. I was sandwiched between Ziad and another guy. Airlines in North America could really take a few lessons from the service provided.

We landed in Curitiba, got our luggage which was quite quick this time around and hopped on the airport transport bus to downtown Curitiba. It was dark, rainy and a little on the late side and now it was time to search for our accommodations. My next new experience is our accommodations...we're staying in a hostel which is a first for me. Luckily Ziad is aware of my apprehension of staying in places where I might not feel overly safe and so this hostel is according to him an "upper-end" hostel. We decided it might be fun to take the long way around to the hostel in the dark, rainy night and after checking our city map a few times realized we overshot the street by a few blocks and had to back track a little. No big deal, a 26 lbs backpack is not that uncomfortable.