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I spent a week with the wife and el kiddo visiting my folks. Very nice overall, wonderful warm weather and plenty to do. It was also an eventful week in Brazil: the Panamerican games were/are going on in Rio (not that anyone in US would know, it is barely a blip in the American Press), the longtime political boss of Bahia died, and a plane crashed in São Paulo killing about 200+ people.

Busy week indeed On my way back South I had the "privilege" of experiencing some of the so called "chaos" that has been plaguing air travel in Brazil for at least a year. Ostensibly the latter increase in the difficulties originated from the crash mentioned above. The plane couldn’t stop and some wonder if the recently reopened runway is at fault. The investigations are going to take a while, but we  know beforehand that the runway alone cannot possibly be the single cause, given the dozens of take-offs and landings throughout the day up to minutes or seconds before the crash! The blame has to be at least partly with the plane and/or pilot.

Anyway, I had a connection flight in Guarulhos (the other major airport in São Paulo) and the next flight was delayed. After pointing the passengers to wait in the wrong gate, twice!, we finally boarded with a 6 hour delay. The cause for the delay was never explained to us on the ground. What was picturesque and somewhat disturbing was what served as apologies from the pilot once we took off. He didn’t blame the weather, or the fact that the other airport was closed, or just "I don’t know". You see, for him the problem was higher up and his company had nothing to do with it. The "chief", that is the President of Brazil was the culprit!!! He even accused the government of being corrupt.

I am all for freedom of expression, but in this case I found myself very unnerved. First, the company obviously didn’t do a good job even considering the conditions. For example, our baggage didn’t come with us in the plane. In fact, I only received it today, four days later. This can’t possibly be Lula’s fault. In addition, a company whose owner is all over the news because of  extremely shady negotiations with a senator and ex-governor of the federal district involving a 3 million reais check cannot possibly  point out corruption from others with a straight face. Finally, how is one supposed to respond to the pilot? His position of authority on air makes it very hard and even unwise to attempt any answer.

Thanks for the very pleasing (for me) week, I didn’t get stressed  over the whole thing. (nor did all but a couple of the passengers) I am back, it is cold, and I already miss Salvador…