6/2/2008

OK, summary of Brazil trip. Part 1 - trip down. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, some flying, more waiting. Arrival in Florinopolis after some 56 hours and more waiting for bags. Lessons learned: book multiple legs as one itenerary and all airlines pretty much suck. There is nothing interesting after 18 hours in one airport or another. NEVER BOOK TRAVEL THROUGH ENDURANCE SPORTS TRAVEL! They were ok for the hotel and shuttle stuff, but they really hung us out to dry on the trip down. See Susie's blog for some specifics of the issues. Got in 2 short swims in the ocean and wet suit, so that was good for me.

Part 2 - sherpa race report. Swim nightmare, wondering why swimmers were going right when 2nd bouy was left. MyKaren looking like hell after the first leg, everyone taking longer than expected. Bike seemed ok, nice cheering house on course. Run took forever, it seemed. Everyone looked great in their skirts!

Part 3 - after race report. Did a "canopy tour" which really means, high ropes course. We had fun (all 10 of us) and it was funny to see IronStuds looking a little out of their element. Monday's celebration dinner was at a Brazilian steak house and food was fine. Brazilian beer is horrible. What a dissappointment. Tuesday was post-race party blowout. Unplanned. Much fun and frolicking ensued and several white butts were seen running into the surf for dip, skinny style around 11 pm. While the Brazilian beer is horrible, their national drink is pretty much a knockout punch, but it tastes good. No one lost any teeth or woke up with any black eyes, but it was quite a night. 5 of us also went on a trek on Wednesday to an older fishing village, it was a nice walk and the scenery was pretty. 8 of us left that night for Iguazu Falls. Actually arrived there relatively on time! Falls were pretty, but it got kind of cold, guess I'll be wishing for cold soon. We went to both the Brazil and Argentina sides of the falls, toured a bird sanctuary (well, it was actually a bird zoo), and ate at another steak house (I should be able to spell the stupid actual name, but I am lazy and don't feel like looking it up) which had a cultural show of all the South American cultures. Interesting to say the least. Understood very little of the show, in more ways than just the introductions. But it was fun...HA HA HA.

Part 3 - departure. For all the trouble it takes to get into Brazil, with the visas, and airline crap, they also make it hard to leave. Original flight out of Iguazu Falls was late, so our connection at Sao Paulo was missed and we had to spend another night. Of course, this meant that we missed our American Airline flight from Miami to Richmond. Here we went again. No one would help us, the only flight we could get on American would be on Monday, they could get us to Raliegh but the connection was tight, and it was going to cost several hundred $ more per person (this, after updgraded tickets down to Brazil so we could get there, 2 more nights in a hotel, transportation costs for airport shuttle, etc) and we'd have to drive at 1 am back to Richmond. GAAARRF! So, we get ended up booking flights on JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale and flew back yesterday.

Obrigada TAM, American Airlines, Endurance Sports Travel for NOTHING!

Back home now and ready for some yummy training!