This is surreal .... Brazil has everything to please: great climate, lovely and in many aspects unique scenery, friendly population (yeah, you know me, I'm talking about those sexy women scattered around everywhere, I think it's the climate, I've seen the same in South-East Asia, women dress very sexy - well, at least to me, a silly European).
BUT ... today I experienced again the total failure of their air traffic organisation.
It started good though, only half an hour to queue up at the TAM desk (where supposedly my tickets were waiting for me). I ended up with a kind young man who said nothing more than "they are checking for your ticket, sir" and left me to myself. After 15 minutes, a girl appeared and she managed to print me my e-ticket in less than 10 minutes ... after which I had to go to another counter (of course) to get my boarding pass.
I tried (and succeeded) e-boarding, so off I went, full of high experiences.
Alas, boarding gate was a 'general' gate, meaning everyone is directed to that gate, and then you wait for the announcement of your flight ...
What did you guess ???
My flight was not announced, until 5 minutes past official boarding time (I had been asking before, but of course, all flights are on time, lol).
"Boarding at gate 1C" ... so everyone downstairs to the gate ....
.... after 10 minutes, another message ...
"Boarding gate has changed to gate 5" ... everyone again one floor up to gate 5.
Finally we boarded one hour late. "Not too bad", I said to myself (having the recent experience in Rio in mind - see my other blog).
Approaching Belo Horizonte, the captain made an announcement (unilingual Portuguese, what did you think), from which I understood that there was a "small problem" on the landing strip, so the airport was "unavailable for landing", for the next 2 hours... I also understood there was a plane with a tyre problem, blocking the airport. Someone has to tell me how a plane that bust a tyre when landing, can keep an airport blocked for several hours. I think they just made that announcement not to create panic, but that something much more serious had happened ...
We circled around Belo Horizonte for half an hour ...
Then another announcement (again only in Portuguese, am I happy I understand it more or less because I know Spanish !!!) stating that we were heading for Campinas airport (that is almost back to our departure, São Paulo).
Well, what can one do when sitting in a plane? Right, nothing ....
Campinas was not a good destination for me, as I cannot fly to Vitoria (my next stop) from there, so I was already examining how to get back from Campinas to São Paulo (120km, good orads, so just over an hour drive).
Fortunately the plan was to refuel and finally leave to Belo Horizonte ... 5 hours later than foreseen.
Arrived in Campinas, refueled, some people got off the plane because the trip to Belo Horizonte didn't make any sense anymore for them, and after a little over two hours stop we took off again, direction Belo Horizonte (again).
No on-board service this time anymore (I guess we drank all the booze on the first leg, lol), and we did land in Belo Horizonte, 5 hours later than foreseen.
Fortunately the company car was still there to pick me up, and I had an exceptionally good and professional welcome at the hotel. There they told me that there had been a lot of confusion at the airport, so it must indeed have been much more than a busted tyre.
I seriously think of choosing another airline for flights inside Brasil (afterwards I heard that there was a serious problem during landing, so not a blown tyre as they told us, I still don't know the details).
Tomorrow I fly to Vitoria (again with TAM), I hope I just make it to there, lol. I have no ambition whatsoever to get there in time, just getting there would be an achievement.
And it's not all, the next day I fly back to São Paulo ... yes, with TAM again, haha
I'm sure you'll all want to know the rest of this interesting trip, lol. Don't worry, if I don't crash I will keep you updated, lmao
