Heading to Brazil 2025

   Almost two years ago Paul and I shook hands to seal our agreement that we were finished with international travel as we headed back home from Egypt. Now we are heading for the Manhattan airport to catch our first flight on our way to Brazil. Why did we break our no travel pact? Because Paul found a tour that basically guaranteed that we would see Jaguars. Well heck, the one big cat beside snow leopards that we have not seen. After a few hems and haws from me, the decision was made to go.

    Ah yes, the wonderful part of any trip is the journey to get there. Pure sarcasm on my part. Our flight from Manhattan is delayed by an hour. No problem since we have an eight-hour layover in Dallas. We make it to Dallas and after a few hours, passengers begin to line up to board the plane that will take us to Sao Paulo. Ten minutes before actual boarding time an announcement is made telling us our flight has been cancelled. I guess since the crew had not gotten on the plane yet should have been a clue something was wrong. The weather is fine so it must be a problem with the plane, no explanation is given for the cancellation.

   While we are standing in line for hotel vouchers, Paul is already reaching out to Exito, the people that booked our flights. A young man from Brazil happens to be standing next to us and he asks us about the hotel choices that have come up on his phone app. Paul checks his phone and he too has the hotel voucher on his app. We tell the young man that none of the choices are great, but we will go with La Quinta over Motel 6 and Super 8. Ed goes with our decision for his hotel choice too. We also get meal vouchers you can use at the airport worth twelve dollars which makes our new acquaintance laugh saying you might be able to buy a cup of coffee for that amount. Ed gets on his phone and connects with the hotel who has a shuttle in route to pick us and other passengers up. Paul continues to work with Exito and now has a representative from the tour company making suggestions too. We have more confusion as we cannot find the shuttle once it announces it has arrived but Ed who is conversing with the driver realizes we need to go down one level.

   On the way to the hotel, Paul continues to correspond via What’s App, with Abigal our tour operator and Exito. We make it to the hotel, and before going to our room we make plans with Ed to catch the same shuttle in the morning back to the airport.

   I take my glasses off when we get to the room and hear something hit the floor. For crying out loud, one of my lenses fell out. Well, this is why you bring an extra pair. By the time I am ready for bed Paul and the people helping him have booked us on a later flight to Cuiaba that will still allow us to catch our private flight to Port Jofre with the rest of our group. I forgot that if our flight had not been cancelled, we would have been spending the night in Cuiaba before taking the final flight to Porte Jofre.

   I wake up early to find Paul on the phone again chatting with our tour and flight coordinators. Guess what? Our departure time was moved back in the middle of the night so a new set of plans must be made! Upon hearing what it entails I tell Paul maybe we should just go home. Paul considers this but decides we should try to follow through. I reluctantly agree. The new plan is that we will get to Sao Paulo in the wee hours of the morning, spend about three hours in an airport hotel, catch our Cuiaba flight, then be transported by a private driver and a guide to Porte Jofre. We darn well better see a jaguar!                      

    After eating a typical hotel breakfast, we join Ed and other passengers on the shuttle that takes us back to the Dallas airport. Our flight is delayed this morning due to heavy rain, but we do get off the ground around noon. Ed has joined us while we wait to board the plane. At one point he needs to go see if he can get his connecting flight to Cuiaba straightened out and asks if we will watch his carry-on luggage. Of course we will. When Ed comes back, he gives us a big box of Lindt mini-candy bars. We protest that we should be treating him for all his help. How kind is that?

    Paul and I opted for Premium Economy and boy is it worth it. We have two seats on the right side of the plane and our friend Ed is on the left side. Glad we were not in the middle where there are three seats. We arrive in Sao Paulo at 1:30 in the morning but our checked bag which is packed with trail cameras for the people that run the Jaguar Identification Project does not show up. There are several passengers who have luggage that does not come on the carousel. A young woman comes up to me and asks if our bag is a duffle. Yes, it is. She tells us that they found their duffle bag in the lost luggage area. Someone told them that the baggage handlers do not put them on the conveyer belt since they tend to fall off. I walk over to lost luggage and sure enough our duffle bag is sitting there. Thank goodness for that thoughtful person to let us know or we might have never found it.

   Guess who has been waiting for us all this time while we were looking for our luggage? Our guardian angel Ed. He and another Brazilian who works for American Airlines, walk us to our hotel which is in another terminal. Along the way Ed tells us where we will have to check our luggage in and points out the gate where our flight leaves from in the morning. A good thing they escorted us as we would never have found this hotel that is tucked away in a corner of the airport and at this time of morning there is hardly anyone around to help you. After our personal escorts make sure we have a room they leave to go to the other airport hotel. We enter our room at three in the morning. The first thing I do is hit the shower before laying down in hopes of a little sleep.

   We are up at 5:30 and out of the small room by six o’clock. It is a good thing as we walk into a mad house. People are everywhere. We go to the area where we think we need to check in our duffle bag, but Paul cannot get the woman who is standing at the entrance of the aisle to pay any attention to him. People keep pushing in front of him but eventually he gets confirmation on where to go. After getting the bag checked in, we proceed to our gate. Paul has the tickets on his phone, and he gets through just fine. He gives me the phone and for some reason my ticket is refused. The women running the gate will not let Paul back out and she points and tells me to go over there. Over where? I am freaking out that I may have to go back to the check-in area but Paul sees the line she is talking about and walks down to show me where it is.  I join lots of other passengers whose ticket codes were also rejected. I get through this check point with no trouble. Obviously, a rejected code is not unusual.

  Once inside we find the gate where we will be boarding and Paul goes off to buy himself a sprite. After sitting there awhile I am astonished to look up and see Ed. He tells me he wanted to make sure we found our gate. Paul shows up and we visit with Ed until it is time to line up to for boarding. I still find the kindness of this young man unbelievable. I will add that on our last trip to Brazil almost 20 years ago, our connecting flight out of Sao Paulo was cancelled. As we were talking about what we should do (no cell phones then) a young man came up to us and asked if we were the Miller’s. It turns out he was our guide, so he took over and solved our problem! What are the odds?

    We boarded our flight on time, but we are not sitting together, guess we were lucky they had 2 seats left on this flight. Once we reach Cuiaba, our duffle bag shows up, our guide, Zainia, is waiting for us and she takes us to the vehicle where Reece, the driver, packs up our luggage. Reece drives us to a barbeque restaurant where the waiters bring all kinds of meat to your table and slice off what you want at your table. You go through a buffet for the side dishes. I do not eat much but what I have is excellent. Paul tries small pieces of just about all the meat except the fish.

   We take off on our four-hour drive with most of the road trip on the Transpantaneira highway which is a very rough dirt road with around a hundred or so bridges. The last time we were here they were all wooden, but many have been replaced with modern bridges. These are small bridges. We see cayman, lots of birds, horses, cattle, and a few deer on our drive while we listen to Zainia tell us about what we are seeing along the way and some of her experiences as a guide.

Once we reach Port Jofre, we wait 20 minutes for our guide Fred to come pick us up in the speed boat. We see a hyacinth macaw plus other birds while we are waiting. The other six members of the group are also in the boat. We say thank you to Zainia and Reece then get on the speed boat. The boat driver takes us to the river boat where we will spend the next six nights. I assume that Paul and I will get off with our luggage but Fred says no, we are going with them to explore a river channel. We meet the group, a couple from Colorado, two more couples from South Africa but one of those couples are from India who moved to South Africa. The three men and the woman from Colorado have cameras with unbelievably long lenses on them!

    We see birds everywhere and Fred knows every one of them. No jaguars but we do have a gorgeous sunset. Paul and I are exhausted but we enjoy the excellent evening meal and find Fred very personable and knowledgeable. We visit with the other people in the group a bit but excuse ourselves early to go to bed as we are exhausted!