South American Adventure - Day One - Thursday 20th February 2014

A first this morning – the taxi arrived and we were ready!  7am departure for the trip to Heathrow and I was packed and ready to go.  I must admit that my heart sunk a bit when we passed our house again five minutes later (the driver turned the wrong way onto the A14 – the job he had yesterday said that was the quickest way).  After this small false start, we started again – the driver said he had only been doing the job a couple of months and was still learning.  Hmm – good job we knew the way, as he did ask a couple of times “is this the right turn?”.  “What time is the flight?” asks Paul.  “12.20” I reply.  “Should have got an overnight hotel at the airport” says Paul “Traffic on the M25 is going to be murder at this time of day.”  Let’s look on the bright side then!  I got a new phone contract a couple of months ago, and it came with a “free” Deezer app – gives one the ability to download music to the phone.  I had dutifully done so – and now decided to plug Il Divo into my ears and hope that we didn’t sit on the M25 for over four hours and miss the flight!

We arrived at Terminal 5 for our British Airways flight to Rio de Janeiro at 9.30am – just over two hours from home, and two wonderful albums later.  I could get used to plugging in and forgetting the rest of the world!  A quick check in as ever at Terminal 5, it really is the best terminal I have ever flown in or out of.  Straight into the business class lounge for breakfast (thank you, once again, Avios for the complimentary flights) and a chill out before our twelve hour flight.  We took off a few minutes late, but who is counting when you are plied with champagne –Taittinger at that!  British Airways now allow kindles to be kept on during take off and landing – such a difference.  There is nothing more annoying than having to switch off a good book for twenty minutes just in case Jeffrey Archer interferes with the aircraft’s systems.  How likely is that going to be??

A really smooth flight, some good food and wines, and caught up with, amongst others, Sunshine on Leith that I missed when it was in the cinema.  What a lovely film – and very uplifting.  Paul slept (or not, so he says) most of the way.  We were soon beginning the descent into Rio, arriving there at 9pm – three hours behind UK time.  For once, the arrival form was really easy to fill in, and we were soon in the short queue for immigration and getting our bags, which were already on the carousel when we came through.  I had prebooked a transfer, and there he was just outside the customs hall.  Excellent!  We took a short walk to a lovely air conditioned car – the temperature in Rio was 27 degrees.  It was around thirty minutes to get to the JW Marriott on Copacabana Beach – we are only here this time around for twelve hours in total.  Long story – but needless to say Avios had something to do with it!  But, the driver spoke very good English and we had a commentary of where we were and what we were passing all the way to the hotel.  “The way that the traffic is going tonight is not the same as the way that it will be going in the morning” so he says.  It gets changed depending on the amount of traffic.  Is that thinking outside the box – or just trying to stop tourists hiring cars! At least we will know something of the layout of Rio for when we come back in three and a bit weeks time.  It was pitch dark, but saw the stature of Christ lit up high on the hill, and passed the shanty towns and then into the city and on to the beach.  The moon was hanging in the sky just above the horizon – beautiful.  The beach bars were buzzing – but we were not, so straight to the room and sleep.  Good job we were only here for one overnight – the room had an “atrium view”.  I am not a lover of rooms overlooking the interior of the hotel, but as we had an early morning call and then out, so the curtains didn’t actually get drawn back.