flying down to rio

Or at least São Paulo.

Most vacations begin with what is now one of the most dreaded of all experiences -- a long airplane ride. I seriously thought of skipping the first day and a half of my journey to Brazil. After all, what can I say that has not been said recently about air travel?

Cramped seats. No food. Long layovers. It is certainly not what I remember of flying when I was young -- when everyone dressed in their Sunday best. Of course, only a small percentage of the population could afford to fly -- and then only as an occasional luxury. But we go on remembering a past that existed -- for the most part -- only in yellowing magazine ads.

I will admit that I still enjoy one of the pleasures of long-range flying. A number of the airline club rooms still retain showers -- the Delta lounge in Atlanta being one of the nicest.

Flying is now little more than penance to be paid for a fun vacation.

The São Paulo airport is like most any other international airport. But it seems small for a city that advertises itself as the second largest city in the world. As we flew in, it was easy to imagine that the claim is correct. São Paulo literally spreads over hundreds of square miles.

But São Paulo was not the destination. It is inland and cruise ships have great difficulty on land. So, off we went on a two hour bus ride to the port city of Santos and our waiting ship.

Let me pause for a moment and give you a bit of overview -- because two facts are going to pop up recurringly in my tale of this two-week cruise. The first involves the passenger population. With the exception of two cruises, every cruise I have ever been on has had a majority population of Americans or Canadians. As a result, most cruises are about as exotic as a trip to Omaha or Calgary -- even if the ports are exotic. This cruise was different. At least 80% of the passengers were Brazilian or Portuguese -- and very few spoke English. Brazilian culture is not American/Canadian culture.

The second fact is that I had already met most of the Americans and Canadians on line through the Cruise Critic message board. Just as bloggers form communities, users of cruise message boards get to know one another up to a year before a cruise.

I knew I was in a new culture when the boarding process began. In Miami or Los Angeles, we all line up like northern European robots and wait our turns to board ships. The Brazilians see little need for this peculiar delay. (Those of us who have spent time in Mexico realize that the behavior is not limited to Brazil.) As a result, the line became three lines, then nine, then a scene resembling extras ion an Irwin Allen film. Later in the cruise, I asked one of my new Brazilian friends about the lack of forming lines. Her response was an engaging laugh. "Why line up when we are all going to end up in the same place?" I chuckled to myself because that was my response to why shove and push. It really is a matter of perspective.

But she was correct. We all got on board and were ensconced in our rooms for a quick nap.

On this trip, I was travelling with a friend from work, his wife, his sister, and her boyfriend. We headed to dinner to meet our dining mates from the cruise. It turned out, they were all travelling together, as well: a single woman from Maryland, her brother, his partner, and a retired work friend of hers. From the first night, we all hit it off. We were to be a very good trivia team.

Next stop: Rio de Janeiro.