The Flight Fiasco

We went to the airport to verify our return trip when we got into Natal. At that time we were told that Varig changed the time of their flights to New York and the only way we could get home on time and meet our connections was if we left a day early from Natal. That meant that we would have to travel for 3 days to get home with two 12 hour lay-overs. Yuck! So after much work by the Varig employees they were able to find a flight home that would work. Not only that, but, we would get home in the middle of the day on Wednesday instead of late evening. The new flights would be with Varig and United instead of Varig and Delta. Instead of flying into New York we would fly into Washington D.C. It was overall a good change because we got to be in Rio for 7 hours instead of New York for 12 hours.

Even so, this is how our trip went. It was a little crazy.

5 am - leave hotel
6:30 am leave Natal fly 31 minutes to Recife get off plane, get on different plane,
8 am - leave Recife to fly to Rio De Janeiro
11 am - 6:30 pm - hang out in Rio (see Rio Post)
7 pm - leave from Rio to Sao Paulo. Get off plane, get back on plane
8 pm - leave Sao Paulo for D.C. fly 11 hours
7 am - get off plane, go through customs get bags, check bags back in, run to next plane
8 am - barely catch flight to Seattle, pull into Seattle 11:30 am

Whew! 1 pm - Try to catch breath, we are finally home.

There were more than a few times that we were commenting that this must be what it is like to be on the "Amazing Race."