The Maverick Tribe

It was a long night of traveling.  My itinerary to Brazil was supposed to go San Francisco - Los Angeles - Lima, Peru - São Paulo, but it ended up being San Francisco - Los Angeles - Lima - Santiago, Chile - São Paulo.  It´s funny how these South American airlines work.  You see, my flight INTO Lima was scheduled to land at 12:30 am, while my flight OUT of Lima was scheduled to depart at 12:25 am.  Now, I´m a pretty experienced traveller and a pretty fast runner, but not even I am able to make a connection in negative five minutes.  Perhaps someday someone will explain to me how this is possible - perhaps it has something to do with being below the equator.  (I still have so much to learn about this culture!)

Anyway, I realized this discrepancy at some point flying 33,000 feet above the Pacific coast of Panama, and eventually had to get rerouted through Santiago.  All in all, from SFO to touchdown at São Paulo Gaurulhos airport, it was about a 24 hour trip.  Luckily, I have Chris and his friend Julia in Brazil who were able to accomodate to my schedule change and meet me at the airport.  Chris and I are staying in Mogi das Cruzes, which is where Chris and Julia teach English.  They helped me settle in to the hotel, and last night I was already a guest star in one of Chris´ classes.  Here´s a picture of Chris and Julia: