Wednesday January 13th 2010

Clearly Brazil is not ready for me. When I arrived at the airport there were no carts for the luggage in thebaggage hall! What is a girl to do? Two large suitcases, wheelie briefcase , handbag, coat & sweater (certainly not needed) cannot be carried.


Fortunately there is a Duty Free shopping area in the baggage hall and on the basis that you absolutely have to stock up with goodies, they had supermarket style shopping carts. Not the same as luggage carts but better than nothing.

Other people seemed to have the same idea as me, but I must have been the trail blazer because as I tried to walk out, so a possee of security guys were clearly trying to tell me that I couldn't take the cart beyond the baggage area.

Well, as none of them spoke English and my Portuguese is limited to hello and thank you at this stage, we just talked over one another, getting louder all the time. Needless to say, they blinked first and gave up. Maybe it had something to do with the dozen or so other people coming behind me with shopping carts ladened with bags.

But as I came into the arrivals area, Marcelo my new best friend and driver was there to take charge and one look from him sent everyone out of the way.

Let me describe Marcelo. Probably around 5'7" with muscles that you wouldn't want to argue with and built like a bull terrier. He doesn't have the earpiece thingy but clearly has everything else. I wouldn't like to meet him on a dark night.

So, I very happily let him transfer said luggage to a regular cart and then he followed me out of arrivals hall and to the car park. I felt a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman where she comes back into the hotel carrying nothing more than a handbag with the bell boy following on behind weighed down with bags.

Now, the only question is am I a princess or duchess?