I’m writing on Friday Dec 7, 2007 off the coast of Brazil. Slight rain, bit of overcast. Sea calm.

Up at 5 a.m. to catch the 5:30 shuttle, so we could be at the airport 2 hours before flight time. At that hour there were no crowds and we cleared the “anti-terrorist” screenings quickly. On the other hand we were sleepy, and going to remain so well into the trip.

We flew SF-Atlanta on Delta. When they say domestic airlines have cut back on services they are not kidding. This was a 4 hour flight with no meal. They served drinks and crackers, so it wasn’t like we had nothing to sustain us. Still, pretty tacky. Seats not so bad, I’m told there is about 4” more space between the seats on Delta than on some other airlines. They showed a movie and from my seat parts of it were visible. Got some sleep.

We laid over in Atlanta for several hours. The airport is laid out as a series of individual buildings parallel to each other with an underground rail system connecting them. That was fun. At the gate for the Rio flight I found a wall plug and did some computing while I charged the Mac for the flight (during which I never used it),

I don’t sleep well on airplanes, and the flight to Rio was 9 hours plus some time-zone losses. For the second half of the journey we were flying over the Amazon basin, but there was heavy cloud cover so we didn’t see it. Brazil’s size had not struck home to me until this flight. Much of the country is uncivilized, I gather, and it makes me wonder when I hear statistics about the population. I’m not sure they even know the population of the Amazon tribes. Maybe they don’t ever know all of the tribes.

Eventually as we neared Rio I could see bits of the landscape. It was a confused mix of hills, similar to California, but covered in green. A building every so often, and sometimes a road. We landed at the Rio International Airport, sleepy, but it was morning

It was not clear from the literature that Orient Lines sent us concerning our voyage on the Marco Polo whether they would pick us up at the airport or not. I met a couple on the airplane while waiting for the bathroom to become available, and they were wondering too. We didn’t really know where the ship was, and none of us had enough Brazillian Portugese to find out..

I had been working with a little 3” CD called “All the Brazillian You Need to Know to Travel” which teaches about 25 words. So I could say “I don’t understand” and “Where is the bathroom”, “Hello”, “Thanks”, and “Excuse me” but I didn’t see how this knowledge would get me to the Marco Polo with my 5 suitcases.

On the airplane they handed out customs forms to fill out. One interesting question was: “Are you bringing currency with a value of 10,000 reals, or more?” I had a little over $1000 with me. A doctor sitting behind us was from Brazil and she thought the rate was 10 Reals to the dollar. So I just wrote on the form that I had $1036 in U.S. currency. And what about drugs? Mary Alice had a box full of prescription drugs with her. Were we importing drugs? She checked yes, because the stewardess thought that would be the best answer. “They’ll take you into the basement and straighten it out” she said. That was comforting.

In the event Brazil wasn’t interested in the forms. They had some nice young women, dressed like normal people (i.e. not in uniform) who read over the forms while we waited in the line for passport checks, and made sure all the spaces were filled in. The passport clerk looked bored, stamped the passports, and then we handed our forms to a guy who did not look at them. He tossed them onto a pile and said “Welcome”. We were in Brazil.

At at conveyor 8 it seemed likely that our luggage was too. Mary Alice stood in the luggage check line while I went to find the bags. One showed up quickly but then we hit a dry spell. I noticed some guys pulling bags off and piling them by the conveyor. After a while (sleepy me) I noticed there was no system to it – they were not getting all the bags for a tour group, they were just clearing the conveyor. So I started going through the piles and, bingo! There were the rest of our bags. The bag check line was long but I don’t recall that anyone actually looked at the bags, and then suddenly we were in a lobby with a money exchange (the rate was 1.67 to the dollar) and I changed $40, acutely aware that changing it back would be difficult. There were taxi desks and a bus service desk, then around a corner the gauntlet of meeters, where only a rope separated the arrivers from those come to greet them. The rope was the point of no return. Pass it and you could not go back.

People on the other side were holding signs with people’s names on them, or company names. None said Marco Polo or Orient lines. To quote the great Lobeshesky, “What, we going to do?” The ship literature clearly said no check in until 3 p.m. The clocks clearly said it was 9 a.m. If we took a cab to the pier, assuming we could determine which pier it was, then it would be 9:30 a.m. and we’d be sitting on all our luggage until the ship would receive us at 3 p.m. Possessions can be a burden, it seems.

Then Marco Polo people began accumulating in the lobby. Then one says “Aha” in a Russian accent. He thought we should get on the bus, with all our luggage, and ride to the end of the line, then ride back, and get off at the pier. This would be cheap, we’d see some of the city,and we’d kill some time. It was the only idea going, and we decided to do it. The group of us crossed the rope with luggage piled on carts, and a guard said he would show us the place to wait for the bus. We were just turning to follow him when suddenly up popped several people with Orient Lines signs. A bit late, I thought. Just in the niche of time, really.

They put on on their busses, drove us around town with a narrated tour, lunch at the Sheraton, which killed some time, then took us right to the boat. Registration was quick, we were cleared to get on board, and “Welcome to the Marco Polo” I went to my cabin and took a nap.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper. We have experienced a series of breakdowns on this trip everywhere from the SF Hilton to the Airport wi-fi. Nowhere is everything working. Especially likely to not be working are connections to the internet. After spending about 15 minutes fighting thru the T-Mobile Day Pass purchase system at the airport, I got the Technical Difficulties page. There were no technical difficulties until it came to the part of the form where they had to do something – i.e. give me web access. So no internet at the Hilton, or the Good Nite Inn, nor the SF airport just now. Not even a phone at the Good Nite. Enough stuff works for us to carry on – the motels had beds, the shuttle came to the motel and took us to the airport, The lights are on. But just the same, I feel perhaps, as a civilization, we’ve created just a bit more stuff than we can maintain. What will happen to all this stuff if the US has a recession. All the landscaping plants will die, the public spaces will fill up with litter from fast-food joints, and we’ll all be sleeping under the freeways.

Other than that, we got up at 5 a.m., and were on the 5:40 shuttle, and found almost no one at the airport. Very short lines, very short waits, even security clearance took practically no time. So at 6;15 a.m. we are sitting in the Delta gate waiting area, with an 8:10 flight. That’s ok, I prefer sitting here to arriving later and spending a longer time standing in line.

We’ve done away with actual tickets. I don’t know about you but it makes me nervious to go to the airport without a real ticket. I’m relying on the electronic system to remember that I bought a ticket. Or, in this case, that the travel agent in Texas bought me a ticket. See paragraph 1 above for justification of nerviousness. On the other hand, I can’t lose an electronic ticket, and this time they didn’t lose it either. We even got waived over to the 1st class check in counter. So that’s good, now lets see if our luggage gets to Rio at the same time we do.

It was raining this morning in South San Francisco. A nice, plentiful, steady rain falling straight down – no wind to disturb the airplanes, I hope. Our luggage all rolls, and Mary Alice knew how to piggy-back one bag on another. We actually got a main bag with a piggy backer and a 3rd bag piggy-backing on that. Get the handle at the right angle and about 75 pounds of stuff came along with no effort. I was pulling it by one finger at times, just for the hell of it. We almost got a $3 cart for the bags but Mary Alice had no dollars so we just rushed through the rain. It was better that way.

Now I’m sitting on the floor by the counter for Gate 48, where there is a wall plug. It’s nice that they have these plugs, but it would be better if there were more, and those closer to the seats. Ah, always dreaming of the future. A minute ago we were sleeping under the abandoned freeways, now we are sitting comfortably in airport lounge chairs with our laptops plugged in to the chair outlet and the internet wi-fi working. Sun face, moon face.

7 am. Time to give T-mobile another try. No go, still broken.

Its the oddest thing. T-mobile is broken, but I'm on the internet. Go figure



Here are some homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk by the Hilton. I'm in Atlanta and got some time to upload the picture.

Up in the morning at the Hilton, late, and luxurious. Checked out, parking at the Hilton, $51.00. How's that for one day? Did I mention that the internet did not work? There is no wi-fi at the Hilton, and the ethernet device would not plug in. I liked the room alot but if I can get wi-fi at the Townhouse in Eureka, why can't I at least get ethernet at the Hilton in San Francisco?

Parked in the 5th and Mission garage and went off shopping and photo taking (sorry, none to post, see later in this post. Ritz Camera had extra camera batteries, and rain protection for my camera, Apple Store had 102 languages for $30 including Brazillian and Spanish. Spent much of the afternoon following Mary Alice around the Union Square stores. Some great stuff there including about 1 million women's handbags. Bought nothing. thai Noodle lunch, ummmm good. Got Dim Sum to go for dinner and after about 1 hour trying to get to the 14th and Market Safeway got some good Australian Syraz to go with it.

We stay at the Good Nite Inn in South Sf near the airport when we fly out because they have a deal where you rent a room on either end of a trip and park your car with them inbetween. Things are not going well at the GNI, however. Our room had no pillows on the bed, the internet didn't work (shades of the Hilton) and the phone went dead. Its hard to recommend this motel, and I don't.

Up at 5 am tomorrow, shuttle at 5:38 for an 8am flight to Atlanta, change for Rio. I'[ll be in touch again as soon as I can, but it may be after we get on the ship. Sleep tight.

Monday, December 3, 2007

San Francisco. It is possible to fly from Arcada to SF, so in theory we could have booked the flights for the trip rom there – but for Alderpillians, how much sense does that make? It’s a 2 hour drive to the Arcata airport, the baggage will have one more chance to go off on its own tour of the world instead of ours, and the connection is sufficiently uncertain that we might either miss the flights to Rio, or, on the return, arrive exhausted only to find that the last leg of our return home was fogged-out and we’d have to spend the night here with way too much luggage to handle.

So we drove to San Francisco a couple of days early. For one thing my tailor’s 40 day US tour was having its last day in SF on Dec 2, before he returned to Hong Kong. I say “my tailor” but as you may guess from his schedule I am sharing him with thousands of other people. Princeton Tailors in Hong Kong made two suits for me in 2005, and they are the best fitting clothes I have ever owned. After over 8 years of court appearances it is getting to be time to retire one of my older law suits (just a little legal humor there, folks) and replace it. So we met my tailor at the Hilton.
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When I first encountered Princeton Tailors in Hong Kong I was really jet-lagged from the SF-Hong Kong flight, and being thus befuddled could not choose between two cloth samples for my suit. So I ordered one of each. This time I was relaxed and well rested, and I only ordered one suit. And two shirts. And an extra pair of pants. And a sports coat with slacks. I wasn’t jet lagged, I was a responsible adult making intelligent decisions. The clothes will be here in late January, so look for me in court. I’ll be the only lawyer in a well-fitted suit. Possibly the only one of the boomer lawyers who can button the top button of his shirt.

The Hilton seems to stand on the border between the new city and the old. To the north San Francisco is made up of old block buildings, many of which are short enough to predate elevators. There are a few sky scrapers but they too seem to be from the old days.
From the Cityscape Bar on the 40th floor you can look north or south. And to the south is modern San Fransisco. Some of the buildings have decorative lights, outlining them. Its not Hong Kong, but its an attractive sight for a nightcap.

Christmas has come to San Francisco already. Macy’s has a huge tree in Union Square. How do I know this? A friend treated Mary Alice and I to a nice hotel and a great meal last night, and we walked back from the restaurant to the hotel enjoying the glittering sights.

The restaurant was Aqua, a nice place with upscale food and a fixed price menu. I liked it immediately because the staff was friendly and attentive, and the room interesting to see. We had lunch at a corner deli on Van Ness because I saw a parking space there. I was so excited that I cut across 3 lanes of traffic (no vehicles harmed in the making of this maneuver) to park in it. Then, to my astonishment, the meter said “Free Parking”. We walked up to T-Mobile to see about a Portuguese or Spanish speaking chip for the phone, but were told we could get those in South America more cheaply, then to the deli. A soccer game was on the TV, with announcers who sounded exactly like they were announcing a football game, except the color announcer had a strong Scots accent. I had a BLT and a coke, and it was delicious. We were the only ones in the place and we ate at the counter looking out on the street so we could watch traffic. Foot traffic was the most interesting. More than 1/2 the people were talking on cell phones. Older men tended not to have their hands to their ears, but all the young people did.

But back to Aqua. Its seafood. Its varied. And its delicious. You get one appetizer, one entrée, and later, from a separate menu, one dessert. I had frog legs for starters. With a bacon sauce. They were small, and tasted like rattlesnake. Really good. I don’t know what my main course was. It was called John Dory, if that helps. This restaurant features pile-up service, like the Carter House. So the fish was atop the sunchoke risotto with whatever else under it, and some green sauce in little blobs on the plate. It was incredibly good.

One flaw, I felt, was that the dishes get a sauce. But you don’t put it on. The waiter puts it on. And while he puts it on he talks to you about what the dish is and what the sauce is, and that gets to be a bit much. Perhaps connoisseurs like it, I don’t.

Dessert was ok, but its difficult to get something if you don’t eat chocolate. Did I mention the excellent red wines? All together it was one of the finest meals of my life. What a treat. If you are going abroad a recommend having a friend treat you to a first class dinner.

The walk back was perfect, too. The night was the right temperature for walking, and the streets largely deserted. San Francisco’s Tenderloin can get a bit strange at night, but it wasn’t so for us. Union Square was interesting, Macy’s gets top credits, for the store lighting as well as the tree they sponsored. It was a bit more filled out than you would expect and we peered through the branches, around the Christmas ornaments,which were huge to preserve scale, and saw the structures holding the extra branches. That was intresting, but not reductive of the scene’s pleasure.

Walgreen’s was downtown urban. High shelves jammed with stuff, everything over $10 locked up to prevent shoplifting losses, tiny asiles and unsmiling. We found an associate, and got what we wanted. The Gap was poorly laid out, but after some problems we found some jeans. A smart trick they have is that their size labels are smaller than their clothing sizes, so I was once again able to comfortably fit into jeans with a 36 waist. After I bought my new shir9t and got it to the hotel Mary Alice informed me about something called “ease” which z you buy shirts a bit larger than you are. So we ‘re exchanging the shirt today.(No chance, when we got there after about a 15 minute wait to get a clerk at the register it turned out their last L shirt sold, so I got a refund but no shirt)

Its difficult to find a point at which home and business affairs cease and the vacation begins. We packed (well,Mary Alice mostly packed while I straightened out a few legal matters which were hanging) all day. Then it was time to say farewell to Bruce and Kim and Montgomery, who live on the ranch, the dog,the cats....but when we drove off we had a bank deposit with us and some paid bills to mail in Garberville. Then we'd be on vacation. Only two of the didn't have stamps, so we had to take them to the Best Western in Ukiah and beg two stamps from the desk clerk. Then we'd be on vacation. It seemed to work, so at 11;00 p.m. Dec 1, 2007 in Ukiah, California, we finally finished all the home business and the vacation began. Nitey night everyone.