Day 1 - 06-12-07

I'll put this in perspective right away. I'm updating this from a hammock on the balcony of my hotel room over looking the sea. Check photo from shiny new Lumix camera purchased at the Gatwick duty free shop.

Yesterday was generally painless. The flight was good considering it was a Thomson flight. It reminded me of the last Air Canada flight I took with the wee tiny screens, clearly well used seats and perky staff. I suppose considering that the staff could possible be getting a weeks holiday in brazil could explain the perkyness.

Our Thomson flight only flies on a Thursday. That means that either the staff are subjected to back to back 10 hours flights...or...they change staff and drop one for a week, load up last weeks and go home. I suppose the flight back with tell all by the magnitude of the tan lines on the returning flight crew.

Getting to the hotel was interesting as only two of the 10 or so people had booked the transport to the hotel (http://www.otempoeovento.com.br/ingles/index.htm). The driver who came for the people that booked phoned taxis for us. It was pretty good service considering the taxi was actually less (R34$) than the booked price of R35$.

We checked in, got our free welcome caprinha drink, and sat in the pool for a bit. After a few drinks we went 15 minutes down the beach and ate Mexican food which for me was jambalaya. I know this isn't Mexican but it was the only word in the bilingual menu I could understand. The menu was in two languages I don't know. I assume one was Portuguese and the other...Spanish? Suffice to say the food was excellent and the price even better. Restaurants beers are around 90p each. I haven't been to a market yet to see what they could possibly cost there.

I ended the night chatting to the Mixed team about stuff in general and the plans for the next few days. I think it's still up in the air for most people. We're all here for another day and a half at least and then the consensus seems to be to hit an area of Recife. Once that's agreed I'll detail the route.

Off to find food now to remove the mild hangover. We've got a plan to have a practice today around 4pm. Should be interesting.