“I’ve never sailed the Amazon, I’ve never reached Brazil;
But the Don and Magdalena, they can go there when they will!”
Rudyard Kipling
Actually, I already was in Brazil in 2008, though in a different part of the country – the south. Now it was time for northern Brazil. The flight from Colorado involved a rather roundabout route. At first, everything seemed simple and straightforward: I would have two layovers – one in Florida and the second in Brazil, in the city of Belém. From there, it was a short flight across the Amazon to the city of Macapá, and I had arrived. Then, the Brazilian airline, Azul Air, replaced the direct flight from Florida to Belém with a route via São Paulo. Apparently, the direct flight hadn’t sold enough tickets to be profitable, so the airline shuffled me onto a more popular route instead.
I looked at the map and was horrified. I would be flying across the entire country from north to south for 4 hours, sitting in São Paulo for another 4 hours between the flights, then flying those same 4 hours back north arriving in Belém at 1:30 a.m. It was frustrating, but I could not afford to lose this ticket, so I flew anyway.
I was boarding the plane in Florida and an airline employee spotted me at the back of the line. She asked how old I was. When she learned just how ancient I am, she ushered me to the line for passengers with disabilities or small children. For the subsequent flights, I bypassed the line entirely, and people respectfully let me through. Oh no, do I really look that bad?!!
I arrived safely in Macapá. Azul Air has excellent planes and good service; every flight was right on schedule. I slept on the plane and even stopped holding a grudge against the airline for the extra half-day of travel.
Our group got together on the following morning. There were seven of us (five men and two women). Our guide spoke English quite well and translated from Portuguese for us. We spent time getting to know the city; it turned out, unexpectedly, that Macapá has plenty to offer.
First of all, the city is located right on the equator. Macapá’s stadium is famous for having one of its halves in the Southern Hemisphere and the other, naturally, in the Northern Hemisphere.
Macapá has two very good local history museums and a botanical garden featuring native plants.
