Friday, August 14, 2009

Vacations in Brazil pt. 1

AOG, Praia de Forte, Brazil

After much arguing, discussing and just plain ignoring the issue, my partner and I finally got our acts together and decided to leave Spain for a few days and go on vacation somewhere. The problem all along had been the destination.

Greece? Turkey? Rome? Mexico? Russia? Southeast Asia?

Other?

It was mostly other for a long time. My partner was not feeling too well after a bout of pneumonia and was dreading a long flight. I, on the other hand, wanted somewhere not too hot.

For days we perused, combed and searched the internet in the hope that we would find a good offer. Never mind that we had the added handicap of having to leave preferably from Barcelona, but that most flights left from Madrid. It was like an episode of Designing Women (minus the designer budget); the travel Gods were against us.

Finally we decided to go to a travel agent in search of inspiration. The first one we went to was a complete disaster. Lack of interest.

He kept shaking his head and making negative sounds. Tsk tsk...

Honestly, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. It looked more like he was doing us a favour than his job. I really dislike people like that.

We gave it one last try and went to see another travel agent.

Success!

After suggesting Santorini, Istanbul and Lybia, the magic question: have you considered the tropics? Instantly we said yes, thinking about Cuba or Puerto Rico, even Jamaica.

Imagine our surprise when the travel agent lady suggested Brazil!

"A new offer has just entered the system. The flight leaves tomorrow at 3pm from Madrid. Seven days in a 5 star resort one hour from Bahia", she said.



We looked at each other slightly in disbelief.

How could we say no? We would take the high speed train to Madrid at 7:30 the next day; make a quick stopover at my place, then rush to the airport.

As luck would have it, we arrived with a couple of hours to spare. Things were looking up.

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