[Rhodes22-list] Biggest Party In The World

Mon Feb 7 05:25:06 EST 2005

PT,

It would have been about 1995-96 or so.  I was based
in NYC from 92-94 and we had a Europe based B-727
operation (now Airbus) but nothing in South America. 
Since 97 I've been on the DC-10, all domestic except
for maybe one trip a year to Campanis, Brazil (near
Sao Paulo).  When I was in my late 20's and early
30's, flying international was exciting.  Now its just
a pain in the ass.  Since 9/11 things have only gotten
worse.

Brad

--- Peter Thorn <pthorn at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> Very interesting storey about Caracas.  Did that
> happen that in Spring of
> 2002 during the attempted Hugo Chavez coup?  It
> appears you made a very
> timely departure.
> 
> PT
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com>
> To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list"
> <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 7:06 AM
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Biggest Party In The
> World
> 
> 
> > Slim,
> >
> > Thanks, you've given me the excuse to buy that
> > motorized mini-dish antenna I want.  We have
> Direct-TV
> > and DSL, (I friggin hate Time-Warner and every
> other
> > cable company), and a fixed dish pointed to CCTV
> > 4(Beijing TV).  The CCTV box can pickup broadcasts
> > from all over the world but right now its fixed on
> > just the one satellite.  On my farm I had one of
> those
> > "mother-of-all-dishes" set-ups but they're not
> allowed
> > in my subdivision.  Is yours a full size system or
> a
> > mini-dish?  Movable or fixed?
> >
> > My one and only trip to Rio was not a pleasant
> > experience but that wasn't Rio's fault.  I had
> > ruptured a disc in my back about two weeks prior
> but
> > didn't know it.  I came out of the water on a
> slalom
> > ski and it felt like someone stabbed me in the
> back.
> > Some liquid pain-killer out of the cooler got me
> > through the rest of the day.  The next day I was
> in
> > intense pain so I went to a "doc-in-the-box" and
> he
> > said I pulled a muscle and gave me muscle relaxers
> and
> > pain pills.  This Rio trip was coming up and I
> really
> > wanted to fly it so I quit the drugs and flew the
> > trip.  We spent 48 hours in Manaus, on the Amazon,
> on
> > the way down and some of the extra-curricular
> > activites there only agravated the back situation.
>  By
> > the time we got to Rio all I could do was sit in a
> > chaise lounge at the hotel pool, order beer, and
> drool
> > over the view and eye candy walking down Ipenema
> > Beach.  When we got back to Miami my crewmembers
> > literaly had to carry me off the airplane.  I
> spent
> > two days in MIA recovering to the point that I
> could
> > non-rev home.  They replaced me with a crew-member
> > thatthe company flew down on one of the corporate
> > jets.  When I got home and had an MRI my L4-L5 was
> > ruptured and I had surgery.  Haven't made it to
> Rio
> > since.
> >
> > The second missed approach at a Carnival
> experience
> > was in Caracus, Venuzala.  We stopped in San Juan
> and
> > they had the 727-200 fully loaded with fuel.  "Why
> so
> > much fuel for this leg"?  Global Operations
> Command
> > (GOC)explained (they didn't mention a word of it
> when
> > I left home) that the air-traffic controllers were
> on
> > strike in Venuzala and they weren't sure we'd be
> > cleared to land.  We got there and the military
> was
> > running the control tower.  Everything seemed
> normal;
> > shitty as usual.  We spent the day lying by the
> pool
> > overlooking the gulf but separated from the locals
> by
> > a chain-link fence.  The local kids sell Polar
> beer to
> > hotel guests in tomato-juice sized cans for a
> quarter.
> > The cans are small so they will fit through the
> holes
> > in the fence.  That night we escaped the compound
> for
> > some local flavor.  I got back to my room about
> 2am
> > and was just about to fall asleep when the phone
> rang.
> >  It was GOC explaining that the company had
> suspended
> > operations to Venuzala and they thought United and
> > American would the next day.  We had reservations
> on
> > an American flight in 5 hours and were told to get
> out
> > of the country while we still could.  The second
> > officer said, "it's Carnival week!  Let's get
> stuck
> > here".  The F/O and I had trips coming up and felt
> we
> > wouldn't get paid if we didn't follow the plan. 
> We
> > had no ground transportation because it was an ad
> hoc
> > dead-head so I tried to call back to the "brain
> trust"
> > to schedule something on the 1-800 number.  I got
> the
> > phone menu, press 1 for this, 2 for that, and just
> > stared at the rotary dial phone.  We bummed a ride
> > from an American crew at the hotel and checked in
> for
> > the flight.  The ticket agent said "this is
> Carnival
> > week, this flight has been sold out for months". 
> "No
> > mam, we're positive space, look up the agreement".
>  "I
> > don't know nothing about any agreement, I just
> know
> > you're not going on this flight".  So we left the
> > country 6 hours later and "celebrated" Carnival at
> the
> > airport terminal.  When we checked in for the
> second
> > flight and checked the bags, the agent said, "I
> don't
> > understand, you're going to Nashville, he's going
> to
> > Kansas City, and he's going to Chicago, all on the
> > same reservation, this doesn't make sense" 
> "Forget
> > about it lady, we're all going to Miami, we'll
> take
> > care of it from there".
> >
> > Oh well, some day before I die I'll really make
> > Carnival.
> >
> > Brad Haslett
> > "CoraShen"
> >
> > --- Steve Alm <salm at mn.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > > The biggest party/music festival in the world is
> > > going on right now in
> > > Brazil--Carnival!  It goes on for a full week,
> 24/7
> > > and culminates in a
> > > frenzied finale on Tuesday--Fat Tuesday-- the
> day
> > > before Ash Wednesday and
> > > the beginning of Lent.  We have a satellite dish
> and
> > > we get the Brazilian
> > > broadcast station, Globo.  They've been showing
> the
> > > parades from all across
> > > Brazil and these are the most over-the-top
> > > productions I could ever imagine.
> > > They make the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade look
> like a
> > > high school homecoming!
> > > Maybe someone more internet-savvy than me can
> come
> > > up with some sites that
> > > show live feeds or streaming video.
> > >
> > > The parades are a competition and a sequence of
> > > "samba schools" as in
> > > "school of fish" for the way they swim through
> the
> > > streets. They're
> > > developed and rehearsed back in the vast favelas
> > > (slums) and comprise
> > > thousands of people in each one.  They have a
> > > specific underlying theme and
> > > one song that prevails in the whole school
> > > accompanied by hundreds of
> > > drummers and dancers.  It can take up to an hour
> for
> 
=== message truncated ===

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