Flights and arrival

To describe the last 48 hours as hectic would be an understatement - delayed flights, lost bags followed by delayed bags just to name a few.

Flights:
Supringingly all the flights went pretty smoothly despite delays from the get-go. Our longest lay-over of 4 hours in Sao Paulo evaporated after arriving at the TAM check in to see a lenghty line and absolutely no order to it. After consulting the staff regarding the time, we were told to "relax - this is Brazil". Little comfort considering check in closed in around 25 minutes. As it turns out we made the flight with ease as it was delayed by 30 minutes. Oh well "this is Brazil"!

Bags:
Our luck turned to mud after arriving at Salvador. Despite our miraculous run thus far the carousel ran dry with no bags in sight. Our new relaxed Brazillian spirit vanished as the staff provided no answers. Basically this is a common occurence and our case was no more important that the other 6 on our flight. "9am tomorrow. They'll be here and we'll call you". Too easy. No phone call. Attempts to call them were met with an engaged tone, after all, lost baggage is part of the package with Brazillian air travel. Taking action into our own hands we travelled out to the airport again to sort it out. "They'll be here at 7pm". Excellent, only a 2 hour wait! 7.30 came around and Nick's bag appeared with mine nowhere to be seen. More questons received more empty answers. "The other bag will be here at midnight". Yeah, sure it will. Midnight came around - no bag. After conversations, translations and phone calls, there was no explaination. Great! After searching around the arrival terminal Nick managed to find it on a trolley behind a hoarding. It had so many destination tags we're convinced it went to 'El Salvador' rather than 'Salvador'. The only items missing from each were sunnies - dodgey baggage handlers must have decided to take a service fee for the inconvenience we caused. Oh well, back in business now.