AIR JAMAICA FLIGHT SCHEDULE

August 15th The queue is How long?! Cuiaba to Rio Claro Lodge Pocone

We flew with TAM Lineas – A Brazilian airline and I have to say we were both impressed by the service – well for ?1000 per person flying economy you would expect good service would you not? That said, the in-flight entertainment was rather limited. We arrived on time in Sao Paolo early the next morning and had a three hour window to catch our onward connection to Cuiaba. Unfortunately with it being a domestic connection we needed to collect our bags and clear customs before proceeding to the gate. There were massive queues that seemed to snake back and forth through the airport and no help from the local authorities as we became somewhat anxious that we might miss our connection. I tried to remain calm, as Ian became increasingly panicky and we eventually got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare.

Our connecting flight stopped at Campo Grande before Cuiaba and its eventual destination of Brasilia. The flight took about four hours, but we gained another hour as we passed through another time-zone arriving on time at 11.15. On arrival at Cuiaba it took a while for our bags to be offloaded and we were beginning to wonder if they were on their way to Brasilia. We needn’t have worried, everything arrived safely.

I was so relieved and elated to see Julio, our guide waiting for us in arrivals that I gave him a big hug! After introducing Ian (I had made all the arrangements for the trip) we were on our way. We stopped at a local supermarket to pick up some essentials for the camping part of the tour. This consisted of a bottle of rum, a slab of beer and a slab of coke (oh and some food and plenty of water).

From Cuiaba we drove directly until we reached the Transpantaneira highway at which point we slowed considerably to enjoy the wildlife that gathers in the ditches either side of the raised road. We started to see a range of birds and mammals including a variety of egrets, storks and herons. A full bird list is presented at the end, but highlights on the first day included Solitary Tinamou, Red-legged Seriema, Jabiru, Roseate Spoonbills, Plumbeous Ibis, Buff-necked Ibis, Rufus-bellied Thrush and Rufescent Tiger Herons (first sightings of these common but impressive looking birds).

The flight tracker on the inflight entertainment system. A vast improvement over the old. Seen here is MH852 from DPS bound for KUL. The screens in the Business Class section are larger than those of the Economy onboard this new Malaysia Airlines 737-800.