The day I almost sank in the Amazon

It was not really the Amazon River. I was in Manaus, and the Amazon River is quite a distance from there. The Negro River, almost as large, is the one near the city.

There is a great hue difference between both rivers. The Amazon has a yellow color, while the Negro River is black, thus the name.

This little episode has taken place about 30 years ago.

I was working for the Brazilian Tourist Board at the time, and that was my first official trip. I was supposed to visit three cities, Manaus, Santarem and Belem, to meet with local officials and learn more about the area. At the time, the Brazilian government was very enthused about the touristic potential of the region. I cannot really say much progress has been done, three decades down the line. It is a tough area do promote, in spite of its attractions, especially to American public who love comfort.

Two people accompanied me, who worked for the Public Relations firm that represented Embratur at the time. One of them was the account manager, the other his young female assistant.

One of the first things we did was take a boat tour of the tributaries nearby the Tropical Hotel. We did not venture too far, but I will tell you, I felt like my days were numbered that day.

It so happens that the account manager was a huge guy, very tall, with an expansive girth, and the vessel chosen to transport us was a very flimsy boat, albeit equipped with a motor.

When my heavyset companion entered the glorified canoe, the thing almost capsized in a big way, and I was already inside it. The black waters were menacing, to say the least, the prospective of finding a hungry piranha in that sea of blackness was not at all pleasing. I must give you a detail I am not proud of - at the time, I swam as well as a ton of lead.

The little boat behaved itself sufficiently, and I did not have an early infarct.

Notwithstanding, I was already concocting some type of excuse, in case I had another fluvial adventure ahead of me.

Cabs in different cities

Whenever I travel to Europe, I love taking cabs. They are mostly very new vehicles, the drivers mostly pleasant and accommodating. Sure, some of the cars are not that large, but then again, I drive a Mini-Cooper.

In Paris, the variety of brands used as cabs is astounding. I have seen Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Mercedes, BMW, Opel, VW, Volvo, Fiat, Skoda, Honda, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Chrysler cabs, all clean, in pristine condition. In other words, cars from France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Czech Republic.

In England, they have their own brand of London cabs, all very nice, a treat in their own. And more than spacious. Italy, Belgium, Holland, pretty much the same.

Even Brazil, which until second notice is not a First World country, has a fleet of spanking new cabs in Sao Paulo, and other cities.

I live in Miami. Previously, I lived in New York. These are two cities where buying a medallion, or tax license, requires hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The price is obviously boosted by fine folks who bought quite a few of such licenses when they were cheap, and now, accumulate more and more of them, raising the price to the roof.

One would expect that since the license costs so much, the vehicles and drivers would be top notch. Think again.


Normally, the Chevrolets and Fords that comprise the Miami fleet, are very old, dirty and smelly cabs, with myriad noises. Adding insult to injury, a lot of the drivers, especially the Haitians, mistreat passengers. The license owners seem to milk dry both the vehicles and drivers until there is nothing left.

When I lived in New York, it was much the same state of affairs.

I don't know what to make of this. Obviously, cab users will continue to "enjoy" these vehicles for a very long time, and paying outrageous prices on the trot.

Delta to Rome from Miami - a bad idea

Got nothing against Delta. I have flown the airline a few times, without a hitch.

The problem is the flight to Rome, from Miami, is operated by Alitalia.

I remembered reading that Alitalia almost went belly up last year. However, given that American's connections to Italy, from Miami, were kinda weird, we decided to fly Delta - that is, Alitalia.

I knew all along it would be Alitalia equipment and crew. I could not imagine it would be as bad as it turned out to be. The plane, both ways, was and old 767. It was somewhat dirty inside, the seats had uncomfortable cushions, some of the earphone connections did not work. The food ranged from bad to terrible (let me add little), even non alcoholic beverages were served sparingly, onboard service was slow and indifferent. The bathrooms did not feel clean. The overhead luggage compartment was small. In other words, not what you what expect from a world class airline.

The real problem, however, was that on the way to Italy, the flight was almost 6 hours late, because "there was no plane". The very nice ground attendant was very apologetic, checked us in early anywhay for the flight that had been moved to 10 PM from a 4:10 PM departure. Then she gave us a piece of paper, mentioning compensation and $12 meal vouchers.

After perambulating around Miami International for almost six hours, I noticed a lot of people walking around with the same paper in their hands, some gesticulating, many of them going to talk to the Alitalia personnel at the podium. I decided to read, and found it said that flights over 3 hours late entitled travelers to compensation.



I warranted this was worth further probing, for it talked about 600 Euros a pop. Sure enough, the girl at the counter said we were entitled to compensation, and that I should contact Alitalia two days after the flight.

I decided not to bother with this during the trip, and contacted the airline upon returning to the USA. As a response, I got an email from Alitalia that said that the flight was late for "technical reasons", thus, we were not entitled to compensation.

I ask this question, which I believe is reasonable. Why did Alitalia give us the papers to begin with? If their policy is not to give compensation for "technical reasons", and supposedly they knew technical reasons prevented them from boarding us on time that day, why give a piece of paper that told us otherwise? It simply makes no sense.

Honestly, if I were not given the piece of paper, I would have not asked anything. I would have gotten over the fact the flight was late long ago, for the stay in Italy was superb. Because I was given the paper, I asked, and now am an upset customer.

This rubs off on Delta. American carriers now advertise tons of destinations they really do not fly into. For instance, in Miami, American advertises daily non-stop service to Madrid, but service is really provided by Iberia. The so-called code sharing might be a nice marketing exercise that expands your destination coverage without requiring equipment, assets and workers, when it works well. When it does not, it just creates bad will between the travelling public and the airline.

That is why I will think twice before I book another Delta flight ever. It simply rubbed off badly on them.

Hop-on, hop-off bus touring in Europe

Touring major cities in Europe in hop-of, hop-off buses is truly a great experience that can let you experience a lot of the cities day-by-day, without spending huge chunks on money on cabs. Although subways and trams are usually inexpensive, leading to the major places of touristic interest, the hop-on, hop-off buses generally have stops in major places of interest as well.

One thing to consider is that in most cities there is more than one operator of such companies. THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME, and in fact, some of them do not offer a good return for the money. We took a green hop-on, hop-off in Rome, and it turned out to be a dud. That particular company makes very few stops to be worthwhile, and the personnel was not very friendly at all.

On the other hand, such tours in Paris, London and Florence were a delight.

In Amsterdam, however, the best option is taking a hop-on, hop-off boat, given the city is surrounded by canals. This gives you a very different perspective indeed, and it is very enjoyable.