17TH - 25TH OCTOBER

We arrived in Sao Paulo a little tired and drained after what had seemed like an epic flight. Again the only option for us was an overnight flight, not our favourite but we didn’t have much choice so what can you do? After leaving a very wild and windy New York and hitting some turbulence we settled down and were hoping for a smooth ride the rest of the way! Fairly soon after our meal the cabin lights were dimmed and we were hoping to get a fair few hours of undisturbed sleep. We were just nodding off when we hit yet more turbulence so we guessed we’d reached the tropics! The fasten your seatbelts sign came on and stayed on for what seemed like a very long time. It was the worst turbulence either of us has ever experienced and in fact it was rather scary. The plane was shaking around all over the place (bearing in mind it was a pretty big aeroplane) then at one point it just seemed to drop a good few feet, aeroplane plane disaster movies springing to mind left right and

centre! Rob had the route map on his screen and said that the plane had rather quickly changed course, so we guessed that the pilot was trying to get out of the turbulence or storm - it was hurricane season in the tropics after all! Thankfully not long after changing course we seemed to leave the turbulence behind with big sighs of relief from all passengers. Phew disaster movie over or so we thought! Not long after settling our nerves and making another attempt at sleep the cabin lights were dimmed again and everything seemed fine.

Again we were both just drifting off when the lights in the cabin came on again and there was a rather urgent sounding voice on the intercom asking if there was a doctor on board! Oh no disaster movie two we thought! The next minute first aid equipment was being sought and a very grey looking old lady being helped out of her seat and laid down on the floor. Again a