“Holy shit, it’s so fucking cold in Canada!”

“Holy shit, I forgot how hot it is in the Nordeste!”

Feng and I share our “flying north” experience on Skype. I’m in Natal, 3,000 kilometres north of São Paulo. He’s back home in Ottawa with Mark. Feng rarely complains about the cold, so it must be really cold. He also had a hell of a trip—Canada didn’t welcome them back with open arms, but another PCR test upon arrival.

“We have to quarantine until we get the results back.”

“I’m shocked they managed to test all the passengers, considering everyone is boarding double vaxxed and with a negative test… and that it’s apparently almost impossible to get tested in Canada if you have symptoms right now. Will you get the results tomorrow?”

“… It’s going to take a week. At least.”

I burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous!”

I’ll spare you the whole story, but landing in Canada was a very frustrating and nonsensical experience—“Ah, ah, your fault, you should have stayed home!”

“So, did you make it to Natal?”

I did. I mean, I flew to Natal, it’s not like I hiked across the country, but the entire travel day was a bit stressful because it was all about timing.

I was leaving from Congonhas, the downtown airport with the scary runways, so an easy taxi ride from the hotel. The check-in process with LATAM was also straightforward. In fact, the airport was so busy that it took about one minute—leave the bag, grab your boarding pass, have an oitimo (“awesome”) flight.

Then I started to stress out at the gate because everything had to go smoothly. I was leaving at 1:15 p.m. and arriving at 4:25 p.m. The airport is far from the city, so add another 30 or 40 minutes to get to Ponta Negra, Natal’s most popular neighbourhood. Sunset is early in the Nordeste, it’s dark by 6 p.m. So I had to hope the Airbnb was fine and that I would have the time to rush to the supermarket to buy essentials, and Ponta Negra isn’t very walkable. I could make it if my flight was on time—and not cancelled, many flights have been cancelled due to Omicron spread—and if the Airbnb check-in process was smooth.

Lucky me, everything went as planned. Flight on time, great Airbnb, supermarket open, and groceries bought for dinner.

I’m still in Brazil, but it feels like I’m in another country.