This is hardly the most important part of this thread, but since you brought it up...
On ALL 8 of my recent flights from BOS-GRU and back we got the big dishes of warmed nuts. I got so many nuts I made myself sick!
And more important, every one of my flights was on time and the (many) connections were painless.
One glitch that anyone going to Brazil should know about, however. If you overnight in Lima (and leave the airport) you will need a Yellow Fever vaccination in order to continue on to Brazil. You can get the vaccination in Lima quite easily but you have to wait 10 days after you get the vaccination before you can enter Brazil. So beware.
I found out when I tried to check in for my flight to Sao Paulo. Taca neglected to tell me about this requirement when they booked the flights with the overnight layover. Taca did waive the change fee and rescheduled my flight for 10 days later. So even though it wasn't part of the plan I finally got to see Machu Picchu!