A volcano rears up from the water and passes close to our wing.

We are in mid-Atlantic flying past the Canary islands on TP159 from Lisbon to Salvador, Brazil. A comfortable A330 with individual IFE and cheerful FAs. In 20H/K economy, seats thoughtfully preassigned at booking-time by TAP, it's a tight seat pitch but doesn't feel as bad as the knees-by-ears seating on last week's SQ326. Seatguru doesn't extend to TAP, seat 20G may have been better, an aisle seat with no-one in front. But we're glad to have a window and take pictures of Lisbon, Tenerife and Brazil.

Lunch is passable, chicken or pasta, with plentiful local wine and cheerful FA's. The aircraft is half-full - that is, the back half is full and not a soul in business, some 54 empty seats up front. We had earlier tried to upgrade, no way. Thankfully LIS-SSA is one of the shortest routes from Europe to Brazil, some 7 hours flight time.

We had set off from the Dona Maria Palace at 8am for our 10.15 departure, anticipating a schemozzle at LIS check-in after reading another FT report. Lisbon traffic is solid at that hour, so our cab took a detour using the ring-road-freeway and we made it comfortably before 9am.

No schemozzle at TAP check-in at LIS, less than 5 minutes wait at the Star-gold desk once we find the separate check-in area for Brazil flights. Security line long but moving quickly, through in 10 minutes. Pleasant breakfast at the TAP lounge, just a little crowded this Thursday morning. Set off for the gate around boarding-time....

..turn a corner to be confronted by a seething mass of people, it's the queue for passport-control. Seems LIS has about 10 flights departing to Brazil just now. The EC line on the far left [European passports] moves quickly, through in 5 minutes. But the "other" passports lines is very slow, a 30 minute wait with agitated families of Brazilians begging to push to the front.

Half-expecting to see the back of our plane disappearing, we heave a sign of relief as TP159 is delayed too. The first bus hasn't even left the gate. When the bus does come, it takes us on a scenic tour of Lisbon airport.

Our flight is uneventful but there's still a round of applause from the cabin as the plane lands smoothly in Salvador. The Brazilian customs-check is perfunctory, and we step out into the airport. Exchange some money at a booth in the arrivals-hall but may have done better to use the ATM at Banco-de-Brasil, at the far left-hand end of the terminal as you come out of the customs-area. We also purchase a taxi-voucher in the arrivals hall to avoid a rip-off. Though to be fair the cab-drivers we will meet in Brazil are all scrupulously honest.

We step outside into tropical sunshine and that intoxicating atmosphere unique to Brazil.