Last Friday night my 4.0 ounce saline solution was gleefully found and seized out ouf my ziplock bag placed in the bin at the US-bound security at GRU. GRU has two separate security lines, one for US bound and one for non-US bound flights. No amount of explaining in broken Portuguese could stop them, in fact the more I told them that as far as TSA is concerned, saline solution for contacts is considered medicine and is exempt, the more it became a power trip for the screener and the super.

I shudder to think what would happen with liquid medicines. The screeners did not seem to be able to read English or at least did not seem to care. My three ounce shaving gel was an object of some curiosity as well, but was not seized. The Admirals Club reps said this was nothing new, happens all of the time and the complaints to INFRAERO, the privatized contractor in charge of screening, have been a waste of time.

That's funny. GIG didn't care about my liquids at all. Does each airport in Brazil do its own thing?

I fly through GRU regularly. They never cared about shoes or liquids, and I always got to go through a second bag check at the gate, done by the airline employees, for liquids (but not shoes). The separate "US-bound" line sounds new to me (and I hope it does not keep).

Of course the liquid restrictions are completely ridiculous and pointless, but even more so are the large list of exceptions (they prove the rules are ridiculous and unenforceable). In this light, you can't really blame the local guys... (Although I would rather not see them succumb to the rules in the first place.)

GIG no longer does searches for liquids, but GRU does - even on the GIG-GRU and GRU-GIG legs. Many times I've seen people have to chuck water and soda bought in the airport in Sampa.

Now, here's a trick. It's real complicated, so listen closely:

Put the bottle in your pocket.

The "security" staff is charged with checking your bags for liquids. They are not charged with checking you for liquids. I always take two bottles of water form the RCC on-board my flights out of GRU, and they are very visibly in my front shorts pockets.

Stupidity... The United States' new #1 export.

Another solution: put you bottle under your "freedom baggie" in your carry-on, artfully concealed by something like a sweater. The airline guys who do the search for liquids at the gate are always happy to look through the baggie, and don�t even search the rest of your stuff after they find it.

In GRU at the moment, and there were no US-specific lines. My shoes stayed on my feet, and my liquids in my bag, as they should. Security was, as it usually is here, very fast and relaxed. A few of the employees were wearing "swine flu" masks. That was all that was different since I last passed here.