Nov 28, Monday
Was ready earlier than expected so I left the hotel and took off for the airport. There was hardly any traffic since it was a holiday Monday and I was at the airport very quickly. Good thing I did because within 10 minutes of getting in line (at least 40 people in front of me) there were 40 more people behind me.
Flight left on time, and although it was extremely bumpy and landed very abruptly after a steep descent, we were on time and the travel agent was there to greet me and drive me to my hotel. Had a great conversation with him and found out that I should be able to obtain my travel visa to Brazil within 2 working days.
Very hot and humid here, and the air conditioning in the room is really noisy, but I have no choice but to leave it on and listen to it rattle on and off all night.
Nov 29, Tuesday
Had to get up early to get to the Brazilian Consulate by 8:15. Luckily it is just 2 long blocks away. Got the list of things I have to assemble and resubmit to them: My passport, 1 new Passport photo, go on their web site to complete and print the application form for the visa, pay them an expensive processing fee, proof of purchase of an airline ticket out of Brazil, proof of enough funds to keep me taken care of while I am in their country (copy of a recent bank statement or visa statement ? Yeah, I’m sure people travel with these all the time! )
So off I went to find out where I could get a passport photo (15 minute walk in this heat), travel agent in front of photo shop (bonus) so I booked a flight out of Brazil and on to South Africa for Dec 16, giving me 3 weeks in Brazil. Went back to my hotel to get the form from their internet site and fill it out. Unfortunately the hotel could not help me with the printing, so I walked a couple of blocks to get to an internet café with my lap top. No problem downloading the form to their memory stick and printing it, but unfortunately I could not access my bank account from their internet terminals, and they did not have a wifi connection so that I could use my laptop. So back I walked to my hotel to try to see if I could somehow save a bank statement and go back to have it printed. Must have something to do with security, but although there is a “print” option, which I could not use at the hotel, there was no “save as” option. I tried all sorts of things and could not get it to work, so finally I just copied the numbers into another table. Went back to the internet café to have it printed and continued on to the Brazilian Consulate to submit all the paperwork. I offered to show them my bank statement on-line if there was a way to connect in their offices, but NO that was not an option. The guy at the desk spoke Portuguese and hardly no Spanish, absolutely no English or French, so I have no idea what will happen with my application.
Tomorrow I’ve got my all day tour that leaves at 8:30, so I’m not sure I will have time to go back to the consulate tomorrow morning for 8 am to pick it up, and their offices will be closed by the time my tour ends.
Did I mention it was 92 degrees F today and with the humidity, according to the internet, it feels like 96 degrees! It was like walking around in a sauna. (Supposed to go down to 69 degrees during the night. Forecasting same for tomorrow, about 34 Celsius + humidex factor.)
Anyway, by 11:30 I was back at my hotel to take a cold shower and maybe go for a dip in the pool to cool off. The shower part worked fine, but the water in the pool is so scummy that there is absolutely no way that I’m getting in there. Rested in my room for a few hours researching Rio and more flights to South Africa. The flight the agent found has me flying back to Buenos Aires from Rio and I wanted to see if there was any better way of doing it. Sure enough, I found a direct flight from Sao Paolo to Johannesburg so I decided to go back to the travel agency and change the reservation. No problem except that it took her over 1 ½ hours to do so. She was very nice, very young and in training. Since it was so hot outside and their office was air conditioned, I did not mind the wait at all. I’ll let the Brazilian Consulate know about my change of plans when I go to check on my Visa application.
Another shower was required when I returned to the hotel, by a different route, but although I had checked out some restaurants along the way, it is simply too hot to eat. I’ll see if I’m hungry later tonight and go out again if I need to.
Sorry, no pics yet.
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