Back in Brazil

The trip to Brazil went better than expected. 

Arnold and Sandra drove me to Paulsbo and saw me onto the "Airporter" shuttle to SeaTac airport.  That hour-long ride went quickly because I snoozed much of the way.

At SeaTac I went though the doors and found myself at a surprisingly short queue for the American Airlines counter.  At the counter I was pleased to learn that there would be no charge for my two bags and that I would not see them again until Rio.

The flight to DFW went quickly for me because I managed to sleep through most of it even though I was in a middle seat.

I had a roast beef sandwich during the 2.5 hour layover at DFW then boarded the flight for Rio where I got lucky and found that I had a pair of seats on the starboard side all to myself.  Because it was a long international flight we got dinner, a movie (the latest Spiderman which was a predictable no-brainer that nevertheless passed the time), and some NBC comedies. Then it was "lights out" and I slept remarkably well spread across the two seats with the use of two sets of pillows and blankets.   Then it was "lights on" and I woke up remarkably refreshed.  We were give an light breakfast and before I knew it we were descending into Rio as I looked across to the city framed by Sugar Loaf mountain and the statue of Christ the Redeemer,.

I had been expecting to breeze through Immigration and maybe have trouble with Customs over the enormous amount of boat and computing gear that I was bringing in, but instead I got a reaffirmation of the aphorism that in travel one must expect the unexpected.

The Immigration man spent a few minutes studying my visa then told me that I had exceeded my 90 days.  The visa states that it is good for up to 90 days on my first entry and a 180 days maximum per year.  I took that to mean that I could leave the country before the first  90 days were up then use the visa to re enter the country again for another visit.  What the vista didn't state was that I had to apply for extensions and re-entries. 

After 45 minutes of waiting while the officials did their work I was told that all they could do was to allow me entry only until the first 90 days of the visa were used up and if I needed more time I would have to return to an office in the airport to apply for an extension.  The official told me that based on my absence from Brazil from 28 August until 7 November I could stay for another 50 days which by my calculations will take me to 27 December.  I was very happy with the gentle and flexible way in which Immigration had handled the problem and I thanked the man for his help.

Visiting that airport office from Bracui would not be trivial.  It would require a bus to Angra, another to Rio, a $40 cab ride to the airport, then the reverse, and probably including an overnight stay at this hotel.  I'll have to think about it, but at this point I'm leaning to simply setting sail out of Brazil around Christmas time.  This will require some discussion with Mark about my visit to Ubatuba

On the airplane we had been told that passengers who had nothing to declare to Customs need not fill out a form.   I approached the Customs stations with no form in hand, saw a woman ahead of me directed to an agent, then the next few passengers including myself were waved through, and just like that I was in Rio.

At the end of the corridor was a set of competing taxi kiosks and I selected one, paid the required 40 Reals, and outside of the door was a blue cab waiting at the curb. The young cab driver had trouble finding the hotel, even though I had given him the address, but fortunately I was able to give him some assistance even though he could not speak either English or Spanish.

At the hotel the driver carried in the bags, the concierge verified my reservation and carried the bags into the room, and soon I was settled in the room and had a shower and shave.

Easy.