Monday Fun Day and Brasil Visa Fun

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Up until this point we have not shared some of the grueling traveling experiences that we´ve had to date. Today you will get a little taste of how frustrating and confusing Long Vacations can be. 😉

As some of you may not be aware, getting and activating a Brasilian Tourist Visa is quite complex. IF you want to travel to Brasil from the US you must leave your passport at the Brasilian Embassy for 1 week and the day you are granted the Visa you have 90 days to get there, otherwise it will expire and you can not travel the 3rd largest country in the world. So... we made sure to get our visa last minute considering we were traveling the contenient counter-clock wise (Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil). Our personal deadline was April 7.

So on March 28th, we took a bus from El Chalten to El Calafate Airport. From there we flew to Buenos Aires thinking that we could take a quick bus over the border. WELL... we were quickly informed (thank goodness for those random nice people who see us struggling with maps and offer their english speaking partners) that there was no quick bus because Argentina stretches quite far into the north bordering Brasil and Uruguay separates the two countries... so would need to get off the tourist track, take an overnight bus to Paso de los Libres, Argentina which is across the river from Uruguaiana, Brasil. Sounds easy right?

Well we were awakened in Paso de los Libras at 7:00am after 10hrs of stop and go bus travel in very uncomfortable seats. As we staggered off the bus we were greeted by a small town, with dirt roads, crazy chariot drivers (yes, horse and buggy... with folks standing up), wandering goats and Freddie Crugar (serious finger nail growth) trying to sell us calculators. Whoa!! Can we just get some coffee please!! Because John and I are so well prepared, meaning we never have a map... we did not even know which side of the road to stand on in order to catch the local bus into Uruguaiana. Fortunately for us the only cafe in town was just opening and offered us coffee, grilled ham and cheese and told us in cave man spanish using cave man body language (because our Spanish still stinks), which bus and what side of the road we needed to stand on!! Haha!!

After we got on the bus we were relieved to see that the bus was stopping at the Argentine border. We needed to get our salida (exit) stamp and entrada stamp for Brasil. We received our salida stamp but was not directed to Brasilan office for entrance stamp.. so we figured we´d get it on the other side of the river. Well... to our amazement the bus did not stop for us once we crossed the bridge into Brasil. Nor did we drive by any official looking buildings!! So we road around for a bit then selected a random stop. We were officially Illegal Aliens!!! We had to turn ourselves in. We spied an official looking building with a security guard/police officer in front of it. Thank goodness!! To our amazement when we told him we needed the policia por passaporta entrada problema... he backed away from us and looked at us like we were crazy dirty backpackers!!?? And on top of that... he didnt speak a lick of Spanish!! We were in Brasil now!! Portuguese is the official language here!! Hahaha... it was a weird experience. So we took out our passports and explained in our spanish we needed the police. It took a few minutes, but eventually he realized we were not there to stuff him in our giant packs and gave us alien sounding directions to the police station. We found it... turned ourselves in, which dumbfounded everyone in the office... and finally received our stamps without too much trouble.

Now we wanted to get to Uruguay because we wanted to find a real working ranch. So from Uruguania we got bus tickets to Santa Livramento, which is a city that boarders Riveria, Uruguay. Once we arrived at Santa Livramento we began searching for an "International Bus" to take us over the border (no more local ones for us..haha!!). So we stopped and asked directions from various people and bus stations for almost 2hrs. We were sweating and getting quite grumpy at this point so we decided to sit on bench and rest. To our amazement a friendly lady, came up and said "I speak english, do you need help?" Haha!! Did we look that desperate? We were so relieved.. yes, we needed to find the international bus station to take us to Uruguay. Then for the second time that day we got that crazy dirty backpacker look from a local!! So we repeated ourselves... in both english and spanish... and she said to us "You are in Uruguay!!!" OH NO.. we were illegal aliens again!!!! How in the world does this happen? We walked across the imaginary line that separates Santana Livramento and Riveria!!!

Again to our amazement the lady said, get in my car... I´ll take you to the Brasil police station to get your exit stamp and my father will drive you to the Uruguay customs to get your entrance stamp. she informed us that we could have been arrested and largely fined for not having the proper stamps!! Hahah... lovely. I asked her, "How did you know we were lost?" and she said, "My husband and I drove by you both earlier and he said 'Those gringos are lost' and she had argued with him. But then when I saw you again... I knew you were lost." Haha!!!

Needless to say... we got the appropriate stamps and are so very grateful for those friendly locals who step up and lend a helping hand.

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Comments

[Iratxe]

Hahahahahahah!!!!!
The tough life of the backpackers!!!!!! Well, so far you've managed to NOT being arrested nor deported, so I'd say that's a great achievement..... John, from what I've seen in the pictures from Copacabana, you¡ve lost the beard!!!!!! And Chrissy, I've just finished watching the season finale of Lost.... FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And guys, yu owe us tons of pictures (everything from Argentina to Brazil, via Uruguay ;)))) Keep having fun!!!!