Yesterday, we made it to the final country on our South American wanderlust – Brazil! Getting our visas in Iguazu Falls (on the Argentine side) was expensive ($131 each) but hassle free. We didn´t need any of the required documentation listed on the consulate´s Web site and the visa was ready in a couple of hours although we elected to pick it up the following day. As an added bonus the Brazilian government didn´t fingerprint us. The visa is good only for 30 days (all the other countries we visited have allowed 90 days) which is okay because we only have 25 days until our flight leaves from Rio. Our biggest concerns to date are trying to figure out an itinerary to see as much as we can in that time, whether or not to visit the Pantanal, and learning a bit of Portuguese. The Pantanal was high on our must see list but we never looked up the best time to go. Apparently February is the worst time to visit due to the rains, flooding and mosquitos. Hmm…
For the next day or two our home will be in Sao Paulo.
Sounds like fun! mosquitoes… rain…
I do love Brazil though. Would love to visit.
What did you think of Sao Paulo? I’ve heard it is extremely dumpy and an altogether nasty city.
We were only there for 1.5 days so it is hard to judge. The city itself it a mass of concrete so its not too pretty to look at but I wouldn’t call it dumpy. However, at street level there is a lot going on. We liked our time there and could have used another day or two to explore the city. Most of the guests at our hostel were mainly interested in the nightlife.