But I realized something, and I realized it fast: I have never before been faced with the task of taking care of all the nitty gritty details of traveling. My parents would book the hotels and rental cars and all that good stuff for our family trips. My church took care of all the Mexico technicalities, like travel insurance and currency exchange, and the Lions Club took care of all that for Denmark.
So here I was, thinking it would be a piece of cake to hop on a plane and head for South America. WRONG!
First of all, there was the whole issue of the visas. I can't even begin to express how much I now despise visas! Both Brazil and Bolivia require USA citizens to have a tourist visa for entry. I was completing my Brazilian visa application during finals week, and it made my exams seem easy!
The applications themselves weren't necessarily hard, it was the documents that were required to accompany them that posed the difficulty. Here are the items that were required for both visas:
- A passport
- A passport sized photo, with very specific requirements for background color, lighting, direction of head, amount of hair touching face - even the facial expression has to be correct (no smiling allowed... but also no frowning allowed)
- A bank statement that proves you have enough $$ to sustain yourself - even if you're staying with a family and don't realistically need nearly as much as they require
- A signed letter of invitation from the host family, including very specific information such as family address, national ID numbers, jobs, etc.
- A copy of flight itinerary proving you will not be staying more than 90 days. This sounds simple enough, but when one of the tickets must be booked entirely in Spanish, and then the bank gets all suspicious and shuts down the debit card that is being used for the purchase (because I mean what American flies on Bolivian Airlines), it becomes a little more challenging.
- A money order for $160, and it has to be the through the USPS. No checks allowed.
And that $160? That's for Americans specifically, and it's only because that's how much we charge outsiders to obtain a visa to visit here. And it looks like almost everyone is required to get a visa to come to the USA!
Here is the price chart located on the Brazilian Consulate's website for Brazilian Tourist visa fees:
Below this on the website are several more charts for all the different types of visas that simply say
USA: <insert high cost>
All other countries: <insert significantly lower cost>
Definitely feeling the love here.
And actually, as far as Bolivia goes, we are one of the only western countries that is required to obtain a visa. Lowell Silverman, in his blog entitled "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (If I Must)," wrote the following:
"If you are a citizen of Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, most countries in Western Europe, Turkey, most of South America, and several other countries, congratulations! Bolivia likes your country. You don’t need a visa to enter Bolivia. Check your country’s specific documentation requirements like passport or ID for entry. Alas, poor Americans. Not only do US citizens need a Bolivian visa (unless they’re of Bolivian origin, apparently), but the requirements appear to be the most stringent of any country in the world."
(His complete blog can be found at https://lowellsilverman.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/obtaining-a-bolivian-tourist-visa/)
The other difficulty I had with the visas was that I couldn't get through to the Bolivian Consulate to ask my questions (I think they only have one or two phone lines, so they're almost always busy), and since I couldn't get in contact with them, I grew very nervous to send my passport to them. What if it didn't get back in time? What would I do?
So I made an unexpected trip to New York City. Luckily, I was in Connecticut anyway so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience, but I did manage to get sufficiently lost around Grand Central Station. The consulate was absolutely the nicest office I've ever been in, and the woman at the desk was one of the nicest people I have ever encountered in my life.
I had also made an unplanned trip to Chicago with my parents to go to the Brazilian consulate. This was very different from the Bolivian consulate experience. People were lined up outside the door before the consulate even opened! (Between Carnaval and the Olympics this year, they're experiencing a LOT of tourism!) And everything was extremely formal at the consulate, compared to the casual atmosphere at the Bolivian consulate. Everybody was very friendly, though!
And then on top of all the visas, I had to get specific immunizations with international certificates for reentry into Brazil after going to Bolivia (Yellow Fever), so that involved calling all the health departments in the thumb area and beyond.
And then there was the currency exchange, which is through my bank and wonderfully fast, but they didn't have as much Bolivian currency on hand as I needed, so that poses a problem.
And then there's insurance, and trying to get a new phone before I leave so I will have communication in case I get lost or kidnapped. I just wasn't expecting all of these technical details! It's overwhelming.
But it will be totally worth it!!
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