Eu não falo o português!

Greetings Everyone:

 

I'm happy to report that we have finally arrived in Brazil.  As Sean mentioned in the previous post, we took an overnight bus from Punta del Este, Uruguay to Porto Alegre, Brazil and arrived here about 8:30 a.m. local time Friday morning.  While the bus ride was 10 hours long, leaving at 10:30 pm made it easier to sleep.  Of course, I can sleep anywhere when I'm tired, but I think Sean was able to get some sleep as well.  We were able to check into our hotel early, despite the hotel not having a record of the reservation I made through Orbitz.  I requested a refund from Orbitz for the booking fee they charged me.  While it was less than $2, it's a matter of principle and there is nothing worse for me than a company offering services they can't deliver. 

 

Border Crossing:  I think we mentioned before, but US citizens have to obtain a visa, in advance, at a cost of about $150 USD in order to travel to Brazil.  Our visas cost us an additional $100 each because we had to expedite them since we only had two weeks in between the time we returned from Europe and the time we were scheduled to leave for this trip.  Once our visas were issued, we had 90 days to enter Brazil for the first time at which point the visas are validated.  This was one of the major drawbacks for our trip since the limitation restricted our ability to see some of the places we might otherwise have gone to, like Patagonia, because we had to arrive in Brazil by a specific date.  Nevertheless, after our first entry, the visa allows us to come and go for up to 90 days on each visit for the next five years. 

 

One interesting thing about the bus ride was the border crossing.  You would think that with the restriction of having to obtain a visa that immigration and customs would be a big hassle once we arrived in the country.  Not so.  There were only two bus companies offering international service from Punta del Este to Porto Alegre since, obviously, there are more regulations and licenses necessary to operate a business in two different countries.  Anyway, the company we used was very diligent about making sure we had our visas for Brazil before we even bought our tickets and again when we arrived to check in on the day of departure.  I thought they were doing this because of what I expected to be a stringent immigration process, if not an outright hassle, at the border.  When we boarded the bus, they gave us the typical immigration and customs forms to fill out for both Uruguay and Brazil, then they collected all the forms and our passports and pretty much gave them back to us after we were in Brazil, with the proper Uruguayan exit and Brazilian entry stamps inside.  We didn't have to get off the bus; we didn't have to talk to anyone, we didn't have to have our luggage inspected; nothing.  The bus company staff got off with all the documents for all the passengers and took care of everything.  I basically slept though the whole border crossing process.  Then we went on our merry way to Porto Alegre.

 

Portuguese: The next two months are going to be pretty difficult as far as communication goes because neither of us speaks Portuguese.  Even though my Spanish is not great, I have been able to get by pretty well in the other countries we've visited so far.  And while the pronunciation and some of the vocabulary has been different in each Spanish-speaking country, things like reading a menu or a sign were never much of a problem.  Brazil will be different.  From what I've read, most Brazilians simply don't speak any language other than Portuguese so you're pretty much screwed if you don't know any Portuguese.  For those Brazilians who do speak another language in addition to Portuguese, it's just as likely for them to speak English as it is Spanish.  The problem is finding those few who speak a second language.  We've been trying to pick up a few words and the guidebook we have has some basics, but even with the similarity to Spanish, the pronunciation is completely different so the only way to really learn is by listening.  I am going to try to download some Portuguese lessons to my iPod so I can get some practice that way.  I'll let you know how fast we progress.

 

Racial Diversity:  We've only been in Porto Alegre for a day now, but one of my first observations has been the racial diversity here and since we're not in a tourist city, most of the people we see are locals.  Just walking down the street, you see people who look as black as me, as white as Sean, or as Spanish or Latin as the people in other South American countries.  In Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, the majority of the people have a distinct Spanish look to them with thick, dark, often curly hair and fair to brownish skin.  It's very clear who they are descendants of and after a while you develop a picture in your mind of what a typical Chilean, Argentinean, or Uruguayan looks like.  Here, there is no distinct look; Brazilians come in all types, skin tones, hair textures and eye colors, with additional combinations of all of the above.  Yet they all share the same culture and speak the same language.  It's quite nice actually.  I just wish I could understand the language.

 

New Years: We're leaving Sunday night or Monday morning for Florianopolis where we'll spend the next week, including New Year's Eve.  We finally managed to find a hostel there with some availability.  It's not the most ideal lodging accommodation, but considering the difficulty in finding anything else, we were happy to take what we could get.  Florianopolis is know as as beach, surfing and party destination so we're looking forward to having a good time there.  Our next big task will be finding a place for Carnival and from what we're heard, we might already be out of luck.  We'll keep you posted.  In the meantime, I wish everyone back home a safe and happy New Year's!

 

Ciao!

Ozell