As always, our spring trip brought revelations about the world and the world of travel that make it special to visit countries outside the United States. This trip gave us greater understanding of how challenging and invigorating it can be when you travel on your own, often akin to a MASH unit.
After our special November trip to Antarctica – via a most enjoyable cruise (rarely our mode of travel but the way one accesses the most isolated and unblemished place on earth), we were back to seeing multiple locations of South America and the Caribbean over the course of 3-1/2 weeks.
The trip began with a startle. Slightly more than a week before leaving we learned we must have visas to enter Brazil. The Beautiful Wife scours the travel world to make sure we have all our proper paperwork long before leaving. Brazil had delayed implementing the visa program from April 2024, but it reupped it on Canada, Australia and the U.S. starting April 10th with little fanfare and less preparation. BW jumped into action and sent off the applications using our passport photos.
Three days later we got notice our application was rejected. Why? Because you cannot smile in the photos, i.e., showing any teeth. It never fails to astound people the stupid rules bureaucrats will contrive and put in place.
BW immediately sent photos of us looking like we had just been arrested but had not received the final approval back by time we left for the airport. Since in the past only Russia had stopped us from entering without our visas, we went to the airport believing we would finalize this in Sao Paulo since all they really want is our money. American Airlines told us we could not get on the plane. If we somehow did fly to Brazil, American would be fined $30,000 for delivering us and we would immediately be sent back.
BW had to figure out how to adjust for eight days of our trip. She got us rerouted to Buenos Aires where we were going later during the trip, hoping Brazil would come through. We were not going to let some Portuguese-speaking petty tyrants ruin our vacation. It took them two weeks to finally get us our visas (which are valid for ten years). But by that time, we were totally rerouted, and Brazil was out all those Bialosky bucks.
We spent a little extra time in Uruguay and Paraguay, both delightful little countries. We also added a day to Iguazu Falls from the Argentina side as opposed to our plan to approach it from Brazil. This completed our tour of the world’s greatest waterfalls. The stark beauty and power of Iguazu reminded us of why humans are so fascinated by these carved out parts of nature.
We had dinners with new friends in Argentina and Paraguay introduced to us by old friends in the U.S. It was remindful of why we travel the way we do so we can encounter locals and really delve into learning about the countries we are visiting and what their lives are really like. It is also a reminder of how small the world keeps getting.
Some lessons from the trip:
There are currently six countries that use the U.S. dollar as their currency. Paraguay and Aruba should add their names to the list. In Paraguay, most things are priced in U.S. dollars, and you can pay anywhere with it. Aruba, which is “Hawaii East,” does not even fake it. There is no reason for them to have a separate currency.
I am not sure if this is because of the advancement of AI, but language translation apps have become the hot new thing in South America. Even the housekeepers. I went up to one and asked se Habla Ingles? She shook her head “no” and whipped out her cell phone. She produced an app and handed me the phone to type in what I wanted. I typed “washcloth,” and she handed me two toallitas. BW was taking photos of full pages of menus in Espanol, and we soon had total translations into Ingles. The world keeps shrinking all the time.
Americans do not know how spoiled they are. Something that may seem minor but is telling. Our paper goods. Toilet paper, tissues, napkins, and paper towels. Most of the time in South America, these were quite inferior to what we have in the U.S. We have commercials with companies fighting over who has the best paper towels. Do not even get me started on how we have our tushes pampered with toilet paper. We have one major retailer, Costco, which has built its reputation on its in-house toilet paper, paper towels and tissues.
Here is something that baffled me. At most airports we had to put our luggage through a scanning machine once we had retrieved it and gone through customs on our way out the door. Sometimes we spent more time getting to the x-ray machine and lifting the luggage on to the machine and then getting it off than going through customs or getting the luggage off the carousel. What is the point of this process?
Isn’t the entire idea of airport security to stop you from blowing up the plane or hijacking it? What are they trying to prevent? You are leaving the airport and going to blow up your hotel? And how did you make it this far and have something like an automatic weapon with you? Can someone explain this waste of human activity as anything other than a “make work” project?
Want to go swimming on vacation? Even in places like Aruba the lawyers have destroyed our fun. We were at a fine resort, at the pool. The maximum depth was one meter or as marked three feet, four inches. I learned if you went into the Ocean near the resort, you could only go into water up to your waist. What happened to slide and diving boards? Just give me some water I can stand up in. That would be a start.
As always happy travels to you and know we always have them.