It seems like our next trip, a 14 day cruise on the Amazon from Manaus to Fort Lauderdale, is sure taking a lot of preparation work compared to our past cruises. But now the biggest part of that work is (hopefully) out of the way. Sent out the paperwork to apply for the Brazilian visa yesterday, so hopefully we’ll see that back soon. What’s interesting is how much variance the various Brazilian consulates have in how they deal with visa applications. You have to deal with the consulate that has jurisdiction for where you live, which in our case means Chicago. The nice thing is the Chicago consulate seems to be pretty easy to deal with. Heck, they even allow you to mail your application in (for a small additional fee), where many of the others require in-person application, or going through an expensive visa service. And compared to the situation that those having to use the LA consulate were having, where they just flat-out couldn’t get an appointment, and the consulte was severely limiting applications through visa services (so those services were charging a couple hundred dollars on top of the visa fees), apparently we get it relatively easy.
The other thing that’s come up while preparing is that man, it seems like there’s a lot of shots that are necessary. Yellow Fever vaccination was required because of the countries we’re visiting, so had to get that done. Then my doctor decided that I should really get the Hep A and B shots, so there’s 3 shots for those before I leave (plus either 1 or 2 after I get back, the 6 month later one, but I can’t remember if both A and B require it or just one of them). Then of course the flu shot. Then while getting the YF shot, the nurse at the travel clinic pointed out two more things. First, she suggested that if my tetanus shot was more than 5 years old, I should get the updated one of those. And then, apparently, this year the advice for those with asthma was changed to recommend getting the pneumonia shot. Yikes, I’m starting to feel like a pincushion.