Travel for Love

I am sitting in the Rio airport on my way home. I was going to work on my post about the food in Buenos Aires, but I don’t think I can write anything good about food after the girl in front of me on my Tam flight to here barfed all over the aisle. She had spaghetti for lunch. I was lucky I guess… it landed on two guys’ flip flopped feet as well. Can anyone tell me why the heck Tam does not put barf bags on their planes?

Anyway, I thought I would make some observations about immigration after going through Brazilian immigration 4 times on this trip. And how inconsistent it has been. Now, I know this is not just a Brazilian problem, but this is the country I have the most experience in as a foreigner so I have the most observations here.

Each time I enter Brazil, my visa is handled differently. I have a Brazilian business visa because when I was planning my first trip to Brazil I was also potentially going there for a business meeting. Since it doesn’t make sense to get two visas and you cannot do business on a tourist visa, I decided to just get the one. I confirmed with the Brazilian consulate that it would not be a problem to visit as a tourist on a business visa, and they advised me that this was the best approach. They even said having two visas would likely confuse the immigration officers and make things even more difficult.

So, the first time I visited Brazil it was actually for tourism. I indicated as much on my immigration card and when I entered Brazil, the officer lady looked it over, looked at my visa, and changed the check box to business on the card without asking any questions. I didn’t say anything either, and went about my “business.” The next time I entered, I put tourism again and nothing was even questioned, and no one changed the card. Finally, the last time, coming back from Argentina I did the same thing. And the immigration officer was NOT happy with me! She called over 3 other people, looked through my passport, and asked me if I have a tourist visa. I said no, just the business visa, and explained that the consulate had told me but they didn’t want to hear it. I had to fill out a new card and put business, and they told me next time I need to get a tourist visa to visit as a tourist. I think there was also some “imagine if we tried to do that in the US” snarkiness to go along with it.

So I kind of understand that there are specific types of visas for specific purposes, and you really should have the right kind. But come on, do people really get both kinds of visas? I think all the immigration officers are doing is making me want to lie about my trip’s purpose and put business every time to shut them up. I mean, they do the same thing so it must be ok for me to lie about it too, right? Seeing that it’s accepted to brush the issue under the rug by just making sure the forms match doesn’t make me want to fork out another several hundred dollars for another visa. Next time I will just be putting business!

Another issue I had this time was with my the tourist card or whatever it is that you fill out and keep. Each of my trips, I was never actually told to hang onto it, and my first trip the immigration officer did not ask for it upon my departure. But, when I went to Argentina, the Gol lady asked me for it and it never even occurred to me to bring it. She said this might be a problem and I had to go downstairs and talk to the federal police (in charge of immigration). But, she gave me a boarding pass and checked my luggage. Roberto and I decided we didn’t want to sit in the little room and argue with the police, and we would take our chances with immigration on the way to the gate.

So when we went to immigration the officer asked me for the card. I explained that I had lost it, but he was able to look in my passport for the information he needed. We asked what that was, and he said it was to make sure I had not overstayed in Brazil. If I hadn’t had the stamp in my passport saying I had entered Brazil on that date, and since I didn’t have the paper card, I could have been fined for overstay. So, let me get this straight… I need the card just in case I do not have a stamp in my passport saying I entered Brazil legally, or in case I do not have my passport. I venture to guess not having the card would be the least of my worries if I did not have a stamp in my passport or did not have it at all! I don’t know why they made a big deal out of it. By they way, when I went through immigration to leave Rio, I gave the card to the lady who threw it away without looking at it.

So, those are my immigration inconsistencies. Another mildly amusing thing happened when I was checking in with US Airways earlier. The guy asked me if I had a ticket, and I said “no, aren’t I supposed to get my ticket here? He said yes but he needed a printout of my itinerary. I told him I did not have one (I’ve never heard of this before!) but I was going to Pittsburgh. He told me “well, we do usually require you to have a printout of your itinerary, but I trust you since you are American and all.” Trust me for what? Knowing what city I am going to without a printout? Not trying to do something shady or illegal? I found it funny that being American = able to be trusted with knowing which city I am to fly to. Would this story have ended differently had I not been American? I was amused by this, but I have definitely never heard of needing a printout. Hopefully I can continue to use the American excuse… I don’t know why immigration didn’t get the memo that they are supposed to trust me with my business visa since I’m American and all!

Boy people get cranky around the holidays. I’m sitting at my gate at the Pittsburgh airport with a guy in the seat behind me who is slamming into my back like it’s his job. This is a bad day to be traveling, right before Christmas and during the biggest East Coast snowstorm of the year. There are tons of delays and cancellations, and the US Airways ticketing agents, gate agents, and flight attendants are even more short than usual.

My adventure started at the ticketing counter, where the least helpful agent in the world made me check my backpack and informed me that the third bag I was checking was overweight. And since she had already sent my other two bags down the conveyor I was informed that I would need to pay $50, and accused of trying to take advantage of the system. As in I purposely saved the heavy bag for last, I knew how much it weighed, and was trying to slip it by her. I think I gave her the blankest stare ever and said I did not in fact weigh my luggage before I got there and come up with a scheme to get it through for free. It was 7 pounds overweight (yea, all of SEVEN) so I begrudgingly took out my work binder and stuffed it into my shoulder bag carry-on. I did not appreciate being accused of trying to cheat the system by this awful lady! Like I know anything about checked bag fees and weights – you would be crazy to try to check a bag at this airport! I always carry on whenever possible.

Then at security they actually dug and confiscated up my full sized container of face wash that I had successfully taken over 100,000 miles in my carry-on. WTF! And the TSA guy gave me major attitude too, asking me all snidely if I knew the limits of how much liquid you are allowed to bring. I know my face wash was too much liquid and I don’t blame them for taking it but I found it odd they would take it at PIT of all places, after all this time. Maybe it’s because I am walking around like a hobo with a Macy’s bag containing toiletries, comfy pants, socks, underwear, my brush, and a bathing suit. It was my backup anticipating they would make me check my backpack. And those are my Rio necessities in case US Airways loses my bags.

So after great fun at PIT, Charlotte was no better. We landed kinda on time and then had to sit on the tarmac for about 20 minutes because there was still a plane at our gate. Once that plane got out of the way we headed up to the gate and stopped about 20 feet short because the ground crew that needed to bring us in “went inside.” And these licensed pilots that just flew us 500 miles cannot possibly be trusted to go forward 20 feet and then stop. Not when there are union jobs at stake I guess. Oh and the Charlotte airport is full of stranded passengers on cots. Lovely. And it’s great that the airline workers are so cranky to these poor people just trying to get to their destinations.

The flight to Rio was pretty disappointing. We were on a really old 767 that didn’t even have individual TVs. I thought I would be happy with my seat arrangement – next to a nice fellow with a Brazilian mom and American dad who was interesting and not annoying – but my seat didn’t recline. When I asked the flight attendant about it (maybe there was a trick to these seats that have been in those planes since before I was born?) she barked at me that she was not a mechanic. So I ended up moving back about 10 rows to an aisle seat in a row of 3 with the middle seat empty. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Then, upon arrival in Rio, I was selected to go through the additional screening at customs. I had a bunch of gifts and clothes with tags and was afraid they were going to make me pay taxes on the crap. They wanted to go through my suitcase where I put my work laptop, so I quickly got it out, as I said “this must be what you guys wanted to look at.” I opened it up to the work sticker and showed them my business card, and they left the rest of my stuff alone. Phew. All said and done, I was the last person to come out of the terminal, an hour late, to be greeted by a very nervous (and happy!) Roberto.