I may have neglected to mention this in past blogs, but I've had a bit of trouble exiting Chile on previous trips. The trick is you must keep a very small, carbon copied slip of paper and present this to the custom officials at the borders, and je je, I seem to very inconveniently fail to have this paper when it counts. On our last trip to Argentina, I was warned that this would be the last time they would let me slide through without my visa. So the night before we left for Brazil, I double checked that I had all my paperwork in line and ready for our departure. Good God, I was so organized, Tyler was feeling uncomfortable. So when we made it to the airport, passed through the ticket counter line, checked our bags and headed for immigration, my only thought was on what we would have for breakfast on the other side. And so, when we were next up to present our passports and visas for that ever important exit visa stamp, Tyler didn't quite know how to interpret my barely audible "oh s***". I have no idea how, but somehow once again, I didn't have my visa, I had some other small carbon copied piece of paper. At this point it was way too late for a trip back to our apartment so our only option was to see what would happen. I played the ol' sleepy sweet card and slipped the immigration clerk my passport with a smile and a yawn. He popped my passport up on the scanner, caught my yawn and returned it, and passed me back my document with a freshly inked exit stamp. Ah ya, this would not be our last chaotic situation at an airport, but at least Tyler will now help me keep better track of my visa.
We made it into Brazil and after a brief layover in Sao Paulo, flew into Salvador de Bahia with a plane-full of cheering, dancing and singing 15 year olds on their way home from Disneyland. Seriously, every comment by our pilot triggered a different song that even the flight attendants chimed in on, and the kids were dancing in the isles with their overstuffed Mickey Mouse dolls. After unloading the plane and strapping on our packs, we exchanged pesos for reals (of course, only in large bills) and hopped on a bus for our hostel. The bus ride was about an hour and then our directions instructed us to travel by foot for about 15 minutes. First left, then right, through a few public squares, down a hill, up a hill, and bada bing, you're there. Ah yea, no problem, except that it was dark when we climbed off the bus, we stood out pretty obviously with our packs and guide book plus we were both way overdressed for this much warmer climate. Lucky for us, a friendly local noticed us right away and offered to lead us to our hostel. Oh no, we're fine, we insisted. But our new friend proved persistent so we reluctantly accepted his help. Okay, this man was fast. He booked it around the corner, down the rough cobblestone road and even faster up the hill. Tyler was hot on his tails attempting some pretty impressive Portu-Spanglesh and I was just trying to not lose sight while taking in the amazing glowing town around us. Pretty soon speedy gonzalez stopped in front of our hostel, I caught up, and our welcome wagon guide asked us for a little something for his effort. I decided to let Tyler handle this one and rang the bell for the hostel. As I climbed the steps to the front door, the door swung open and our hostel host greeted us with a sideways grin. However the door swinging open caught me off guard and I felt myself falling backwards with the weight of my pack. Our hostel host, obviously confused by the strange scene in front of her, said something sounding like a warning and grabbed me by my pack straps as I groped for any kind of support. I nearly took out the much smaller woman while simultaneously flopping all over a freshly painted blue metal door. Hence the warning. Meanwhile Tyler, trying to give our guide a tip, somehow managed to rather than pull out one small bill, flip out his entire billfold sending all our cash floating into the street. Ah ya, we were quite a team that night. Our local guide ended up with the best tip of his life and we ended up with a lecture from our hostel host on local norms ranging from appropriate tip amounts, clothing suggestions, safety precautions and you get the idea. Day one was under our belts, our confidence was brought down to a realistic level and what else can I say?
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