The hilarity/frustration of getting a visa to another country should not be dismissed. It's never fun. No one is like, "I'm going to Brazil--I can't wait to get my visa!" They always leave out that last bit. That's because it's like pushing the "buy now" on a non-refundable international ticket. There's all this anxiety that you don't have everything together and something will fall apart and you will have to take money and time to fix the situation if anything goes bad.
Janine and I looked at the Brazilian website and discovered that while there's no charge for a visa, there is a "processing fee" given to Americans. We completed our paperwork (along with beautiful pictures of our faces in 2x2 sizes) and went immediately after my language school to the office. It's on the 34th floor of an office building that isn't near us. We arrived exactly when it opened only to find out that visa processing is only available in the morning, so we would have to come back. We were also firmly warned that we need verification of our yellow fever vaccines to be allowed reentry to Thailand after Brazil. So I said the day didn't need to be a total waste and we should head around the corner to the hospital where I was the first day and get a yellow fever vaccination. So we went there and lo-and-behold, they don't have it, so they asked us walk a couple blocks to the other hospital, where they should have it.
After a few minutes trying to find an English speaker, Janine had to leave and I was on my own. They instructed me to go into the emergency room and get a shot there. At this point, I was giggling imagining what someone would say as I walked into the emergency room yelling, "I need a yellow fever vaccination--now!" (Don't worry, I'm too civilized to actually do something like that!) Instead, I walked around the entry way like a stray cat trying to find someone who would vaccinate me. The person I found instructed me to go to a few blocks down the street to the "snake farm" where they have it. He wrote down the name on a sheet of paper in case I got lost so that I could ask a Thai person for instructions.
At this point, determined JoAnn set in and there was no way I was going home without a vaccination. Sweaty, smelly and thirsty, I walked pathetically down the street looking for this "snake farm," which I assumed was a name the Thais couldn't pronounce for something. I finally asked a few people and they directed me to the back of another building and walked into--a real snake farm! (Much to my surprise!) There was a Brazilian snake there and then all these cobras out of their cages playing with men. I was thinking, "What the heck is this? A hospital? They inject snake venom?" And as you can see from the picture, the guy standing in the background has a red cross on his white shirt, the universal symbol for, "I have access to the yellow fever vaccination."
This man came over and instructed me to go into the building that was NEXT TO the snake farm (much to my relief) and with 20 minutes before closing, I was able to get the vaccination I needed. Success! (And we were able to finish the visa process rather painlessly.)
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