A Snag. . .

Hey there, good citizens. Yankee here. We've had our first of what will most likely be many setbacks. I spent a couple of hours this morning going through the immigration rules for the various countries that are on the list. I learned some interesting things like the fact that in Nepal, you can go through customs, but if you want to leave the airport, you have to pay a $27 "airport exit tax". Excellent. Next, they'll allow you to go to sleep, but will charge you a "wakeup tax". This will be followed immediately by the levying of an "exhalation tax", whereby you can breathe in for free, but you'll have to pay the other half of the operation. Bill Clinton will not be affected.
Every other country was working out fine as far as entry and exit were concerned and I was just starting to get that feeling of relief when I got to Brazil- the last stop. Apparently, you have to get a visa from the embassy or consulate closest to your home prior to traveling there. You can't go to a different one in another city or country- it has to be the one closest to your residence. That was catch one. Catch two is that once the visa is issued, you have to physically enter Brazil within 90 days of the issue date, regardless of the length of the visa. Considering we wouldn't make it to Brazil within 90 days of departing the US and we can't pick up a visa in one of the prior stops, it looks like Rio is out. The team has picked a replacement stop and I'll be putting the new itinerary up right after this.
We were really looking forward to kicking back on the beach in Rio, but it doesn't appear that we really have any choice in the matter considering the Rules. Oh well. We'll make it up somewhere else.
Keep on keeping on -- The Yank