08 20 - Flying to Houston

I am always amazed at how much you can see of the ground when you are flying.  This is the Kansas river as I am leaving Kansas City.  Today, I am flying to Houston to try to get our visas for Brazil. We changed our Antarctica cruise, at Holland America’s request, to go on the cruise in December instead of January. By changing dates, we added Brazil to the trip and dropped some extra ports in Chile. Now that we leave out of Rio de Janerio, we have to get a visa for Brazil. If you are a citizen of all of the other countries, the visa only costs $20. But no, the visa for USA citizens is $160 (each). If you have any agency apply for you instead of doing it yourself in person, it is another $20. If an agency does it, their fee is $56 (each), plus express mail fees. I am flying on a free ticket from Southwest airlines. Even paying for the hotel room and rental car, it is about the same cost or cheaper as having an agency do it. This way, I do not have to give up our passports to someone else. Fingers are crossed that this will work!