The Big Mystery!

South America remains a big mystery for us in the US. I was astounded by the differences between traveling to Europe and South America.

We wanted to travel to Brasil to see our son who is an exchange student in Natal. Seemed like a simple trip to make. We had traveled to Europe a couple of times, and I was able to make all the arrangements on the Interweb.

I started looking at airfares and airline schedules. Big surprise! All the online travel services tried suggesting routes that were circuitous at best and had us traveling for 26 to 30 hours.

After struggling with the schedules, I managed to find a route that didn't involve a lot of out of the way travel, but did have some longer layovers. Problem was, it involved more than one airline, and the online services were not happy with that. A travel agent was the answer, and I finally found one that helped me put the air part of our trip together.

Important note: you need a visa to visit Brasil!

Booked a room for my wife and myself at the Holiday Inn Express in Ponta Negra, a beach neighborhood south of Natal center. Now the packing begins!