I have discovered that tourist visas to Brazil now cost over $200, and I have not been able to find a cat sitter yet. The house is not in good enough shape to rent because I cannot afford to get it into such shape, so I need a sitter I can trust. I had not planned on visas being so expensive and I will have to suspend something for a month to pay for this. I have not yet decided what or whom.
Visa + cat care + airport parking, which turns out to be necessary as well, will cost altogether as much as a month’s rent in Brazil. So why am I going to Brazil? Well, it is a professional expense and it is tax deductible. It will be good for my book and therefore my mental health. And I have been under pressure to go for some time.
I hope nothing bad happens there, though, because the cost of the visa has drained my emergency fund. The whole plan is irrevocable and most of it is already paid for, but those are the reasons why the ice upon which I now skate is so thin.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Oh man! you can’t get a ride to the airport? 😦
Well — plane arrives midnight, and by far the easiest solution is to have own car there. Logistics, logistics. I could give details. If family lived right by airport it would be one thing. No car and I get into cab fares and other costs that all add up to the same as parking — the whole thing is entirely too complex. !
Don’t have a good kennel, that’s not too expensive, for the cat?
Have a good one but it all adds up — it’ll be close to $300 and it’s a kennel for a whole month (not in own home, garden).
It can all be done / will all ultimately be fine / it’s just that it is not true what people insist to me, that all I needed was a plane ticket (as I could have told them).
Youv’e gotta find another way to the airport, parking there will be so expensive, and definatly make up some extra spending money if you can get a coach there or something. airport parking is one of my pet hates!
I know but: plane gets in at midnight, then I have to get bags, then it will be 00.30. Too late to go anywhere except by cab, and too late to sleep anywhere except in a hotel costing real money.
Airport parking for a month will be $240. Cab plus hotel plus cab to bus station plus buses plus cab to house will be about $180 and take another full day. Add to that cab plus buses plus cab to airport, $64, and we have $244 going on public transportation and staying in the hotel, vs. $240 plus gas parking at the airport.
Cab to bus station plus buses would get me home about 4 AM when there aren’t cabs and it isn’t safe to walk with bags/passport. This would cost $64. Two ways, $128.
That last option is the cheapest but it is very, very grueling and only saves $116 or so. The best would be to have friends living at airport who would store my car, pick me up at midnight, and put me up.
You show me, though, that I might just as easily get a hotel. We’ll see … it’s a whole problem, though, because of the question of getting to the airport on the buses plus cab (several hours instead of just 1.5). This is why I had come to the airport parking solution: not more expensive than the other viable possibilities, and potentially cheaper.
What a pain. I wish I could help; I know people who live near the airport, but they are not at a stage in their lives where they would be keen on the idea of putting up people they don’t know in their houses. Even very cool people that I know.
When is your trip? Not over winter holidays? /I’m/ thinking of being in Louisiana, then…
Thank you, human! This is the thing — I know people who live by the airport, but not that it’s convenient (for them) to impose upon in this way. I can possibly park at someone’s sister’s house, though. We’ll see.
Do *you* want to house sit? Because yes, it is over winter break. House is pleasant, cat is sweet, but it’s not N.O.
Oh, wow, that is kind of you. Actually I guess we’d be doing one another favors, wouldn’t we? I need to sit down and figure out exactly where the sources I need to get to are located… I’ll get in touch once I figure that part out.
Cool. 🙂