With my departure less than six weeks away, the past few weeks have been very productive.
I worked at home the week of June 9 which gave me the opportunity to have a full physical (and received a clean bill of health) as well as receiving numerous vaccines - Hepatitis A and Typhoid fever at the top of the list. The doctor also gave me prescriptions for various potential illnesses during the trip.
After watching the prices of my ideal flights within South America for over 3 months, I finally purchased the inter-continent ticket. My Delta ticket only covers in/out of Rio de Janeiro, so I had to purchase tickets to Mendoza, Buenos Aires and finally back to Rio. After booking the ticket, I received an unwelcome surprise - notification that Argentina charges a reciprocity tax which you must show receipt of payment to enter the country...there's another $160!
My passport has seen much travel over the past six weeks, being hand-delivered to 4 different embassies for Visa approvals: Brazil, China, Cambodia and Vietnam. Luckily my passport was returned on Thursday with all visas approved and ready for travel. So happy that I'm not stressing days before my trip about when my passport might be returned...or possibly even being a reason for having to delay/postpone the trip. While I was so hesitant to pay the ridiculous cost of the Visa Service to handle all of the Embassy deliveries, in the end it was well worth the expense.
Lastly, numerous wineries have been contacted to put wine club shipments on hold or to plead my case for why I should not be dropped from an allocation for missing a purchase while traveling. I'm sure the front desk of the condo building will appreciate a dramatic reduction in wine package delivery for a few months.
