Asi es la Pura Vida This journal includes my previous trips, y es para my future trips. Empezando ahora I will catch up con fotos y stories ya del pasado, and will continuar mas in depth with the travels to come my way.

So i had left for brazil thinking i would stay for the full 6 months that the tourist visa allowed.  After 3 months of being there, i went to renew my visa for another 3 months.  To my surprise I was informed that my tourist visa that i had was only good for 20 days; meaning I had been illegal for over 2 months!!! my heart starting beating really fast, i was shaking, and i thought i was going to jail.  I didn't understand because tourist visas are for 90 days, not 20. -->> a little 411 about tourist visas... when you go through customs the people there can mark down the number of days on your tourist visa to how many days as they want.  I think it's a safety precausion, i'm not sure, but I was one that was singled out.  I had to give names, addresses, passport numbers of my family and of the people i was living with. I had to sign papers stating that i was aware of my deportation.  My Passport was stamped with the date in which i had to leave by, and i also had to pay a fine for every day that i was there illegally. yuck :( and so i had 8 days to leave.... everyone was trying to convince me to stay and that the police wouldn't come looking for me. "it's brazil!" whatever, i didn't want to take that chance, and i definetly didn't want to go to  brazilian jail. so on the 8th day i packed my bags last minute and went to the airport. at the airport my bags were too heavy but luckily they didn't charge me anything, and i was escorted to RIO and then escorted to my gate for the US.  how embarrassing!  anyways... to make matters worse, my friend gave birth to her  baby a week after i left. yup, i missed it. i wasn't there, and i hate tourist visas now. but i  betcha that i'll be keeping my eye on the number of days everywhere i go now.