For live and premium content, sign up for our email newsletter and we'll send reports directly to your inbox
If you are an American citizen and you are planning to go to Brazil on a fishing trip, be advised that you must have a visa to enter that country. One traveler we know found this out the hard way recently, when he and a party of six other anglers tried to board a plane in Miami to go peacock bass fishing in the Amazon. They said they were not told about the visa requirement by their travel agent or their airline – American Airlines – until they arrived in Miami. The resultant delay all but ruined their trip.
Your booking agent should handle all the visa details for you. Just in case he (or she) doesn’t, the number for the Brazilian consulate in Washington is shown below. Be prepared to pay a $10 general handling fee and a $45 "reciprocity" handling fee, which is what Brazilian citizens pay to apply for a visa for the US.
Why all this hassle and expense? Consular officials won’t admit it officially, but the visa requirement is payback for what they call "harassment" of Brazilian citizens who want to visit the US. Why else would they exempt almost everyone else except Japanese, Mexicans and Canadians from the visa requirement? Maybe someone should remind them of the billions of dollars we Americans just loaned them….
At any rate, there is one more wrinkle here. If you try to visit Brazil within 90 days of visiting Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and some African countries, you must have a valid Yellow Fever International Certificate. If you are required to have this immunization and you cannot prove you have been immunized, you will be deported upon arrival in Brazil. For more information on yellow fever vaccination requirements, contact the Centers for Disease Control.