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It can be a real pain, not to mention it is supposed to cost $100 USD per person for a Brazilian visa for Americans! We knew we had to pay this so we had the correct amount in US Dollars to pay their fee (reciprocity because the US charges Brazilians this in order to enter our country). So to start the process of entering Brazil, we walked to the airport in Leticia to get our exit stamps from immigration there. No problem. Once again, we are floating about without legally being “in” a country. Then after breakfast and errands, we grabbed a taxi to the Federal Police in Tabatinga, which is a town in Brazil, right on the Columbian border, basically attached to Leticia. Round trip taxi fare for this is 20,000 Columbian Pesos, roughly $8.50 USD. Keep in mind we have already been to Tabatinga to buy our boat tickets for the next leg of river travel and we are leaving tomorrow. So we are at the Federal Police, ready to pay our $200 and get our visas, and the guy starts telling us (in Portugese) that we don’t have visas. No kidding I thought, and just tried to imply that we were there to take care of that by asking how much it cost. Then he starts shaking his head and tells us that we have to go to the Brazilian Consulate back in Leticia. So we took the taxi back there and guess what? They were closed for the day - it was about 3:30 PM.
So the next morning, we cruise over there and wait on the front steps at about 7:30 AM until the Consular shows up in his official shorts and sandals and lets us in to begin the process. One of the first things out of his mouth is that we need to pay 300,000 Colombian Pesos, nothing else will do. Now we are armed with $100 USD, plus the equivalent in Brazilian Reais, each - and what does he ask for? Columbian Pesos! So we have to leave there and walk all the way across town to the money changing booths on the main street and change $200 USD into Columbian Pesos, which by the way, is not enough. 300,000 Pesos is equivalent to $127 USD so the price is even worse than we expected! We finally get the dinero back to the Consular and then he only gives us visas valid for a year, instead of the 5 year visas I was expecting - the dollar has gotten weak.
Finally, we get done with the diplomatic portion of our day and we take anothertaxi into Tabatinga to go to the Federal Police again. This time we got our entry stamps. A good thing since we have to get on the boat into the interior of the country in a few hours!