Dear friends - It is indeed an issue of reciprocity. Brazil charges the same fee for its visa as the U.S. does for Brazilians coming to the states. I am certainly not at all patient with the preposterous situation wherein the Brazilian consulates across the U.S. use different forms and have totally varying timetables for processing visas. However, we should bear in mind that it is far more onerous for a Brazilian to obtain a visa to visit the U.S. than it is for us to visit Brazil. All things considered, our few days in Rio prior to boarding Voyager were delightful and emphatically rendered any lingering annoyances we'd harbored concerning the Brazilian visa process as mere white noise. Rio is indeed "a cidade maravilhosa", the marvelous city!! Tchau, Fred