You can’t check out any time you like, but you can always leave. . .

Brazil is a lovely country, but bureaucratic beyond comprehension. To clear into Natal, we had to visit 1) the Federal Police (Immigration), 2) Customs, 3) the Health Ministry (”Are you bringing Yellow Fever?”), and 4) the Captainerie (Harbor Control). It only took us four hours, filling the similar information in each spot. We were told that when we left Natal, all we had to do was check out with the Captainerie, which we did.

On arriving in Salvador, we went at once to the Captainerie, and checked in. No problem. Soon the Federal Police showed up and wanted to know why we hadn’t checked out of Natal. We said we were told we didn’t need to, they showed a line on one of our forms which said we had to. We asked why we had to check out with the Federal Police when we weren’t leaving the country and they said because we went to another Federal State. So they wouldn’t check us into Salvador because we were still officially in Rio Grande del Norde. But they would check us out when we were ready to leave for Cape Town. Which they did promptly. It made perfect sense to them. At least they didn’t send us back to Natal to check out. And, no, nobody asked for or hinted about “special fines” or “processing costs” or anything.