success!

I am pleased to report that we have our Sao Paulo State police reports. We arrived promptly at 4pm, were escorted right to one of the two people we were to ask for, filled out our forms, got our fingerprints taken, and VOILA! Twenty minutes later we were the proud owners of two pieces of paper that said that my beloved and I had not committed any crimes in the great state of Sao Paulo.

After thanking this woman profusely, we then went to the cartorio, where we had to pay $R6 for these notary-type people to say they recognized the signatures of the delegate who signed the police report (which I guess attests to the fact that we didn't forge this document).

The use of the cartorio is a topic for another day, but Brazilian have to do everything by way of the cartorio. You want to buy or sell a house? You want to register the birth of a baby? You want to change the board members of the American Women's Club in Brasilia? You go to the cartorio.

Now we wait for the jeitinho to take effect for the federal police report and we are on our way to Rio.