We spent four days in Madrid at Hostel One, a great hostel with fantastic, understanding staff. Unfortunately, every day was spent running around for the Brazilian Consulate.  As Australians we had to apply for a Brazilian visa within 90 days of our scheduled arrival in Brazil.  We decided to apply for this visa in Madrid after being advised to do so by the Brazilian Consulate in Prague.

Our first afternoon was spent printing the required documents and filling in the visa application. We could not apply for our visas that afternoon because the consulate only considers visa applications from 9.30am to 1.30pm everyday.  The next day we waited for two hours to have a ten minute visa interview. The interviewer told us we could pick up our visas and passports on Monday morning before our scheduled flight to Lima.  What a fantastic plan this was - it allowed us to spend the weekend in Barcelona with Miša.

We arrived back in Madrid on Sunday night and were looking forward to leaving for another continent the next day.  We rocked up to the consulate building bright and early Monday morning.  It was shut.  It was a public holiday.  The interviewer must have forgotten about the public holiday.  We were screwed and everyone we talked to agreed. We couldn't leave for Lima that day. Crap.

After busting it out to the airport we managed to change our Iberia flight from 12.45pm on the 9th to 12.45pm on the 11th of November.  At least we had a flight, but it created a chain reaction of cancellations (taxis, accommodation and a flight to Cuzco) and re-bookings. As we had done everyday in Madrid, we cooked lunch and dinner at the hostel after buying groceries at the El Corte Inglés supermarket. That evening, we drowned our sorrows with some hot chocolate and churros from a nearby chocolate cafe.

The next morning we picked up our visas and passports from the consulate, berating them as we went. For insurance purposes they agreed to give us an official letter saying it was their fault. Hah! The next day we left and hoped that one day was enough to acclimatise to the altitude in Cusco, Peru, given that three days were recommended.

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