Stuart from California? Red KLR with soft baggage in Antigua? Or maybe the other Stuart who left a rain-sodden card on my KLR parked in the street in Ushuaia last year?
You need an advance visa for Brazil. It is difficult and time-consuming in the USA, easy but time-consuming in many South American capitals, and easy and quick in Iguaçu. It always costs about US$140 for American citizens, and if Ted thinks this is cheap I'd like to help him out with his financial planning.
Temporary import papers are separate from the passport. Sometimes when I exited Brazil they let me keep the old papers, saving a certain amount of trouble when I re-entered; other times they took them and cancelled my import, meaning I had to do it all over again.
I don't know how they handle leaving the country by air without the bike, but it's not a backward country and they do like their documentation and bureaucracy there. Again, at land borders they sometimes demanded it and sometimes did not. For example, I couldn't buy a ferry ticket to French Guiana without a cancelled temporary import receipt. On the other hand, mileage does vary.
Hope that helps.
Mark
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