Bahia 2010 or bust!

So I'm planning a trip to brazil for 2010, nothing big, and still 90% conceptual right now, but my capoeira professor from london's going home for a month or so and he wants me to train for a bit.

There are currently 3 options that I know of right now and that's;

1. OPTION 1 - direct flight to miami, then direct to Bahia - this is probably the most comfortable option (and expensive!) but surveying has turned me into a bit of a cheapskate, plus I don't see why I should have to suffer the indignity of grovelling to the US gov't for a visa to transit in a fucking airport, (really now!, why the fuck should I need to pay $200.00 US for a visa when technically I'm going to be on international territory??) no wonder they're disliked.
2. OPTION 2 - *heh heh* bum a cheap flight to Guyana and travel overland to Bahia.
   

ಠ_ಠ


yes, seriously

there's a number of things that could go wrong there and when I mentioned this option to a guy in my local capoeira class he just stared at me as if I had just made an indecent proposal regarding his mother. Needless to say after a few choice bajan 4-letter words I realised that was a really, really REALLY bad idea.

1. OPTION 3 - Take a flight to Caracas via Trinidad, overnight in Caracas, on to Sao Paulo then last stop Bahia, Salvador, total trip time 34 hours. Jesus Christ on a trike 34 HOURS!!

Anyway, I'm not particularly comfortable with the idea of traveling through Venezuela (or over the amazon for that matter!!) but I guess it's a means to an end and everyone I know that's gone to Bahia for capoeira has had a blast. So I guess that's it then, unless someone reading this has a more sensible option..............hmm, are people reading this??



*UPDATE*

1. OPTION 4 - I've found another possibility that seems to be the cheapest but involves me flying to Guyana via liat then taking another rinkydink dash-8 type plane to belem and then I can pick up a flight to Salvador. Right now seems to be my preferred option as it's also only about 11 hours in total, but I must say that the prospect of flying over 700km of thick jungle in a questionably maintained aircraft especially after this incident leaves much to be desired by "the I".