Just as the others did, I will now post an alternative sollution:
If you can find a PCMCIA-SCSI controller, you could get one of those SCSI-casings. That way you could have a hard-drive, a CD-ROM, and (in theory) a network card and a scanner.
Those casings looks like small PC-towers and mostly have their own power supply.
I don't know the price or availibility of those items in South America, though.