We were assured that the applications had been approved and that the paperwork would be in Arica on arrival. The reality was that Marion’s had arrived and that mine had been unfortunately sent to Santiago and it was not possible for the authorities to make the necessary alterations and fax the documents to Arica! The end result being that Marion is OK and I received another three months tourist visa on the way back into Peru, I will have to make another trip south when the three months expires. The worst part was that when we returned to Lima we found out that the corrections had been made and the papers arrived in Arica a few hours after we left for the journey home! I must be jinxed.
The border crossing is something that has to be experienced to be believed. Firstly you are confronted at the airport by all the drivers seeking your business to take you across the border. You basically have three choices, buses, executive taxis or collectivos. The latter are by far the cheapest and are big, old cars which will take five people at a time. We took the executive taxi going south and paid fourty five American dollars, on the way back we opted for a collectivo and paid considerably less and got there just as safely, maybe a little faster! These drivers try for three runs a day. The distance is about sixty kilometres with the actual border crossing half way. The time problem exists with the double paperwork, firstly leaving Peru and then just down the road entering Chile. I would hate to think how many people handled my passport as I negotiated the two administrations.
You are not allowed to drive across, you get out of the car and enter the building at one end, do all the checks, the driver goes across, you come out the other end and get back into the car. Remembering you are doing all this with heaps of other travellers all trying to get through as quickly as possible.
And in about one month I am going to endeavour to do this in one day, leave Lima very early in the morning and arrive back later in the night! Marion may never see me again.
The collectivo car park - the drivers are busy seeking passengers and as soon as they get four or five they are off!
The actual crossing points of both Chile and Peru. The bus name of 'El Rapido' hardly describes what is actually going on!
Our hotel in Arica, I thought that I was paying thirty three American dollars when in fact it was thirty three thousand pesos - about three times more than expected!
The surrounding country between Chile and Peru is as bare as the pictures show, the landscape goes for kilometre after kilometre!
