Peru border shenanigans

The procedure for leaving Bolivia was surprisingly simple by South American standards. Simply hand in your immigration slip, get your passport stamped and away you go. Similarly for the van the exit procedure only required us to hand in the form we had been given when we entered Bolivia and we were free to go, no waiting around and no photocopying of documents in triplicate. The only unusual thing was that we had to manually open the border gates ourselves to get out!

We were hoping for a similar slick experience on the Peruvian side but we should have heeded the omens when the last thing Christine did before leaving Bolivia was bang her head on the rear view mirror and knock it off its mounting and then, as if to underline the bad portents, I managed to crack the windscreen in my overenthusiastic attempt to reattach it!  We already needed a new windscreen to pass the Chilean MOT because of a chip but it was still annoying.

We got a feel for how things were to progress when the Peruvian passport office told us we needed to check the vehicle in with Aduana (customs) first and then Aduana told us they couldn't do anything until we had our passport stamped! We eventually persuaded the passport office to back down and both humans were officially accepted into Peru.

Next we went back over the road to the Aduana and smugly presented our vehicle documents and stamped passports, thinking we had cleverly solved the riddle they had presented. Never be smug to a Peruvian border official. After studying the documents for at least 20 seconds they declared they were not acceptable. As most of you already know, being avid readers of this blog, when we first bought the van the Chilean civil service was on strike and so we were unable to register it in our name. Instead we got a notarised letter from the previous owner giving us permission to take the vehicle out of the country. Whilst this was fine for Argentina and Bolivia, apparently Peru is too special to accept notarised documents.

So, what to do next? We were stuck at the border, our Bolivian SIM card had decided to stop working, we had no Bolivian or Peruvian money, and we were feeling pretty low! Then we remembered we had a few emergency dollars in the safe and luckily the only place open at the border was a currency exchange.

We knew you could print out the Chilean registration documents online (although only if you had a Chilean bank account to pay the fee) so using our newly acquired Soles we hired a mototaxi (like a Thai tuk-tuk) into the nearest town and found an internet cafe. From here we managed to contact our Santiago airBnB host, Javi, who kindly agreed to try to get the document for us. Unfortunately there was a problem with the website which wasn't likely to be fixed until the following day so we had to return to the van empty handed. We spent the night parked in the no man's land between the two countries.

The next day Javi got in touch to say that the registration change was still pending so the document wasn't in my name yet...oh shit!

Time for some lateral thinking. We tried contacting the previous owner to see if he could speed up the transfer...nope. We tried bribing the Aduana officer...surprisingly for Peru, not interested. We considered crossing the border in the dead of the night when it wasn't manned...too chicken. We thought about forging the registration documents...but didn't have the means. We ran out of things to try. We argued a bit.

The next morning, to preserve our sanity, we decided to head back into Bolivia. The weather had improved so we decided to go to the Isla del Sol and very nice it was too. Christine also contacted one of her friends to see if they could doctor the old Chilean registration document and put it in my name. I'll not mention who this was in case they don't want to be associated with forged documents online but I will say that they produced a faultless forgery in a very short time.

So two days later, greatly refreshed and with fresh suntans, we attempted the border again. The Aduana officer spent a good deal of time examining our forged document and comparing it to the rest of our documentation. He also spent a lot of time on the phone, presumably speaking to his boss. There were a few tricky questions about the dates on the documents but we managed to blag some answers that satisfied him. We finally realised he was going to let us in when he stopped angrily asking us questions and started to smile. He even gave us advice about some blockades which were happening further into Peru.

So now we are in Peru! But we couldn't have done it without the help of Javi, or our mystery Frank Abagnale...thank you both. We love you!

Rafting to Copacabana

The drive from La Paz to Copacabana was pretty scenic - much of it around Lake Titicaca.  Paul kept stopping so he could take pictures - every time we turned a corner, the view was even better!

Getting all the way to Copacabana involved crossing the lake at Tiquina on a raft.

This was a lot easier than I expected.  Where the road ended, a raft began, so we just drove straight on without even having to wait.

Having heard and read other travellers' accounts of the crossing, we were pleasantly surprised by how sturdy the raft was.  Ours was the only vehicle on board, so perhaps that helped.

And so we crossed the lake.  This pic of a coach going in the opposite direction captures how ridiculous our camper must have looked floating along.

Once on the other side, it was a half-hour drive to Copacabana.  We camped at an out of town hostel on the edge of the lake, alongside a VW camper and a custom-built overlander driven by a couple from the Netherlands who were 3 years in to their world tour.

The next day, with the help of a tool borrowed from the Dutch couple, Paul finally fixed our fridge.  Then we climbed one of Copa's hills for this view:

We were going to go to the much-raved about Isla Del Sol, but the weather forecast was thunder and lightning for the next two days, so we headed to the Peruvian border that afternoon.

Send it to Peru

Despite Paul registering as a Bolivian importer, the replacement fridge part did not get delivered while we were away from La Paz.  The Interparcel tracking page told us it had been delivered but was signed for by 'Retained By Customs'.  The very helpful receptionist at our hostel called TNT for us and discovered that we had to take the piece of paper confirming Paul had registered as an importer to their office and pay £20 to get the documents we needed off them in order to claim the package at customs at the airport.  

Getting the package released from customs was a challenge in itself.  We couldn't go straight to where it was being held; we had to go to an office, where they spent ages working out the tax code for a fridge part.  

(One of many offices we had to go to)

(Men flicking through pages trying to find the right tax code)

Then we were sent upstairs where a guy in a suit at a computer asked what the package was, where it had been sent from and where it was made.  We had to pay him a tenner for typing stuff into his computer and generating a number.  

Then we had to go downstairs to customs to pay the import tax (£16), but by the time we got there the office had closed.  So we ended up camping in the airport car park until it opened again at 8.30am the next morning.

Once in the customs office the next morning, we handed in our paperwork at one window so they could generate another number.  Then we had to pay the import tax at another window.  Then we had to go back upstairs for the man in the suit to print off another form to confirm we'd paid (and we had to pay 50p for that form!)  Then we had to get the wadge of papers photocopied twice (another 50p).  The customs office kept the originals and sent us to the depot.  

The depot kept one set of photocopies and we kept the other.  We had to pay them another 35p for storing the package and then after a short wait, we finally had our replacement fridge part!!

It was supposed to take a week to arrive, instead we got it three weeks after it was sent.  And we had to pay a total of 512Bs or £46.50 to get it from customs.  The bloody thing only cost £48.  We did ask the seller to say it was worth a tenner so we wouldn't have this hassle, but he ignored us.  Moral of the story: don't break your fridge.  And if you do, don't have replacement parts sent to Bolivia!

Three days in the Amazon jungle

We should have been a group of four for the jungle tour, but the Irish couple we were meant to be joined by had a problem with their flight from La Paz, so Paul and I effectively got a private 3-day tour.  We met our guide, Billy, early on Thursday morning and walked down to Rurrenabaque harbour where our boat awaited.  

After stops across the river to pay the entrance fee to Madidi National Park and to get stamped in, it was two hours or so boat journey to Mashaquipe's lodge in the jungle.  

We'd been told we'd be in a 5-bed dorm on our own, but because the Irish couple weren't with us, we ended up with a private cabin for two.  

We didn't realise how lucky we were until the last day of the tour, when we were given the 5-bed dorm to get changed in after returning from a night camping in the jungle.  The private cabin was obviously one of several new buildings that had been added to the site, with little extras like wooden floors (as opposed to concrete) and fluffy rugs!

One of the main differences between this tour and the pampas tour was the quality of the food.  We were fed 3-course meals for lunch and dinner, and breakfast was a vast selection of fruit, breads and eggs.  This was the 3-course lunch we were fed on arrival.

First activity after lunch was a 4-hour hike through the jungle.  They tell you you'll be lucky to see any animals; it's more about the plants, with Billy explaining some of the medicinal uses.  We tasted the bitter bark of a tree that's meant to cure malaria, smelt the bark of a garlic tree (very garlicky!) and we got to eat some random fruit that Paul saw dangling off a plant.

(Sorry about the poor focus, my camera is crap)

It was pretty hot and humid walking around and there were a lot of mosquitoes, so Paul and I picked up some random dead leaves, mostly to fan the mosquitoes away.  When Billy saw, he went off for a few minutes and came back with some big leaves which he chopped in to fans with his machete!

The plan for the second day was to get up early and set off on a long hike to a campsite in the jungle where we would spend the night.  But when Paul expressed an interest in fishing, Billy said we could change the program and go fishing in the morning before hiking to the camp in the afternoon.  

So the first thing we did the next day was go to a lagoon to fish for piranha for bait.  After the disappointment of not catching any piranha in the pampas, Paul finally hooked one in the lagoon!

Not to be outdone, Billy then went on to catch what he said was an Amazonian salmon!

Then it went quiet, neither of us being able to hook anything, so Billy put the fish on a stick for me to carry them to another lagoon (after pretending to eat them).

After a while at the second lagoon, I finally got my first (and only) catch of the day!

Then it was to the river to try and catch a catfish (or surubi).  Billy chopped one of the piranha up for bait.

Paul almost caught a catfish - twice!  But he didn't quite manage to hook them so they got away :o(

So after sitting there for 45 minutes, we called it quits and went for lunch.  We gave the remaining piranha and Amazonian salmon to Paola the cook and she deep fried them for us!  They were tasty, if a bit bony.

In the afternoon, we headed off on our trek further in to the jungle to camp overnight.  Mashaquipe have a permanent camp there with a basic kitchen and a tarpaulin shelter.  We had to take mosquito nets, sleeping bags and mats.

We also took Paola the cook with us!  There are four live-in chefs at the lodge and they take it in turns to go camping with tour groups.  She cooked at the campsite while Billy, Paul and I walked further to a lookout where we could see macaws.

(Disgusting and sweaty after hiking up, but worth it for the view - although the macaws were too far away and too fast to get a decent photo of them!)

When we got back to the campsite, Paola had cooked up a delicious meal of pasta and chicken.  But dinner time was when we got eaten alive by mosquitoes!  There was no mosquito net around the eating area and there were loads of mosquitoes, so we just got bitten everywhere!  We wished we could have enjoyed Paola's cooking properly, but we were so desperate to get behind the safety of a mosquito net that we wolfed it down and fled!

It was pretty hard sleeping that night because we only had yoga-style mats and no pillows, plus it was very humid.  But we were rewarded the next morning with an amazing breakfast that Paola managed to cook on the campfire: toast, eggs, pancakes, yuka (think it's cassava) filled with cheese, and apple.

The final day, we headed back to the lodge not by walking, but by rafting!  They advertise it as 'you build a raft' but what actually happened was Billy built it because he had to tie the knots - I think in the past rafts had fallen apart midway so this rule was brought in.

Billy then punted while Paul and I had a swim and then relaxed on the raft for the hour-long journey downstream!

After a shower and lunch at the lodge, we headed back to Rurrenabaque.  But we stopped off at a little village en route.  The village was celebrating its 30th anniversary with a football tournament involving teams from neighbouring villages.  The community is actually one which benefits from Mashaquipe's tourism and so there was a Mashaquipe team.

The prize was a pig, so it was very competitive!

For village football teams these guys were really good!  We left at half-time when Mashaquipe were 2-1 up though, so we'll never know who won the pig.

The next day, we headed back to La Paz.  The airline shuttle bus to Rurrenabaque was really hot, so Paul and I got motorcycle taxis to the airport (our rucksacks were on the bus).  It was bloody scary cos the road was largely cobblestone, but at least it was cooler than the bus!

Bye Rurrenabaque!  It was fun!