At long last, the story of bribing a Bolivian border guard.
We were able to get into Bolivia without a hitch. We officially left Peru on one side of the street, and then walked over to the other side of the street to be stamped into Bolivia. And then we walked across a bridge into Bolivia to wait for our bus. The whole deal took maybe 45 minutes, and throughout the process we followed all of the other gringos from our bus and had no issues.
We were never told we needed a visa to enter the country. Oops.
We left Bolivia through a different, way less hectic, border crossing. Our seats were in the front of the bus, so we were the first in our group to step up to the border crossing official. He took one quick look at our passports, and then started speaking in rapid fire, not so happy sounding, Spanish. Thankfully someone else on our bus was able to translate a bit…
We were told we needed to buy a visa and pay a fine. At first the official said it would be $183 each, so assuming it was in Bolivian dollars, we exchanged some of our Peruvian money at a nearby mercado. (The guard took our passports and put them in the front pocket of his jacket while we did this.)
When we returned and tried to pay, he told us we needed $183 in cold, hard, American cash. We had about half that amount in our combined Bolivian and Peruvian dollars, and no debit card to get more. Even if we had the entire amount in Bolivian/Peruvian, it wouldn’t have been possible to find US dollars in po-dunk border crossing town anyway.
The guard suggested we return to La Paz (without our passports) where we would be able to get the US cash from a bank and then return. When we balked that all of our stuff was on the other side of the border, he let Scott go retrieve it.
It was at about this point when Scott really started panicking, and I started thinking about a bribe. The guard had been ignoring us as much as possible, all the while letting everyone through from our bus and the second bus that had arrived after us. He knew we were panicked, and he was waiting until everyone was gone to make a deal.
I pretty much started following the guard around the small office, with all of my cash in hand, asking him what we could do to fix this. I started with saying that we would be returning to Bolivia in month to go to the Uyuni salt flats and we could pay then. And then I told him that we could pay half for the visas, if he would just give us a break this time.
Cold, hard cash in his face… even if it wasn’t American and it wasn’t the full amount for our visas and fine, apparently worked. As soon as all of the people in the office were gone, he took me over to his desk. I put my money on the table, just as Scott was arriving. Scott took all of his money out of his wallet and put it on the table.
At first I truly thought he was giving us a break on the Visas… Then the guard handed Scott our passports and told us to get lost. No Visa, just leave. I started to grab the money on the table, but the guard put it hand down over it.
At that point… I don’t know what prompted it, but in my nicest voice I said to the officer, “Por favor, necesitamos solamente un poquito para vivir.” Meaning, “Please, we need just a little to live”, insinuating that we had no debit card and needed some cash. The guy nodded and loosened his grip. I literally grabbed over half of the money sitting on the table. And then we ran.
I will never go back to Bolivia. I don’t care how amazing their Carnaval celebrations are, or how stunning La Paz is, or how beautiful their salt flats are… I can see salt flats in Utah, right?!
Awesome story and one to tell keep telling, but don’t ever ever get in that situation again, k? Also, I think your instincts prompted you to speak like that, no dinero no alimento y necesitamos el alimento porque está bien!
Con la gente que viajé a Bolivia sobornamos a otro guardia de inmigraciones con un panetón y una gaseosa de 3 litros jajajaja… yo si planeo regresar
Wowzers. You were brilliant, but I agree with Autumn.
Yikes, that sounds pretty scary. Hopefully a few drinks will calm your nerves and you can start havig fun again.
Took a big intake of breath when I was reading this blog, Allison. So much corruption and you were fortunate the angels were looking out for you.
Whoa! wait a minute! you’re the one who promoted the corruption! Don’t write off the entire county! A visa is $150 (good for 5 years), so the fine was only $30. What do you think American immigration would have done to a Bolivian in the reverse situation? (and the only reason they started charging Americans for a visa a year or two ago is because we started charging Bolivians to get a visa to the US)
nope, wait, sorry, visa is currently $135 cash.
For anyone traveling to Bolivia, the additional requirements at the border are:
Recent 4×4 [cm] color photograph without glasses.
Passport with a validity of not less than 6 months
Hotel reservation or letter of invitation.
Round trip ticket or trip itinerary.
Economic solvency (credit card or cash or a current bank statement).
Photocopy of International Certificate of Vaccination against yellow fever.
Have copies of all this stuff, and the border crossing should go smoothly.
Yeah, they could have told me that when I entered the country, Doug! I paid 15 Bolivian, they stamped my passport, and let me through. Easy enough, until I had to leave. None of this information was asked for at the border crossing where we entered! I would call that a border crossing issue, not mine.
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