I have GOOD NEWS for those who do the border run to bolivia every 3 months or so. I had origonally planned to get a residency permit back in december but thanks to the arsehole Jose Mogollon from Pisac who was posing as Lino from immigration I missed my opportunity for the residency card. (hes a collectivo driver between Cusco and Pisac, if you meet him feel free to kick him in the balls for me or if you feel like it tell him that karma will kick him in the balls one way or another). So anyway my 90 days were running out and i was close enough to Puno so I decided to do a border trip to copacabana. To cut a long story short that involved perfect timing and my higherself directing things brilliantly I was able to get stamped for 6 months! Basically the old grumpy guy with grey hair has left and hes been replaced with a young slightly chubby and very smiley guy who is really nice. I had a story ready about having a peruvian girlfriend, im in love etc etc and need time to wait (6 months) until she can come with me to new zealand and was hoping for 6 months if possible. This story isnt exactly true but its not entirely false either, love is a factor :) Anyway at 8am in Copacabana when i was just about to jump in a collectivo to the border (fronterra) my higherself very clearly told me to goto the organic coffee cafe and relax for 2 hours, he said there was no hurry and so that i would arrive at the boarder about 10am.. this sounded like a good idea to me. When I was about to leave the cafe I mentioned I was hoping for 6 months, this was when the owner told me the new guy is really nice and had recently given a friend 6 months after they mentioned they wanted to do NGO work in the mountians... here was the missing puzzle piece I needed.. if I had just told my girlfriend story and asked for 6 months he would have said heres 3 months, just come back then and get another 3, then you will have 6! The trick is to have a story that says it will be very difficult for you to come back in 3 months to the fronterra because you will be deep in the mountains then working for an orphanage, an NGO or as in my case staying with a family in the mountains learning Quechua with my girlfriend. Obviously if everyone starts using similar stories he will catch on pretty quick, but im not even sure he believed my story, he smiled, gave a little chuckle and then stamped my passport and that was that. hes also fine with people staying 1 night in bolivia and coming straight back, he said that was normal.. it seems he is doing his job just like they used to some time back before some started getting fussy and choosey. Lets hope he stays there for a long time and that he keeps his happy attitude and doesnt become like the others :) So its fine to go via Desagadero if your heading to La Paz, just make sure you come back via copacabana.. the staff at Desagadero are not friendly from my experience and the lady there told me another time that from her point of view 3 months is the maximum anyone can get anytime no matter what the circumstances! Thats what she told me anyway. And if you have lots of stamps for Peru already then she may give you just 30 days or less, its happens. So I hope this is some help to some :)
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 00:20:42 +0000
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