We began our trek to the border from Bonito. Hannah and I had befriended 3 others (British) who also wanted to go to Bolivia. We decided that the easiest option to get to Corumba was to get a car. While there is a bus that's a bit cheaper, the car took less time, had plenty of room, and only cost a few dollars more. The driver also took us straight to the border crossing (after an easy 4 hour drive). We were really confused at first at the border crossing office because there was a really long line (with only Bolivians). There happened to be a fluent English speaker in the office who directed us to another door. We were the only people in this line and immediately got our stamps to leave Brazil. Took a total of 10 minutes. We had heard horror stories about long lines so we were in shock.
We walked across the border and we were greeted by a worn down building with one guard who handed us papers to fill out with passport information. We had to enter the building (one small room with 3 desks) one at a time. The others had their visas after a minute or 2. I was last to enter. Immediately I knew things weren't going to go well.
I'm going to share now that this ordeal lasted almost 4 hours.
The officials took one look at my American passport and started asking for documents. I had seen on blogs and sites conflicting information but I knew that I needed copies of my passport, copies of my credit cards, my yellow fever vaccination proof card, and $135 US. It seems that they have added and extended what they require from U.S. Citizens.
I was incredibly lucky that I noticed another American in the room-who just so happened to speak fluent Spanish and had spent the last 2 days getting all of her border documents done. She was an angel and spent almost 3 hours helping me get things ready. Firstly, we needed to get 2 copies of everything (passport, credit cards, yellow fever), passport photos (the one time I travel without extras!), and the icing on the cake: I needed confirmation from all hostels of where I was staying for the entire time I was in Bolivia. I almost started crying when I heard that but I ended up booking 30 days in the same hostel. As far as the Bolivian government is concerned I'm spending my month in Santa Cruz.
The reason why all of this took so many hours was the lack of good internet and a printer. There were maybe 20 internet shops in the small town (I think I went to every single one) and half of them didn't have working internet. Not only did they not have internet in the internet shops but only two had a printer. Out of the two stores only one had a working printer. Funny thing was that when ever the internet worked (slow slow connection. It took me 30 minutes to get on gmail), the printer would stop working. It was a frustrating and semi-hilarious time.
When I finally got all the proper documents in order and had the visa placed in my passport...there was one more thing. Whoops! I had to print out my return flight from Peru. At this point I knew that the internet and printers weren't going to work-but I tried. I ended up printing something out but because the printer had no ink the only information I needed was missing from the page. The other American girl saved me from breaking down when they were telling me to go print it again by convincing them to let me borrow a USB and download my information. It was a bolivian miracle. After almost 4 hours of running around, feeling guilty because everyone had to wait for me, and anxiety about never entering Bolivia, I received my visa.
I had heard that they made the border crossing hard for only Americans and now I believe it. My friends who waited patiently for me told me that they saw the officials laughing and mocking us as we ran around. Sad, but I had already read that Bolivians weren't going to be the friendliest.
Everything after that is kinda blurry due to exhaustion and dehydration. We took a taxi to the train station and caught an evening train to Santa Cruz. It took 12 hrs and I slept the entire time.
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