Bolivian Visa

Americans have only been required to get Bolivian tourist visas for less than 2 years. Its all politics between the former US president and Morales, the Bolivian president. Yippie!

At the small border control in Bolivia, Mike and I appeared to be the only tourists out of maybe 100 that were American and singled out. We both knew about the visa so I flashed my passport right away, knowing we would go through different protocol than everyone else. The military guard spotted my nice blue passport with an eagle on it and pulled me to the side. He nicely asked if I had already applied for a visa? No. How long would I be staying in Bolivia? 14 days (always ask for more than you need) Was traveling alone? No. (I signaled Mike to come over, too). They took both of our passports and said something about 2-3 days. While all the Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, even South Americans all were getting stamps and then returned their passports. The guard made it clear we were not to get our passports back yet. I felt really excellent about entering a third world country and leaving my passport behind.

Lucky for us, we had a translator in our car who was able to explain to us that we would get our passports back in Uyuni. When we arrived to Uyuni at 12:30, I immedetly asked about our passports. The guy explained the office was closed and we had to come back after 4 pm. At 4, he walked us over and handed our passports to the customs official. We gave them our paperwork (yellow feaver vaccine, passport photo, and a form). Then another gentleman came over to collect the $135 USD required for the visa. I have never seen anyone so cautiously inspect money before. Even though Mike and I have been carrying this cash all the way around SA and brought it from the US, he rejected 2 of the twenties we had. See the photos at the side and let me know if you can see the `rip`that was supposedly the reason he rejected them. I had an extra one that he accepted. We were still a $20 short so we had to go to a money exchange place and get a crappy exchange rate to purchase another $20. So rediculous!

Thankfully, when we returned he accepted our recently purchased bills and gave us our passports, with visas and stamps. Whew!!