Colombia, Ecuador and Visa Trouble – Part 3

Part 3 …the finale’

The next day we had a lazy morning, had breakfast at the hotel, gathered our belongings and headed to the square to call a taxi. We planned on visiting the Sanctuary of the Virgin Church, an amazing structure basically in the middle of nowhere. And the rest of the day was going to be spent heading back to Cotacachi…reversing our steps from the previous day.

We arrive at the Colombian border mid afternoon on Wednesday, there are few people in line and we breeze through the process in a matter of minutes. We get our money changed from Peso’s back to dollars, and take the walk back across the bridge into Ecuador. Man is the Colombian side of the border smooth, quick, and hassles free!

So, I will get into it here for all of you saying something like “I can’t believe they took their kids across the border into Colombia”. First of all, mind your own business, change the channel, flip the page, and go read someone else’s blog. Second, we go out of our way to ensure the safety of not only our kids but of the entire family…if making the border crossing presented even the slightest danger we would not have gone. Third, the ole’ saying don’t believe everything you read is applicable also. In case you were not aware, if you are getting your news from the mainstream media you are getting a half-ass, bias account of what is really happening in this world.

I not only felt very safe making the border crossing, but felt secure in the town as well. The Colombian people have a spirit that is contagious and what little we saw of the country is beautiful. I will definitely go back to Colombia some day to explore and learn more about this country.

Ok, so with Colombia behind us it is time to drag ourselves back through Ecuador Customs. And I do mean drag…same deal as the day before, slow, unorganized, short-handed is the order of the day. It takes another couple of hours to get through the line, which is basically the same line on the Colombia side that only takes minutes, and our finally we are at the head of the line. We present our papers, some words are exchanged in Spanish between Gina and the Officer behind the window that I can’t understand, and then I see him shaking his head.

What is he saying I ask Gina. She doesn’t answer locked in concentration about how to get her point across in a second language. I see him shaking his head again. Part of my attention is focused on the kids, the both of which are bouncing off the walls after having stood in line for more than 2 hours, but part of me is trying to pick up a few words that I can understand to get a gist of the conversation. Finally she tells me that he is saying we can’t get back into the country…they will not let us back into Ecuador.

Let me state here that we did our part in researching what the laws were, how they affected U.S. citizens, and talked to a lot of folks with direct experience of the process. So we were not just coming into this blind and ignorant, but as I kept telling Gina in the weeks preceding this event…this is a 3^rd world country and anything can happen. And boy was it happening now. The bottom line is that he was telling us we had used our 90 days allowed in the past 365 days, and that he would not give us another visa. We told him that we had friends that had come the week before and gotten new visas’ and he simply said they must not know the law.

Nothing about policy or procedure or that our friend was held for 7 hours, told he could no enter the country even though he had not used his 90 days and had just come from Ecuador, or that he was asked from several thousand dollars and finally relented by giving the $20.00 and got an extension of 90 days. No, none of that…simply that we would not be let back into the country.

There is a lot that runs through your head at a time like this. Our biggest concern I suppose is that we left all of our luggage back in Cotacachi and only had the clothes we were wearing and a change of underwear..that were now dirty. The other issue was that I don’t think Colombia would have let us back in until another 24 hours were up so would we have to sleep on a bench in the parking lot, or maybe the grass meridian near the bridge? My personality is to get calmer in stressful situations, to calm my breathing and my mind, and to begin looking at the situation from different points of view. I can say for certain that I am the ONLY one in my family that takes this approach, the others prone to mild hysteria! Gina did a great job negotiating with the guy for 40 minutes or more, but it became apparent he was not going to budge. Her last ditch effort was to plead for another 30 days to go back to Cotacachi and get our stuff and get out of the country. In his kindness, understanding, and compassion he gave us 10 days no more to get our stuff and get out!

So, picture this. We are a family from the U.S. with 2 school aged kids standing on the border between Columbia and Ecuador. If you do not know your geography go get an Atlas. We have 3 backpacks, 4 pairs of dirty underwear and shirts, a laptop computer, and a hundred bucks in our pocket. We have just spent the past 3 hours standing in line and arguing with Immigration Officers who finally relented and gave us 10 days to get our stuff and get out. Now, if you have your Atlas in hand you can see we only have 2 choices Colombia or Peru. And if you have a detailed Atlas you can tell that the eastern border is on the “other” side of the Andes and involves both mountains and jungles. Here is the deal…we have 10 days to go from Northern Ecuador to Southern Ecuador with a stop in Cotacachi to “pack” and tie up loose ends. Sounds like fun!

Well, let’s call it 9 days because he includes the current day. We get back to the apartment late Wednesday evening, spend Thursday getting laundry done (another story in a land without dryers), saying goodbyes and checking out of our apartment, and by Friday morning we are on a bus to Quito.

The trip by bus from the Columbian border to the Peruvian Border takes 26 hours, more or less. The plan is to knock out a manageable chuck every day. I am not sure I could handle a 26 hours bus ride, let alone trying it with 2 kids…and am certainly not going to find out. The original plan had us arriving in Peru on Wednesday 2 days before our visa extension expires, but as I sit here writing this Grant is sick and we decided to not put him on a bus today. New itinerary has us in Peru on Thursday.

Two other points you may be asking. The first is that we personally know lots of people that are spending more than 90 days in Ecuador, are getting T-3 visa extensions, and we just happen to hit an immigration officer that was not having a good day and was not in the negotiating mood. In fact, there were 3 others that made the same border run that we made and they spent hours arguing with the officer and were finally given an extension. Additionally, we still do not know the exact law because we are hearing different interpretations from Immigration attorneys on the subject. Ecuador adopted a new constitution this past summer that changed visa policy, but subsequently had a the direction of immigration run out of office because people were unhappy with her.

The second point is that we could have stayed if we wanted. We began calling friends on the bus ride home and up until the following morning. We were told that we could get one of several visas if we wanted. It would have cost us somewhere between $1,000 to $2,000 and given us another 90 days in country. These are still available if we choose to come back in the next year.

If we were flying to Peru this would be less of an issue. But airfares are running $500 per person, so that is a two grand price tag for our little family. We have more time than money so the public bus it is. As a comparison, I am estimating that it will cost us less than $100 buck total for our bus fare. Throw is a few motel rooms and food.

So, we are on our own amazing race across Ecuador. Our goal is to collect our things and be in Peru before the visa extension expires. The prize is an adventure of a life time, the penalty for failure…a fine of $200.00 per person. Wish us luck~