Crossing the border from Peru to Bolivia - It could have been worse

Visa cost and CRISP DOLLARS

USA: $135

RSA: $55

As Lindsay and I were doing our research on visa costs for Bolivia we came across many horror stories of buses leaving people at the border or the one we heard from almost everybody that had to pay a visa cost. They ONLY except crisp, pristine, brand spanking new, hot off the press American Dollars in exact change. Not even a wrinkle in a note will be accepted. This made us more than a bit worried. For Lindsay being American had to pay 135 dollars to enter and me being South African from what I could gather from the internet needed to pay 50-53 dollars (It turned out to be 55 dollars). So Lindsay went into town and went to money exchange after money exchange but none of them would take our wrinkled dollars that we have been carrying around since we left the states. A very kind Peruvian man in line at one of the shops overheard Lindsay trying to exchange and offered a crisp one hundred dollar bill and took our wrinkled twenties then turned around and exchanged them (for Peruvian money) at the same place that refused Lindsay. So what to do now, we at least had a hundred. Withdraw money from an ATM. So we went to an ATM and one, two, three and there we had….. SOME crisp notes. It seems they just recycle the money into the ATM’s. Okay that is understandable but we needed crisp ones. So we went into the bank and begged the guy. He was able to help us with a few more bills but not all. So there we had it. Hopefully crisp enough notes to enter Bolivia. So we finally arrived at the border the next day. Lindsay made friends with a very friendly American woman on the bus from Puno to Bolivia who was able to take some of our not so crisp notes we had left for some of her better ones. 

We were instructed to go to two offices on the Peruvian side and stamp, stamp we were checked out of Peru. Next stop Bolivia. We walked across the border into Bolivia where we approached a small building with a huge sign…. IMMIGRATION!! We all lined up and after some confusion we got the correct forms from a  police officer. Our friend John just got in line stamp, stamp and he was in no hustle no costs (he is from the UK). Damn British ;)…. Mine was also not too hard. No extra forms. Just the visa cost. I approached the counter and asked how much he told me 55 I handed over a few bills. He looked at them intensely looking for any sign. None. Phew. I got my visa stamp, stamp and I was in! John and I were cleared and Lindsay was still busy filling out a lot more paperwork. She finally approached the counter and he told her that she needed to go and make a copy of her passport. So we ran across the street paid a few cents and ran back. The American woman that helped us out was in front of her and it seemed that she softened him up a bit because he seemed to be smiling and looking relaxed. Lindsay’s turn I think her nervousness also helped her. For he smiled took the money and stamp, stamp she was in.