Clint vs. Peruvian Immigration, Part I

Even arriving to Cuzco did not remove all of my concerns, because I knew that I was still in Peru without a passport stamp. But talking with the police officer at the Plaza de Armas made me feel much more comfortable. If you remember correctly, when I entered Peru in the same bus Francisco Pizarro used when he traveled in when he conquered the Incan empire, the bus was in a hurry and left before I could get out to get my passport stamped. They told me it would be no problem, that I could take care of it in Puno or Cuzco. I know they aren't the authorities on the issue, but I didn't really have a choice. P.S. buses didn't exist when Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas.

The immigration office opened at 9:30 or so. I did a little looking around in Cuzco and made my way to the office by around 10. I explained to someone what my problem was, and they told me to go upstairs to talk to some guy. I continued to feel assured that it would be no problem, because everyone talked as if what I was doing was easily done. I got upstairs, the guy was there alone at his desk, and I sat down to explain to him what had happened. This is essentially what he said: "Well, this is a problem. We want to help you, but this is a problem. We used to be able to do stuff like this, but not anymore. When you try to leave Peru in two days, they won't let you."

He then told me that there were a few options. One was that I would have to return to the border and get a stamp. I definitely did not want to do this because I was tired of buses and also I would lose all of my time in Cuzco. Also, what if the same thing happened as the last trip I had just finished 2 hours earlier? I could miss my flight home. The only other option, according to this guy, was to get an entry stamp at the Cuzco Airport. He said he had a friend who could get me a stamp saying I had entered the country. However, in order to do this, he would have to get me a fake boarding pass from AeroSur, the Bolivian airline, that said I came from La Paz. Even more ridiculous, it would have to be printed for a Sunday flight (the day this all went down was Friday) because planes don't come from La Paz on Fridays or Saturdays.

This didn't seem like a great option. Fake boarding pass, no guarantee that I will get it in time and the immigration office isn't open on Saturday or Sunday, etc. I was thinking about it, and the guy kept saying the same phrase over and over: queremos ayudarte! We want to help you! I said that I really wanted to not go back to the border. He then said: how much do you think it would cost to get back to the border? I said I imagined 100 soles or something around there. He said, "Well, I think that getting all of this arranged through the airport would cost around 100 soles." At some point during this conversation, he called up a friend at the airport, but the friend was not there. He then said that he would have another guy from the office there go to the airport that day and get the stamp to give me the stamp. This guy came up and agreed to do it, and all I would have to do is pay around 100 soles and come a little after the office closed. What a convenient coincidence that my arbitrary estimate and the "fee" for the services were "around" the same price.

Wait a minute! I smell corruption. All of a sudden, I had to go to the bathroom. Absolutely had to. I told them I needed to use it and the guy took me to a bathroom and said "Usually we don't let people use this bathroom. It's only for workers here, but we'll let you use it." Dirty man. Well, I swear that this bathroom break was evidence of divine intervention because it gave me time to think about what was going on. I decided that I would rather go back to the border, miss out on my time in Cuzco, and make sure I did it all the right way than pay these dudes to do what might turn out to be nothing and what was probably illegal.

I came out and asked him what the 100 soles was for. If this was a legitimate fee that people paid for this type of service, then maybe I would consider it. I said, "Now this 100 soles: is this for you guys, for the government, for the airline....who is it for?" He said, "Oh no, this is for the government! But if you want to pay us a little extra, that's fine too!" Then I responded, "Well, that's why I ask, because I don't believe in doing that." He told me to come back at 5:30 if I wanted the stamp.

Part II is next.