Odyssey: Border crossing from Bolivia to Chile

At 6 a.m., our bus left from Uyuni to Calama, from where we wanted to continue to San Pedro de Atacama.

Until the Bolivian border, everything was uneventful.
It was freezing cold on the bus - those in the know equipped themselves with blankets and sleeping bags - but other than that, we made good progress during the 2-hour journey.

At the border, we lined up at the office and waited to get our exit stamp. Here, the question arose again whether we should have gotten an entry form, like most of the other passengers. In the end, that was not a problem. We each paid 2 euro exit fee and went back to the bus.

Food stands at the Bolivian border

After about an hour, when all passengers had checked out, the bus drove 200 meters to the middle of no man's land between Bolivia and Chile. Then we waited.

After 30 minutes, the first questions arose about what we were doing here. Eventually, it turned out that we had to change buses, which was coming from Chile. But the connecting bus for us had already left because no passengers were waiting. So we waited for the next one. After a total of 2 hours, we sat with our luggage in the other bus and went to the next border, which was on a lunch break. In the meantime, we filled out our forms, the bus driver collected all the identity documents to fill in a form and we sweated. By then it was after 2 p.m., the sun was shining, and the heater was running at full blast.

Chilean border

early in the morning, Tom and I had considered whether we should book a bus from Calama to San Pedro, with 13 and 18 o'clock as options. Since the theoretical travel time is 6 hours, you would theoretically be in Calama before 13 o'clock. Good thing we didn't book that!

Well, at some point we got our IDs back and the bus driver handed in the form and registered us at the Chilean border crossing. We continued to sweat.

At some point, someone opened the emergency exits to let some fresh air into the bus - it felt like being a dog left in the car in summer. The bus driver's door was also locked, so you couldn't get out.

Slightly sweaty Tom

After over an hour, the bus driver came and we could finally go to the immigration office.
We were done fairly quickly, but we didn't sit in the bus, we had learned that. It took a long time again - there was a power outage before the last 5 people, so we had to wait again.

After everyone had received the entry stamp, we were allowed to go to the next station with our luggage and have everything checked. There were no technical devices, so all luggage was searched by hand.

Chilean border

After a total of 6 hours of border crossing, we sat on the bus and drove towards Calama. We reached Calama at 5:55 p.m. and managed to get one of the last 5 seats for the 6 p.m. bus to San Pedro de Atacama.

Next stop: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile