Crossing borders in South America is never easy. Border towns are dangerous places and are often ridden with desperate people who will try to catch weary travellers unaware. The safest way to travel, we had found by searching on the internet, was to cross over from Cucuta in Colombia to San Cristobal in Venezuela.
Arriving from a long sleepless night on an extremely cold air-conditioned bus you are hit with a humid heat. You have to battle with con men claiming to be taxi drivers whilst taking your layers of clothes off and collecting luggage. Men grab the handles of your suitcase trying to lead you to their taxi and, being white and looking British/American, you are suddenly surrounded by lots of people offering the same service. There is only so much polite 'no gracias' I can say until I shout 'F#@~ OFF!', which takes aback and confuses any South American, I have now found, in to doing just as you asked.
After waiting around to assess our options we found a taxi driver to take us over the border for a good price. The border control was fairly straightforward. We got our exit stamps at a very official looking building and then driven over to a very non-official building to receive our entry stamps. After this the taxi driver took us to a bus stop and dropped us off to continue to San Cristobal.
We had no Venezuelan money at this point so we had to travel from the bus stop into the Plaza where we could find a cash point. I must point out that it is very important to always let your bank know if you are travelling from one country to the next. We had forgotten to do this this time and were kicking ourselves. We were in Venezuela with no money, and were unable to get anything out of the bank. Our only option was to book ourselves into a hotel and pay by credit card. We used the hotel's internet and told our banks so that we would be able to draw money out the next day. With the little Colombian money we had left we changed it into Bolivars and bought some street food and a bottle of water and then saved the remainder of the money for the bus to the next city just incase we weren't able to get money out the next day.
In the morning we tried the banks again. They didn't work. Being the optimist I insisted we use what money we have left to get to the next city along our way which is bound to have more bank machines. I kept telling myself, and Sophie, that the banks may just need a little bit more time because of the time difference and all we needed to do was continue in the direction of the farm. At least we knew that our credit cards worked so once we arrived at the bus station we would be able to buy what we needed by card.
We arrived safely at yet another grubby bus station. People flocked towards us again to try take our bags into taxis or onto buses. My patience had worn thin. They quickly stopped bothering us.
"Buenos dias. Dos bolletas a Caracass por favor." we asked the lady at the till for two tickets to the capital. All we needed to do was keep moving. "Con tarjeta, esta bien?" The lady nodded and Sophie passed over a Visa credit card.
In South America it is necessary to give a form of identification when paying by card. Chip and pin is used everywhere but they believe this isn't safe enough. In every country that we have paid by card in South America they always ask for your mobile phone number as the first form of identity, which Sophie and I found contradictory. The reason that this is done, we believe, is because when you buy a mobile in South America you need to enable it with your passport number. We think this then links your ID and your mobile number. Your mobile number is then used as extra security before making a purchase on a card. Most phone shops, however, have a standard ID to activate a mobile once you buy it making the whole process a waste of time. We always had to explain that we didn't have a mobile, which always received looks of disbelief, and give our passport number.
Although Sophie had used her credit card before at the hotel, this time it wasn't working. I tried mine. Again it didn't work. We had to go away and assess our options as we were holding up a queue.
We were both again starting to panic. We were in the middle of a foreign country with no money, unable to use our cards and unable to use transport to get anywhere else.
I had to make a decision to run around this unknown city to see if I could find a way of getting cash. I hoped there might be a Western Union or somewhere that could help. We had too much with us to be running around in the baking heat together so Sophie stayed with the bags whilst I went off.
I was unsuccessful in finding anything. I tried a few banks but still had no luck. Coming back I was dreading telling Sophie the bad news. Getting into the bus station I tried another bus company. This time I used my debit card. Went through the same process of entering my passport number and waited for the lady to tell me the bad news. But she didn't. It worked! I was so happy. We now had two tickets to the capital and I knew that my debit card worked!
I went over to Sophie smiling. We hugged, kissed and gave a huge sigh of relief.
By this point neither of us had had anything to eat or drink for a long time. Knowing now that my debit card worked I went over to a Subways that I had noticed outside and ordered two Italian BMTs with two large drinks. I was shocked to discover the price, coming to over £18, but was just happy to be able to eat so paid it willingly.
After waiting around for a couple of hours we got onto our bus. It was going to be another night bus but we were thankful just to be safe and not on the streets. As you can probably imagine we didn't think much of the country by this point. It was the most expensive we had been in, the locals seemed to hate gringos and we were underfed and under-slept. When we got onto the bus a lady came on selling water. We asked the lady how much, looked at our change, and realised we didn't have enough. Water was over £2 for a small bottle here whereas it was around 25p in Peru. The man in front bought a bottle from the old lady and passed it back to Sophie and I. We must have looked pretty desperate by this point for the man to take pity on us. We tried to give him the little change we had but he refused. His single act of kindness made us feel more positive and for that I felt he deserved a mention.
Arriving in the capital we felt it to be very much the same as the other cities. We went again through the same process of trying the cash points and still no luck. We sat down and decided together that we'd had enough of Venezuela as things just weren't going well. We decided to give up the idea of going to the farm and try to head for the airport and make our way back home.
This proved to be no easy task. We thought that the bus company must have had regular buses to the airport but there wasn't. I again made the decision to try run around the city to see what I could find. I was gone over half an hour and had found a large mall on my trip with several banks in. I came back, got Sophie and we walked there hoping to get enough cash to pay for a taxi to the airport.
At the mall we tried all the banks. We even went into a few to ask if we could use our cards to get cash and explain our situation. None could help.
We were stranded in the capital. Again with no money and no way of moving on. We both felt a little sick to the stomach.
I had an idea. There were taxis outside and we had things that we could exchange for the price of a fare, such as mobile phones, watches and jewellery.
Outside we managed to speak to one guy who organised the taxis. We explained our situation as best as we could and said we had no money but we had two phones that we could give for the fare. After finding out the fare was over £40 to the airport and looking at our phones it was clear they weren't going to cut the mustard. He asked if we had anything else whilst indiscreetly looking at my watch that I had on. I took it off and showed it to him. "Muy caro" I said, which translates to very expensive. I wasn't lying either. It was a lovely Swatch watch and it was a gift so I felt a bit reluctant to give it away. But we needed to get to the airport so I knew what I had to do. I handed it over and he organised a taxi for us.
So we did it! We were going to the airport. As we held each other's hands I don't think we had ever felt so relieved. We couldn't wait to get home.
Once at the airport we were able to sort out our flights using the free wifi and bought the next flights home. We had a long wait in the airport and it wasn't the largest so there wasn't much to do. We slept on airport benches that night but we felt we could relax a little more knowing we would be heading home.
In the morning we boarded our flights. We went from Caracass to JFK airport in New York and then to Heathrow. It was strange to think that a day earlier we were planning on spending at least another month on the continent!
Looking back on our journey in South America we will not forget all the good times we had. It was a shame to have such an eventful end but it hasn't tarnished our good memories of all the places we went and the people we met.
Thanks for reading our blog.
Tom and Sophie.
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| Our first day in Arequipa, Peru, September 2011. |
