Uruguay to Brazil, the Crossing from Hell

---

Uruguay to Brazil, the Crossing from Hell

Before leaving Montevideo for La Paloma, we went to the Brazilian Embassy to purchase our Visas for Brazil.  The ordeal was both time-consuming and expensive, as the fees were more than $800 USD for all five of us.  It seems the exorbitant Visa fee is a tit-for-tat tax since the US charges the Brazilians virtually the same amount to enter our country.  The Visa is only good for five years, which made the $655 Chilean Visas seem like a bargain.  Not only was the total cost cheaper, the Visa for Chile is for a lifetime.

Now fast forward to the next leg of our journey between Uruguay and Brazil.  When we began our trek, we made a rule that we would not allow the trials and tribulations of the journey to influence our opinions of the country or its inhabitants.  We would only report the facts and not pass judgment on any location, culture or peoples.  Well, as they say, rules are made to be broken!

It all started innocently enough.  Our plan was to take a bus from La Paloma to Chuy, Uruguay, process through customs and immigration, do the same in Chui, Brazil and catch a bus to a location yet-to-be-determined further north.  As we should have learned by now, the best laid travel plans often go awry.

We left La Paloma at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Chuy at 11:30 a.m.  The guidebook stated that the official border between Uruguay and Brazil was a four-lane street.  It was separated by nothing more than a concrete median, which was the official dividing line between the two countries.  It sounded a bit strange, as all other borders had a very clear demarcation.

Upon arrival, we asked where to catch a bus to Brazil.  We were directed to a location across the street to the Brazilian side.  And just as advertised, we were officially in Brazil.  No formalities and no way of distinguishing one country from the other except for the spelling on the signs and the language people spoke.  Although that was not 100-percent either, which was very confusing.

At the bus station, we learned the bus we wanted to take to our next destination operated only on Sundays.  On to plan B . . . we then decided to take a bus to a destination north of Chuy/Chui and catch another bus to Florianopolis, Brazil.  However, that bus left at 12:30 p.m., which did not give us enough time to process our passports out of Uruguay and into Brazil, get Brazilian currency and be on our way.

At the other border crossings from Mexico on, all the customs and immigrations offices on either side of any border were in close proximity to each other.  Not here.  On the Uruguay side, we had to walk south of Chuy, about two miles, along the side of the road to the Uruguayan office to have our passports stamped to "officially exit" the country.  Then on the Brazil side of the border, we were told by five different people that we had to take a local bus north to the next town, have our passports stamped to "officially enter" Brazil, ride the bus back to Chui and then we were set to travel the next day.

We caught the 5:30 p.m. bus to Santa Victoria and assumed (big mistake) that we would get off the bus, have our passports stamped at an office next door and return on the next bus - all within 30 minutes.  As we should have learned by now, nothing is that easy.  In reality, we had to walk nearly two miles to the immigration office and that was after getting lost several times and asking directions three times.  Fortunately, we met a young man who took pity on us and practically walked us to the front door of the Federal Police Station.  The officer stamped our passports in less than five minutes, and we hiked back to the bus station where we bought our return tickets to Chui. The entire ordeal from beginning to end took more than two hours!  Chuy/Chui has a lot to learn from every border we've ever crossed, especially the one between Chile and Argentina.

After 10 border crossings and 20 processing in/processing out procedures this was the most inefficient, bureaucratic, disorganized, time consuming, tortuous experience we had ever encountered.  Both countries were so unbelievably lax in every other respect; it defied both reason and logic that they even required anyone to get their passports stamped at all.

As travelers we try not to pass judgment; however, this border crossing experience would have tested the patients of the most ardent cultural-pacifist.  Oh what the heck, we are human . . . I hope to never see Chuy/Chui again.  Note: Even self-professed hardcore travelers have their limits.

That said, once we left the border town from hell, I began to reflect on our time in Chuy/Chui and realized it was not such a bad place after all.  In fact, it had many redeeming qualities that were not obvious during the rather strained circumstances.  Next week's article will focus on the things Chuy/Chui did right, and the border crossing debacle notwithstanding, there were many.

And remember . . . "Travel is the ultimate education."

---