Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Lagunas, Flamingos and another way to enter from Bolivia into Chile with a dog and a sidecar

Beautiful scenery, catastrophic track especially with a broken front fork but nonetheless I found an innovative way to enter Chile ;)

Some more info on crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile with a dog.

Your pet needs to be vaccinated against internal and external parasites (my dog got medicine designed for swines but I only figured that out later)!

Based on my (horrible) experiences here is what I recommend:
1. Your pet needs a health certificate from a vet stating the rabies information (date, vet who gave the shot) and the vaccination for the parasites (date and vet who gave it). Most likely your vet is incompetent so you need to make sure everything is ok, even the tiniest details! This paper is supposed to be valid for 30 days but I would not go beyond 10 days! The parasite treatment and the health certificate together were 80BOB.

2. Besides that you need an export permit for your pet from the Bolivian Senasag. This paper must state the rabies info (date and vet), the parasite info (date and vet) and better put ALL info you have about your dog into THIS paper (like all vaccines with date and name of vet, and whatever else you can imagine). This paper is supposed to be valid for 30 days but I would not go beyond 10 days!

Note that there is only one vet in Potosi who can make this export permit and this vet might be out on an inspection (or coffee). Better reserve time for this! Most likely this vet is incompetent (or lazy) so you need to make sure everything is ok, even the tiniest details!

Senasag Potosi: S19.55927° W65.76094°
(check their webpage http://senasag.gob.bo/ for other locations, there is no Senasag in Uyuni!)
The paper costs 50BOB and you need to pay at the bank and come with the receipt to the Senasag office.

The actual border crossing:
Bolivian side does not care at all about pets going in or out.

The Chile SAG has all the power to let you in or not. They can be very very naughty - a level of naughtiness which I would call arbitrariness as well as abuse of the SAG position (Other traveler's stories confirm that in regards to bringing animal products/souvenirs into Chile). Based on my experience there is no proven recipe for dealing with this. If they do not like you, they do not let you in, so be prepare to get access denied with your pet even though you believe you have all papers correct.

Potentially if you have a SAG paper from Argentina you might be able to compare and get a similar paper from Bolivia (just to be sure).

3 comments:

  1. I would have probably said F*&k you Chile and gone somewhere else. Glad you persevered. Keep on going. I'm late watching the videos but will catch up soon

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    1. I thought of that but then I would have needed to go back to Potosi and get papers for Peto for Argentina...

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