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Sometimes the Bolivian immigration Office in the border with Chile is closed. In order to not have problems I decided to get my exit stamp on the passport in Uyuni. In Bolivia you pay $15 Bolivianos to get out of the country. I’ve never seen that before in other countries.
When we got to the border, our tour group split. Some went back to Uyuni and others got the bus to San Pedro de Atacama. The bus stopped by the Bolivian Immigration office, this time they were open to people stamp the passport. Then we continue to Chile. On the border line we could see the difference between the countries. The Chilean road was new and paved while the Bolivian one had sand and rocks.
We stopped at Chilean Immigration and Customs Office. Everybody had to get off the bus, stamp the passport and go to a room where they check the luggage. There was a long table where everyone placed his/her backpack and waited. After a while the police came and asked very loud who was Claudio, a Chilean man answered. Then shouted for Karla, I answered. So all the policemen with dogs came and looked at every single pocked of my backpack. They did the same to the Chilean man. After they were done with both of us, they looked over (without opening) the others bags and said we could go. It was prejudice with no doubt. They just checked the backpacks of the only two South Americans in the bus, none of the north Americans or Europeans got checked. A “random” choice for sure…
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