anyone been to peru lately?

[Micromegas]

Looks like the entry conditions have changed and now australian visitors can stay 183 days without needing to leave the country or pay extra etc.. Can anyone confirm if this is true as some travel sites still say the old 90 days?

Cheers!

[ThunderIdeal]

i think fenris has been there for a few months now, maybe he can confirm if you PM him and he happens to log in before coming home.

[Fenris]

In July the max limit was 90 days - 3 months.

Its no biggie really, you can cross the border to Columbia for a day trip on a bus and renew the visa that way.

BTW Its awesome, do it!

[tassiejd]

when i was there i asked for 90 days and ended up overstaying, when i left the country i knew it was $1 us a day for every day you go over so for me it was like $15 for the extra fortnight i stayed, the guy at the border told me i could have got 180 days rather than 90, when i came back over the border i was just passing back through and only had a month anyhow so just got the 90 again so didnt test it, but from what i know 180 is cool, or like fenris said just go over the border for a day and come back.

[Micromegas]

Thanks guys. I would just like the added comfort of knowing i could stay the 180 days without having to do anything to avoid any hassles, and the sites on the net are just not that clear about what the rule is. I'll just stay as long as I need and sort it out on the way back seems to be the done thing, or maybe get the 180 days on the way in as suggested as I am likey to be there for five months.

I'm not leaving for 6 months anyway nything could happen by then.

Where do you catch a bus to columbia from? I didn't think it was safe to go over the border into columbia. Or rather, i thought that was one of the more risky things you could do in south america.

Peru is cool isn't it! This will actually be my fourth trip to that awesome country but the longest i stayed before was a bit less than three months. I am also hoping to check out a few other countries also.

Cheers!

[occidentalis]

Where do you catch a bus to columbia from? I didn't think it was safe to go over the border into columbia. Or rather, i thought that was one of the more risky things you could do in south america.

The only way to get to Colombia from Peru apart from by air is to get a boat from Iquitos downriver to Leticia.

Otherwise you have to go through Ecuador.

Colombia is mostly very safe these days and is definitely back on the tourist trail. There are still some places that you definitely don't go to but the main highways from Ecuador to Bogota are very safe. Nearly everyone I met on my trip who had been there said it was the highlight. I'm really disappointed I couldn't get there...

I've said it before but I'll just say it again - the border of Peru and Ecuador is extremely dodgy, particularly at the westernmost crossing ( I think it's called Haquilas. It's known as the dodgiest border crossing in SA because of the fact that a large no-man's land exists between the two countries where a flourishing black market economy has built a sprawling market. This is where much of the coca and cocaine that is produced in bolivia and peru get smuggled into ecuador to get to colombia. There are lots of stories of travellers getting mugged, blackmailed, or otherwise fucked over.

There are two crossings further east which are less used but are much safer. I crossed north by the westernmost one and had a very hairy experience (robbed of $300 by taxi drivers) and came back by the one further east, this was much faster and much safer. I strongly recommend avoiding that western one.