Posted in Travel, Travel Tips from Chuí, Brazil by Calina
As 21st century travellers, we are often relying on the Internet to give us the answers to the most profound of questions – when does that bus come? how do we get there? how dangerous is that area? When we wanted to know how to cross the Uruguayan border into Brazil, the Internet drew us a blank other than to tell us that it would be very, very complicated. This wasn’t a lie.
There are busses that leave regularly from Punta del Diablo and go to the border town of Chuy (Uruguayan spelling) or Chuí (Brazilian spelling). We took this bus and asked the driver to let us off at Immigration on the Uruguayan side of the border. You have to stop here to get an exit stamp in your passport. The stop comes before the town of Chuy. You also have to show the immigration officer the little piece of paper that was given to you upon arriving in Uruguay. DO NOT LOSE THIS PIECE OF PAPER. (Luckily, we had stored them carefully.)
From there we got a taxi to Immigration on the Brazil side of the border to get our entrance stamp. You will be given another small piece of paper which you have to keep with you until you leave Brazil. (There are way too many of these pieces of paper to keep track of.) Up to this point, we were quite impressed at how smooth the crossing had been. Then, a very nice policeman at the border told us that to get our bus to Porto Alegre, Brazil we had to go back to the town of Chuy. Our bus was leaving in 10 minutes and Chuy is 2 km from the Brazilian border. We hopped in another cab. Our bus was already at the station, loading passengers. We ran to the ticket booth to buy tickets, praying they would take our credit cards or US dollars. No such luck – Brazilian reals only. The bus to Porto Alegre pulled away and we were stuck at the Chuy bus station. We quickly figured out an alternate route. We would take the bus to Pelotas that was leaving in 25 minutes, and from there we would get a bus to Porte Alegre. Dan and John started running around the town of Chuy trying to find a bank or exchange place where they could get Brazilian reals to pay for our bus tickets. After stopping in four different banks, they were finally able to get BR reals. Meanwhile, Jill and I were stuck at the Chuy bus station with all the bags not knowing what was taking the boys so long; we watched helplessly as the bus to Pelotas closed its doors and revved its engine. Just as the bus to Pelotas was starting to back out of the station, Dan and John came racing down the road. I ran up to the bus and pleaded with the drivers to wait. They did not look happy but they stopped the bus. We bought our tickets, loaded our gear onto the bus and flopped down in the comfy seats, extremely relieved.
If we had had more information, we would have done the route differently. After getting the exit stamp in Uruguay, we would have gone straight to the town of Chuy by taxi and bought our bus tickets. Then we could have asked the bus driver to drop us off at the Brazilian border to get our entrance stamps. This would have been a lot smoother and we would not have missed that first bus. Oh well, live and learn. But hopefully this post helps make the crossing smoother for other travellers.
Well, another thing to chalk up to experience and to laugh about upon your return. Hope you guys are now in Brazil and everything is okay. I just sent Daniel and email and then thought to check the blog. Should have done it in the reverse. Oh well. Take care, have fun, and be safe in Rio. Miss you!
Just think what an adventure you would have missed if you’d taken a plane!!!! Hilarious.
I thought “you can’t get there from here”.
Glad to know you are all safe and finally in Brazil. Nonno and Nonna received your post card by the way. They thank you both.
Ciao
Thats good they got it, I’m in the process of uploading a video of Carnival for you guys. It’ll be on the blog soon, the camera is working out great.
BTW what did you mean by: I thought “you can’t get there from here”. ?
Hilarious,-after the fact of course.
I love the post …I am sitting in the town of Chuy awaiting Monday to get a visa for Brazil. Brazil visa expire in 90 days and I originally started in Central American last March. THE guy that an do that paper work is on vacation.
Just to add to the post -Chuy is a small town of 10,000 people with a lot going on-a least now with high season. The duty free shops are buzzing with people and they are buying up!
We are at the 1 hostel on hostelworld ETNICO and it is a very nice place. WI-FI that actually works in the rooms and a breakfast -slices of ham and cheese, toast u can make yourself and butter-well margarine. Yeah I have been travelling a while so little stuff gets me all excited.
USA visa will be issued in 1 day here when the guy returns -I had about decided not to go to Brazil with 15 or more day waits in Buenos Aires and Quito, Ecuador -BUT they are more expensive than the longer wait if u factor out the hotel hostel price.
Thanks for the post.
Glad you found our post useful, sounds like your stay is a little less stressful than ours! That is hilarious that theres only one person that can create your visa and that you have no other choice than to wait for him to come back from vacation… that’s just the way things are down there!