"the visa is not valid"! What!!! This can't be. The Peru visa was the first one that I had obtained and the LAN airline official was telling me that it was not valid??? Our adventure had started even before we begin the journey…or was this going to be a misadventure??? We found a very helpful consulate official on the phone who explained to the LAN airline official that the Peru visa is marked for the date of issue, but the visa is valid from the day of entry to Preu. The date of issue was Aug 7th with a stay period of 45 days. Of course by oct 2 nd our start date, it was more than 45 days and this had confused the Lan airline official. Nevertheless, I have been booted of a plane once before( I need a transit visa to change planes in Canada!!! And they would not let me board my flight to Greece since I did not have that visa.), and did not want that experience agin. Especially for this trip.
What gave me a horrible feeling though was the following incident. I got the Peru consulate official to confirm the validity of the visa with me and passed on the phone to the LAN officer. The airline guy spoke to the consulate guy, hung up the phone and told me that the visa was invalid!!!!!WTF????
This happened again . I actually got the Peru consulate to send an official letter with a stamp and seal to the LAN airline guy confirming the validity of the visa. They first denied the fact that they received the e- mail. I then had the consulate send the letter to me. At that point they said they received the letter , but it said that the visa was expired!!!!WTFx2???!!! at this point I am completely lost. Thankfully one of them decided to actually read the letter and probably figured there would be a lawsuit of some sort. They let me board the plane. I had no freaking issue getting in at the Lima immigration. Apparently, the consulate officer knew what he was talking about. All this happened in 1hr before our boarding began. Nicole was the best and we would not have fought through if not for her support and composure. I have never worked the phone like this before in my life . All the texting BS ppl are into these days does not work. Got to work the phone. But I am thankful for technology that lets you take a call and view a email document simultaneously.
We are now in Lima experiencing a developing city( feels like Bangalore… ). We head off south tomorrow.
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