crossed border without passport check

Ready about Clumsy and crossing the Spanish/ Gib border reminds me of an experience we had

Sue and I together with son D-in -L and grandchildren in Brazil flew down to the boarder with Argentina mainly to see
the Iguassu Falls. (viewed from the Brazilian side) Argentina is on the other side




As we were so close to Argentina we took a day trip over the border on the local bus. Everything fine up to this point. So had a quick beak at Argentina then got a cab back to Brazil.

Then the fun started ,our passports didn't show we had left Brazil and crossed over the border, no border patrol had bothered to check the local bus service, just waved it through.

So the cab driver was kind enough to explain to the border guards and eventually after a long chat and checks we got back into Brazil.

My guess is they started checking all local buses then. It just shows how easy ,albeit innocently, one can slip from one country into another

Re: crossed border without passport check

You were lucky realspeed, that could have turned into a very difficult situation.

Re: crossed border without passport check

Yes I know we were worried about it at the time, but we got back into Brazil eventually and back to the hotel we were staying in.

Found out a lot of local Brazilians pop across the border to go shopping as goods are cheaper in Argentina
.

Re: crossed border without passport check

My (at the time) boss got permission to go to the Falklands just after the war to do a story on some vehicles used during that time. The people who live on the Falklands go to Argentina for their shopping, medical care etc, it makes you think doesn´t it?

Re: crossed border without passport check

Since you mention Gibraltar and the bad experience Clumsy went through crossing the border. I will add that I had a similar experience. . When I lived in Spain and ventured into Gibraltar it was the same. Thing is, they live in their little island and really hate others that come in especially the Spaniards. Probably because of their on going battle of who really owns that strip of land

Re: crossed border without passport check

We had a similar experience when we crossed the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara from Canada to USA. We didn't realise we needed a visa and also didn't have any USA currency. We were shown where we could change our Canadian currency and handed over our passports,but instead of going back to the border control we decided we may as well go straight into America and sort it on the way back. This was a bad decision as we had a very difficult time explaining our situation and these guys do not have a sense of humour. As far as they are concerned, we're still in the USA !!

Re: crossed border without passport check

It is the same old story, give someone a uniform and they think they are untouchable.

Re: crossed border without passport check

They are probably all sent on courses to learn how to be as unpleasant as possible.

Re: crossed border without passport check

Hi

You need deeply suspicious cynical gits for effective Border Security, if not, Border Security may as well not exist.

No need to be nasty, but just because you know you are innocent and not a threat does not mean that they do.

There was a six hour queue at the Polish/Ukrainian Border over the weekend, and with good reason, it is a major smuggling route into the EU for amongst other things, weapons.

No point in whining about the EU not protecting it's Borders, I wish they did the same everywhere.

You can speed things up getting into the Ukraine by the simple method of the expected bribe, but not getting from the Ukraine into Poland.