“If they try to stop you, just punch the accelator.” My friend said as we inched closer in our car to the border, about to enter Ecuador from Colombia.
I have never crossed a border by car so I really didn’t know what to expect.
Even my adventures down to TJ (Tijuana) for the day from San Diego were by foot, never by car.
There was a lot of traffic, and my nerves were staring to flare, I had an item I knew would incur a tax if they saw it.
As we inched closer to the border guards I saw them wave some cars through, others had to stop while they checked their trunk.
I was next.
I got the hault sign from the guards.
I started to press the pedal.
The brake pedal. Looking over to my friend, “come on man, you didn’t think I was going to do it, did you?”
They saw the item. And then waved me over to the window where I had to pay the corresponding tariff. $108 USD, ouch.
Got the receipt, and that was it.
The guards didn’t even want to look at it. No one checked that I had paid. But I kind of wanted them to cause I actually did pay.
When you come in by land they don’t seem to care about the small things, but the big things like TVs and refrigerators they are sure to catch and insist you pay the tax.
When coming in by air its different.
You might get chosen for a deep cavity search, but chances are you’ll just walk right through, even if you have some larger items. But TV’s they’ll always catch.
Either way you don’t have to pay the taxes ahead of time, just wait and see if they catch it, because you actually CAN’T pay ahead of time, I tried. They need to see the item and weigh it to charge you.
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