The waiting game; Bolivia & Bureaucracy

Last week I purchased a car, a 4x4 Mitsubishi Montero Limited (2001) to be more precise. And with the purchase, I got my first real experience of Bolivia’s bureaucracy. Here is a brief overview of what I had to go through and deal with in order to purchase the car and register it under my name.

Monday

08:00 h

• Inspection at the Mitsubishi dealer. The inspection only brought up a few minor maintenance points. Based on the confirmation of the good condition of the car I decided to buy it. We were done at Mitsubishi at 10:30 h.

15:00 h

• The owner of the car, Ariel, and I went with Merieke (my dutch friend who lives in Tarija for over 6 years, who was so kind to join me and help with translation) to a lawyer to do some paperwork. After 2 hours and having to correct the papers 3 times (!!) due to spelling mistakes and typos, we finally had our first official document, and we could continue the papertrail.

17:00 h

• Paying taxes at the bank; there it turned out that they did not have my signature on file, so I could not pay taxes. They did have my fingerprint, my photo, etc. but all that was not sufficient, the fingerprint was missing. It turned out to be an error of the girl who opened my account the week prior. After another hour that managed to contact the main office in La Paz and get the error corrected. Road taxes were paid, and crossed of the long list of to do’s.

Tuesday

08:00 h

• With the papers that proved that I paid the road tax, we went to another office, to have this confirmed and to collect more papers. But not without having to hand over a few copies, sign some more papers, etc.

09:00 h

• Went to the traffic police for a technical inspection of the car. The technical inspection took 5 min., the paperwork however could not be picked up until 14:30 h. At 14:30 h. we returned to the office, only to find out that the papers were not ready. It took another 2 hours to finish them. Also here, an immense number of copies, signatures and stamps were required, visiting 3 different offices in the process.

17:30 h

• We rushed to the city hall, to the vehicle registration department, where we had to cue up in a long line. Everything went well, till they didn’t accept my copy of the passport. I showed them also a digital scan on Iphone and my driver’s license, and than got the comment that my driver’s license could be a fake. I looked at the guy in disbelieve, and pointed out that a Bolivian driver’s license is a simple piece of paper with a bad scan of a photo in laminate. And I asked him which license he actually believed could be easier to copy?? The Dutch one is an credit card sized card with lots of holograms, etc. Luckily, good arguments also prevail over ignorance in this part of the world, and having this issue settled, he told us that he wanted the scan of my passport on a CD. We ran to an internet café, cause I have copy in mailbox. At the internet café, they didn’t have a CD, so off to find a little store that sells them. Finally got a CD, turns out that the internet café cannot even burn CD’s. So back to city hall, where I mail the guy the pdf of my passport with my Iphone. He also needed a passport photo, luckily I always have some in my wallet. At 18:30 h. we finally had some more documents and copies.

Wednesday

09:00 h

• At the notary to have papers legalized. After waiting 30 min., he tells us to come back at 17:00 h. and pick up the papers!! I asked him if he could speed things up a bit, so 16:00 h. it was. At 16:00 h. the papers were not ready, not that at that moment it was a surprise to any of us. It will only take another 20 min. we were told. 20 min. turned out to be 2 hours. That morning, I told Ariel, that I believed that today we would be all done exactly at 18:00 h. At 17:30 h. we finally got the papers, not before, yes you guess it right, we made more copies for the notary.

17:30 h

• So we ran to the city hall. There some more papers got processed quickly, and things look good!!! With some luck, we could actually close the deal at 18:00 h. Than they told us that we need to stop at another office of the police department!! Oh no, another office?! More copies, stamps and signatures??!! Luckily it was in the building, so 18:00 h. was still possible. We turn the papers in at the office and were told to make more copies. Plus, the officer needed 2 passport photos. I hand the officer 2 photos (with blue background), and we are baffled to hear that he only accepts photos with a red background. The guy turned out to be a real bureaucrat, and would not accept photos with anything else than a red background. Ariel’s girlfriend and I ran to a photo store to have photos made, while Ariel stayed to do the paperwork. At the photo store, I quickly had my photo made, and as the clerk wanted to print my photos, the printer didn’t work. Luckily he had another printer and he started printing on that one. As we were desperately looking at the time on my watch, minutes ticking away, the PC crashed!! All the paperwork takes for ever here, that is normal, but this was just dumb bad luck!! After 10 min. the PC was finally rebooted and the photos printed, and we ran to the police office at the city hall, turned in the photos, sign the papers and started running to the bank. At the bank I just had to pay Ariel and we would be done. The bank normally closes at 18:00 h. and I arrived at 17:55 h. at the door, only to find the doors already locked. We pleaded the guard to let us in, but all was in vain. The bank was closed and stays closed for us. What a bad luck, we got beaten by 5 min.!!! So it meant we had to continue the next day, day 4 of the saga. The bank opens at 09:00 h. in the morning.

Thursday

08:55 h

• We were at the door of the bank early for a head start. At the bank everything went well. Although it took Ariel some time to count the big amount of cash. He also checked every bank note, to see if it was counterfeit or not.

09:30 h

• The car was finally mine!!! I had all the papers and an empty savings account. Ariel wanted all the money cash, so I decided to walk him to the car and give him a ride home. Just to be on the safe side. The next Monday I could pick up my ownership card at the city hall, that proves that the car is registered under mine name.

Monday

08:30 h

• At city hall to pick up my car ownership’s (property) card. It turned out that the card of the previous owner was no longer with all the paperwork I got from Ariel last Thursday. I called him, but he didn’t answer his phone. After several calls that morning, a visit at the notary to ask if he had a copy, I decided to try get my card anyway, by reporting the previous owner’s card stolen. This of course involved another visit to a lawyer (1 hour and extra costs), a trip to the traffic police station, etc. I could pick up the statement the day after. So instead of picking up my card in the morning, and right afterwards get extra insurance on the car, going to work in the afternoon and afterwards to the gym, I spent all day running around doing more paperwork. At night Ariel called me back and told me he had the card at his home!!! Oh well, I thought, one extra day….

Tuesday

08:30 h

• Once again went to the city hall, made copies for the police office at the city hall, handed over more papers and copies at the automotive department, and finally I received my card of ownership! It only took about 5 days.

I now possess a pile of papers, the size of a small novel, and rest a sure, I will not buy another car here, I will just keep repairing this one ;-)

I will soon post some pictures of my new and hard acquired car.