Our dogs have been in Peru for one week now. It took several tries to get them here, and it almost didn't even happen at all. One thing you must learn when dealing with Latin American countries is that you will never have all the information you need in order to get something done, and the information you do have may or may not be correct. We researched numerous websites to find out what vaccines, documents and accessories the dogs would need in order to travel to Peru. We checked travel websites, the Peruvian consulate website, the USDA website, pages about customs, importing & exporting, vaccinations, quarantine, crate sizes, you name it and we checked it. Yet when the dogs arrived at LAX, tranquilized, in their crates and ready to go, their handlers (cousin Jorge and roommate Will) were told that the paperwork was incomplete and the office they needed to visit was closed.
So the dogs went home and slept for two days, and we were grateful that Jorge was able to track down the various paperwork needed from several offices in LA. Ready to try again, Allie, Jessie and Jorge felt certain that everything that could go wrong already did, so on Saturday morning they confidently arrived at Lan Cargo the mandated five hours before their nonstop, eight hour flight. Perhaps Allie and Jessie should have taken the slowest coffee shop in the world and the closed freeway with no detour as a sign of things to come.
Once at the airport, there were just a few little things, like finding out that the vet forgot to sign the most important form, but after some phone calls and faxes, all was ready and the dogs were loaded onto the dock to wait for their flight. It was at this time that money needed to exchange hands between the US and South America, and it was at this time that things got complicated. The dock worker told Allie that the price for two dog tickets to Lima was $1,000. Yes, that's right, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. This was slightly more than the $565. estimate given to Kiko when he made the reservation, and of course the person who booked the flight was not available for consultation.
The next several hours were right out of a Seinfeld episode. I was alone in the apartment when Allie Google chatted me to let me know something was wrong, then Jorge called me, then I messaged Kiko, who was in an all-day class and should not have been disturbed, then he called me, then I messaged Allie to have Jorge call Kiko, which he did, then Kiko called me so we could decide whether to spend twice as much money for dog tickets, then more messages and phone calls, then a message from Allie saying they had a handle on things "hopefully" and then silence. The silence turned out to be a good thing, because it was discovered that the dock worker who asked for the $1000. fee was looking at prices from the wrong book, and the original quote was more or less correct. The fact that the fee was solely payable in cash seemed to point in two directions - that the dock worker should stick to loading and unloading and stop trying to deal with the complexities of billing, or that the dock worker was smarter than he appeared and knew exactly what he was doing and looked forward to celebrating an extra $435. in his pocket with a turn-around trip to Vegas.
Am I really that cynical? Did the dogs need the extra 2 - 3 days of dog food we were supposed to send with them "just in case"? Did I wish I had a few of the dogs' sedatives for myself? The answers to these questions will be found in Part 2.
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