Travel in the Time of COVID

Travel in the time of COVID is challenging. 

You could argue that just going to a different country might fall into that category. Not to mention being exposed to different cultures and different environments. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

Every country that you visit has a fresh set of rules. At the moment, I’m planning to go to Chile and Argentina over the next eight weeks. Every border you cross introduces a new set of rules. To make it worse, there is no guarantee that the rules in place at the time you book the trip are what’s in place when you arrive.

That variability is compounded by the lead time it sometimes takes to meet the rules.

Consider Chile. Before can arrive at their border, you need to have the typical PCR test within 72 hours of departure. When you arrive and are standing in front of the immigration agent, you have the chance to be pulled aside for another PCR test. And if you win that lottery, you need to quarantine until the results of the test come back. Up to 24 hours.

That’s annoying when you’re using your arrival city (Santiago) as a gateway to a different city within the country (Puerto Natales). I had to schedule my arrival in Santiago so that, if I had to quarantine, making the connecting flight would be possible. 

But that’s not all. Before you start your flight, there are steps you have to go through. The government of Chile has a website (MeVacuno) where you need to provide identification documents (a passport) and your vaccination certificates. They must verify these documents before you can even get to the point of the random PCR test.

Give the Chilean government props for verifying the documents quickly. However, entering the information was challenging.

Passport information goes into one tab. Vaccination certificates go into a different tab. If you start with the vaccination tab, you see a message saying that you need to get your passport information validated first. If you submit your passport information for validation (without vaccination details), you get a rejection email about 24 hours later.

While the email says that your identification number didn’t make any national vaccination certificate, that’s not what it means. It really means you didn’t provide a complete package for validation.

You need to enter your passport information, then go to the vaccination tab to enter your vaccination details. Once you enter both sets of information, only then can you submit the package.

Whew. After about two weeks of struggling, they decided they like me. Yay!

That was Chile. Argentina? Another country, another set of rules. Similar, and fortunately less onerous than Chile. PCR test 72 hours in advance. The possibility of quarantine. Show your vaccine certificates. Blah, blah, blah.

I shouldn’t complain. Too much. I did sign up for this. I’m just hoping that by the end of my first leg (towards the end of March), requirements have lightened up. Just a bit, anyway. Fingers crossed.