Checking in and out of Peru

Note: this entry is out of order and will be moved to December, 2013 to be in sequence. Sorry for any confusion.

Before leaving for Peru we read entries at www.noonsite.com, www.ssca.org as well as blogs from cruisers that had gone to Peru. 

I contacted Gonzalo Ravago, the SSCA cruising station representative as well. He sent me a copy of the Callao Region Sanitary Fees, with two documents highlighted; Ortogamiento de Libre Platica, with a fee of S/862.40 at check in and Patente Sanitaria, with a fee of S/861.50 at check out. As the Peruvian Nuevo Sol is about $0.36, this is $308.07 and $307.75, respectively. Gonzalo would also put me in touch with an agent to handle the process which we estimated to be $400 to check in and out. Certainly this is much more expensive than any of the 14 or so countries we have visited in the last 13 years but at least we knew up front. Gonzalo warned us not to stop or check in at Paita, Salaverry or Chimbote as they are fishing and container ship centers and not oriented towards cruising yachts. He also sent us information on notifying TRAMAR when we enter Peruvian waters. In addition, we sent emails to TRAMAR twice daily, at 8:00 am and 8:00 pm, notifying them of our currently location, heading and speed during our passage to and from Peru. 

This is an example of the email:

----------------------------start of email---------------------------

To: costera.callao@dicapi.mil.pe

Cc: costera.paita@dicapi.mil.pe

1. La tripulacion
Sienda la tripulacion de este yate como sigue:
NOMBRE                NACIONALIDAD   PASAPORTE# CARGO        EDAD:
A BORDA:
John P. Jones.             USA                    987654321       Capitan        Xx

Jane Q. Jones.            USA                    123456789       Marinera       YY

2. Rol de pasajeros
Zero/0

4. Declaracion General
John P. Jones, Capitan del yate de placer "Valiant", de la matricula numero 1234567 de Hometown, Washington, USA,
del port de 24 toneladas brutas y de 22 netas. Radio Call Sign: XYZ1234.

5. Mensaje - Planear ruta
FECHA     HORA  LATITUD   LONGITUD  RUMBO   VELOCIDAD
11/09/13 07:55  03 21.1'S  080 50.9' W     203            4.2 knots
11/09/13 07:26  03 19.5'S  080 50.4 W      196            4.6 knots <- when entered Peruvian waters

COMENTARIO                                FECHA y HORA (ETA)
Enroute: La Punta, Callao, Peru       11/16/2013 16:00

6. Nota.

----------------------------end of email---------------------------

When we were approaching Callao, we hailed TRAMAR on channel 16 when we were 20 miles out but no answer. We tried at again at 10 miles out and received a response and were able to converse in English and get directions for our entry. There is a lot of container ship traffic to and from Callao, and having AIS was very helpful. After passing the RACON X sea buoy we contacted TRAMAR and then called Yacht Club Peruano on channel 68 and indicated that as it was dark and7:30 pm on a Saturday night that we would anchor nearby and pick up a mooring buoy in the morning. At 8:30 pm, a launch from the yacht club came by and told us we need to move to a mooring, so up anchor and we managed to grab the painter for the mooring and secure the boat. 

The agent, Jorge Luis Romero Gardella, called on VHF, informing us that he would be arriving at Windarra at 9:30 pm to sign the paperwork. When he did not arrive by 11:00 pm we went to bed. At 1:00 am there was a loud knocking on the hull. Jorge had arrived with 3 officials. We quickly dressed and invited them on board. We had copies of all of our paperwork including boat document, passports, yellow fever vaccine certificates and documents from Ecuador including Zarpe and Sanitario de Bordo, as well as a printout from Airmail listing all of the emails I had sent to TRAMAR, and a copy of the last email which they asked for during the signing. All of the conversation is taking place in Spanish with Jorge speaking only a few words of English. They were impressed with our boat stamp and on every piece of paperwork, Rich would stamp and sign it. Everything seemed to be going well until the doctor representing Sanitation would not accept the Sanitario de Bordo from Ecuador. He wanted some other document. We tried to understand what he wanted but with not much success. Jorge indicated that it was another document on the list of Callao Region Sanitary Fees that Gonzalo had sent. The fee for this, the Certificado de Control de Sanidad de Bordo is S/1599.10 or $576.50. Instead of further discussion we just said okay but there was no transfer of funds at this point. Jorge would take our passports and return them to us, later on Sunday and the officials and Jorge departed. It was now about 3:00 am after a 10 day passage and we were ready for some sleep.

Over the nineteen days that we were at La Punta, our check in and check out was worked. Jorge did get our passports stamped, with our tourist visas and Ortogamiento de Libre Platica to us. As he does not speak a lot of English, I would translate emails into Spanish to try to communicate with him. This had some success but he would sometimes show up at the boat completely unannounced.  Another cruiser, Don and Rita of SV Limbo who had arrived a few months earlier were also having difficulties of a similar nature. Gonzalo interceded for all of us and helped with the issues with Sanitation and Jorge. As a result, we did not pay for nor receive a Certificado de Control de Sanidad de Bordo. We did give Jorge S/1723.90 for the two documents and he signed a receipt for us. Jorge did try to rattle us by claiming that the cost for checking out could be between $2500 and $3000 and that it was at the whim of the port captain. We did not rise to the bait but just passed the information on to Gonzalo.

Don and Rita left a week before us and this helped test the check out process. 

For checking out we gave Jorge notice on Monday that we wanted to leave earlyThursday morning. I typed up a sailing plan for our passage from Callao to Iquique, Chile and sent this to Gonzalo who forward it to Jorge as this is required by the authorities. Thursday around 10:00 am, Jorge called and wanted to meet us at the yacht club to sign the paperwork. We brought our stamp and passports and the signing and stamping began. 

Afterwards, Jorge left and we enjoyed a great lunch at the yacht club with Gonzalo as we waited for him to return. After lunch, Jorge returned and Gonzalo reviewed our documents. Our passports had been signed, and we had our international Zarpe to leave Peru. We never did get a Patente Sanitaria, but Gonzalo indicated that we could leave without it. Gonzalo negotiated with Jorge and we paid him S/840 or $300. We did not leave until Friday morning.

Behind the scenes Gonzalo worked with Jorge and talked with the officials. We signed a letter drafted by Jorge on our behalf indicating that we did not find the Certificado de Control de Sanidad de Bordo necessary and we would not pay for it. SV Limbo did the same thing. Gonzalo has also been in contact with a local television station that wants to do a story on this. It is unfortunate that a few look to line their pockets. With this exception we found the Yacht Club Peruano and La Punta an excellent place for cruisers to stop and we enjoyed our stay there. We understand why Peru is written about so poorly in the cruising guides and websites and it is a shame because La Punta is a great cruiser stop.

If you are planning to sailing to Peru, I would strongly advise you to contact Gonzalo beforehand and coordinate with him to help smooth the process and to make sure you understand what is required. I can't imagine what this would have been like if we had not contacted Gonzalo a priori. 

We hope that Gonzalo and the Yacht Cub will be successful in establishing a well defined, consistent procedure and cost for checking in and out of cruising yachts. It would make stopping at La Punta, Peru and Yacht Club Peruano even more worthwhile.

Elaine and Rich

SV Windarra