Enters into effect today between Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, and appears promising in relation to the broader goal of South American integration, with tourists allowed to travel in one another's nations for 90 days, that can be renewable, while permanent citizens can live and work indefinitely in any of the four nations, with temporary ones having a two year stay. Venezuela's current pariah status rules it out of any future expansion, but could Chile and/or Argentina be minded to accede in the future?
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I don't have an answer to your question but find this concept really fascinating. Back when I visited in 2002 I found a couple in Ecuador running an amazing café / bakery in a beach town just across the border from Peru. The woman was originally from Essex in the UK, had left to go travelling East seven years previously, gone all the way round through Europe, Asia, Australasia and across to the Americas, stopped when she landed in Ecuador and never made it back to the UK. The man was originally from Peru, had met the woman in Ecuador and also not bothered to return to his homeland across the border despite his official visa expiring quite some time previously. They made lovely home-cooked lunches, cakes and drinks and had board games and a book exchange. They would give me free food in exchange for me icing the cakes they baked and I spent a few happy afternoons there while the rest of my group were off doing something I didn't fancy (I forget what).
It felt really obvious that Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia are all culturally and geographically connected, though there are changes in dialect and customs every hundred miles or so along the route. I kept having to relearn the local names for the delicious roadside snacks like baked corn with salt and cheese and chilli.
How this works or interacts with Covid having ravaged the entire region, I don't know. -
Also, walking across the no-man's lands between Bolivia / Peru or Peru / Ecuador was a bit scary at the time. Mile long stretches that didn't belong to anyone and lots of bureaucracy in tiny corrugated iron roof huts, desperately hoping that the stamps in your passport all matched up and your yellow fever certificate hadn't degraded too much in the rain and you were going to be allowed across to a country that had embassies and an improved degree of safety. I don't like borders generally. I find them to have an air of tension and edgy uncertainty. The people who lived within them seemed permanently alert to danger and possibilities.Comment
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