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Peru
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=== To/From [[Chile]] ===
[[User:MOAH|Mind of a Hitchhiker]] hitchhiked over the border from [[Tacna]] in Perú (complejo fronteriza Santa Rosa) to [[Arica]] (complejo fronteriza de Chacalluta) in Chile in 2016 and describes the process as following. The 40km road from the outskirts of Tacna passes by the airport, which is an OK place to start hitchhiking even though there's no speed bump ("tope") and the cars drive pretty fast. One can walk 5km from Tacna's plaza here or take bus 35 leaving from the centre. There's also a village called Ciudad de Dios 2km further on this road where the cars go slower and 5 km after that the train line crosses the street and slows cars down as it functions as a speed bump. At the train rails all traffic officially goes to the border but the bus doesn't go farther than the village mentioned previously. People get a little nervous around this border so it might be hard to convince people to take you all the way to Arica through customs. At the Peruvian side all people get out of the car to pass through immigration without their luggage. Keep your piece of stamped paper you got upon entering Perú ready. Your driver carries a form with details of the passengers in the car that they need to show on both borders. You can't leave the car between borders as the number has to be the same. Your driver will need your name, document number and a few other details like whether you're married or not. The Peruvian side should be relatively easy to get through. One kilometer further is the Chilean border where everyone has to get out of the car with their luggage which goes through a scanner. After getting your entrance stamp, the Chilean side requires you to fill in a form declaring you don't carry seeds and other plant products or have more than one laptop, two phones and some other random rules applying to your luggage. Two packs of cheaper Peruvian cigarettes should be fine, but more can be tricky. Only your luggage goes through the machine and your body doesn't go through a metal detector, so what's in your pockets probably remains your own business. Occasionally they have dogs here. After passing both borders with your driver you can find another ride or just carry on with your drivers to Arica as that's only 15 km away and everybody is going there anyway. Welcome to Chile!
=== To/From [[Ecuador]] ===
[[Tumbes]] is a town located in the north of Peru. It is not a big town but really messy, therefore there is no need to waste time there. If you come from Ecuador (Aguas Verdes – Huaquillas), it is necessary to pass through tumbles if you want to get to the north of the Peruvian coast (Mancora, Punta Sal, Zorritos..). I hitchhiked Guayaquil – Santa Rosa – Huaquillas (EC) to Tumbes (PE) in 12h. Everyone knows how easy is to hitchhike in Ecuador 🙂
From Tumbes, if you wanna go south, I recommend to cross the town until Rio Tumbes. After crossing the bridge in about 150mts you will find a gas station and small restaurants with many trucks and cars. You can ask the people there, they are nice. I waited about 30 min (sunbathing at 35 °C) and got a 200km ride straight to the beach.
If you come from Aguas Verdes you can easily get a ride to Tumbes walking on the main street (Panamericana Norte), as well as from the customs (Aduana) at the border crossing in the highway 1N-Auxiliar Panamericana Norte. People are nice, especially ecuatorian drivers. One of them left me in the center of Tumbes, from there in 10 minutes I reached the bridge to the south. Pay attention, as Tumbes is not the safest town in Peru
Buenas rutas! [[User: nachoxsur]]
== Cities ==
''3 weeks thumbing and bumming about, May 2014 - I found Peru a brilliant place to hitchhike, and met a raft of wonderful characters. There seemed to be alot of fear being spread from the locals about delinquency in the larger coastal cities, stark warnings in particular about Tumbes, Truijillo, Chimbote and Pisco. This could be paranoia, but violent crime is in the rise, so it might be wise to try and hitch 'past' these cities. I had no problems in all my time, and didn't even feel unsafe. Churches, tolls and police stations were all happy to let me camp nearby. Food is cheap and filling, truckers spirited. People warmer in the south. Sneaking into Machu P is very difficult, and I gave up and paid a ticket. Gulp. For me, not worth it at all. Most of the other sites, e.g. Ollantaytambo, are easy to sneak into. Present yourself in the right manner and you'll get many free lifts from taxi drivers and tourist minibuses" - [[User:lukeyboy95|lukeyboy95]]
''I spent about 3 weeks in Peru in September 2015. Along the Pan American highway makes for fantastic hitchhiking, and safe too. I spent days and nights continuously hitchhiking by the coast, even hitchhiking inside the cities and stopping now and then to sleep in the deserts wrapped up in my tarp. Some of the Peruvian truck drivers I meet were great guys, often wanting to buy lunch and chat (having Spanish is extremely useful). Lima has an active Couchsurfing scene too and is a nice city, my favorite part of Peru was hitching the road from Lima to Arequipa, the cliffs were stunning. I lost a bit of love for the country however when I hitchhiked up to Cusco and then on towards the Bolivia border. The hitchhiking was far more difficult away from the coast and the locals often demanded money unless they were truck drivers. Be prepared to chip in with gas around Cusco and Puno but don't let anyone rip you off. Lake Ticitaca is worth a visit if you can swing it but to be honest if you miss Cusco I wouldnt be too upset, its not the highlight. I need to return someday and explore Peru's Amazon" - [[User:HoboSpirit|HoboSpirit]]
[[Category:South America]]
