I thought I had found a way to leave the vehicle in Peru for a few months - and apparently you can provided you have a very good reason for needing to go back home. Need a ticket out of Peru to be included with the application, a definite time you need to leave for, and documented reason for leaving. Sounded good, but needs me to spend a few thousand dollars on airfares with no certainty of getting permission to leave at all without the vehicle or maybe not given the time away that I need. Do have documented reasons but they are a bit iffy.

Brazil may actually be a safer alternative - or of course Uruguay where 12 months seems to be almost certain.

Tony,

I have done this twice with success, in one case for 10 months, both with the northern border office (Paita, Peru) and with the southern border office (Puno, Peru). You DO have to show a ticket, but you only have to state a reason, not prove one!

I store bikes here in Huanuco, Peru for $30/month, and help you get the suspension paperwork done. I WILL tell you that the paperwork seems to take about 7 to 8 weeks... so you leave not knowing if you were approved! But I have a good relationship with the SUNAT here in Huanuco and everything is above board and in both instances have been approved.

Toby

Thanks Toby, I have an unfortunate tendency to devils-advocate myself rather than wing it.

Could you tell me whether you dealt with the border aduana in person, or as others have obviously done, park up elsewhere and do the paperwork via a local aduana. Sounds as if others have had the process done in a week or so while yours took longer so there may be differences I need to take into account.

Don't need to decide which way to go for a few days yet, but one factor I will take into account is the coolness of Uyuni followed by coolness at Cuzco vs a hell of a long drive across the hot steamy jungle plains of eastern Bolivia and Brazil - which I have just escaped from.

I live in Huanuco in central Peru and work thru the local SUNAT and we send off the paperwork to the border... thus the delay.

Toby