Natasha Rose Can D'Ijuma: ¡Bienvenida a Chile Natasha!

We left Argentina the evening of October 24, 2011 with Natasha and Procyon on board the LAN and touched down rin Santiago, Chile at 11:30 PM.

Prior to leaving Jorge had packed a bag of puppy kibble that the breeder had given us. I explained to both that the dog food would not be allowed through customs. There was some debate on that detail so I decided to just keep mum and let Jorge have an experiential learning opportunity later.

We left Argentina knowing we had followed the flying requirements to the letter:

LAN CARGO REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SAFE TRANSPORTATION OF YOUR PET :

In order to be accepted for air transportation, Pets must be at least two months old.
Provide an original health certificate signed by a licensed veterinarian stating that the animal is healthy enough to travel by air, is free of injury, and current on all vaccinations*. The certificate must be issued ten days or less from the date your pet will be transported.
All pets must meet applicable government regulations, including those for Agricultural Institutions at the countries of origin, transit and destination. Permits might be necessary for entry at destination, or if your pet is an endangered specie. Contact the local authorities and corresponding embassies for their regulations governing animals.
You must have an appropriate cage or kennel to transport your pet. In some locations, LAN CARGO offers a cage and kennel rental service. Specific guidelines for the acceptance, care, handling and container requirements are published in the IATA's Live Animal Regulation Manual.
Please contact LAN CARGO at least a week before the day you wish to transport your pet, to make a reservation.
If you are traveling with one of the LAN Alliance carriers, LAN CARGO can make arrangements so that your pet travels on your same flight. These reservations must be coordinated at least two weeks in advance in our Counters.

Our luggage made it ok through customs. Now all we had to do was to pick up our two month old puppies and make our way over to the SAG counter (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero- animal and agricultural arm of customs), get them checked out and be on our way!

Thats when we discovered that we needed to have looked at ALL the requirements, especially those related to arriving in Chile.

Yes, there was that pesky item 7 we just didn't pay any attention to:

7. In case of pet transportation within Chile, other requirements apply.

Little did we realize that in order for the puppies to ENTER CHILE they needed to be THREE MONTHS old:

CHILE

1.- What are the requirements for pet transportation within Chile?

The pet must be at least 3 months old.

Jorge and I shot each other a look of panic as we stood in front of the SAG agent imagining the possibility of having to leave the puppies behind at the airport's SAG office for a month. The issue was the puppies needed to have had ALL their vaccinations. Of course this meant they were missing their 3 month series that included the rabies vaccination.

The SAG agent would not let us pass without our first calling in a vet to come into the airport and give the 2 month old pups an early third dose of rabies vaccination, a requirement for entry into the country. Lucky for us the SAG agent had a directory of vets within a close radias of the airport and who, for an added fee, would be very happy to help out.

Nearly an hour and half later the puppies were given an early rabies shot and we were on our way home... oh and without puppy food. I won the bet that SAG would not allow dog food into the country either. Jorge had to throw away all the food that the breeder gave him for the trip home admitting he was smarter now!

We informed Juan Carlos about the vaccination troubles and that we'd be arriving later than expected with his puppy, Procyon. He was there at our apartment eagerly awaiting our arrival.

We all made it home finally, but not until nearly 1:30 AM. And despite the early morning hour Natasha still wanted to play making herself quite comfortable in her new country and home.

Read my first experiences of traveling into Chile with our Maltese, Samson:
Chile Dog- Gringo Style
Flying the Friendly Skies with Samson to Santiago

Photos of the ride home: