Bye Argentina, Hello Chile

WE WANTED TO GET AN EARLY START for our drive from San Luis to Mendoza, just in case any dirt roads happened to be along the way. The day was gray and drizzly and the wind was still whipping from the night before.

Getting out of San Luis was easy, marked by signs pointing to the RN7 towards Mendoza, which was 262km away, an easy 3 hour drive. And we knew we were getting close to Mendoza when we saw trucks loaded with grapes for making wine.

“This sucks, it was so warm and beautiful, just the other day,” I said pointing to the gray cold skies.

Ahead we saw the foothills of the Andes appear; a welcome sight after driving through the scrubby pampas for 3 hours. A little farther on and the city of Mendoza was in sight. It was only 1:30 PM and we had the whole afternoon ahead of us, a change from the day before.

We found a cute little hotel in the center of town, dropped our bags in the room and headed out into Centro Mendoza.

We strolled around town grabbed a bite to eat, returned the car, bought bus tickets and shopped. We would have liked to spend more time in Mendoza, especially at Moes's, but we had a flight to catch in Santiago so we packed up for our early bus ride into Chile the next morning,

MENDOZA’S BUS STATION WAS EASILY NAVIGABLE and we found our bus right away. We had no idea how long the ride would be, it really doesn’t even matter to us anymore. 8 hours seems short, 4 hours a hop, and 2 hours pah-leese!

The road out of Mendoza slowly crept into the Andes.

“I wish all these clouds would go away,” I said to Jon. “We’ll miss all the scenery.”

Suddenly all the clouds disappeared and the sky was crystal clear.

“Whoa wow! How did that happen?’ I exclaimed.

It really happened instantaneously, like magic and it was beautiful!

BY 1:30 WE ARRIVED AT THE REMOTE BORDER CROSSING in the Andes. Our bus pulled to a stop and let us out. We were all hungry so we bought some lunch, a bag of Lays potato chips and peanut M & M‘s. There wasn’t much choice and a good junk food meal can really hit the spot. While we were waiting our turn to enter the border control building, a light snow blew through the crisp mountain air.

“Hey Heather, we don’t have to pay the $100 fee to get into Chile since we’re crossing by land.”

“Really? Cool.”

“Yeah, only if we had flown in.” Jon told me, while reading in our guidebook that US citizens must pay a $100 entry fee for Chile in response to the US government charging Chileans $100 to enter the US.

We exited Argentina and freely entered Chile, with a “kerplunk” in the passport. After we entered Chile our bags needed to enter. Chile is hardcore with the security as far as what we have seen, compared to other South American countries. All the luggage from our bus was unloaded and sent through an X-ray machine, our bodies were checked and then we were officially in Chile.

We loaded back up on the bus, for who knew how much longer, and continued our drive through the Andes. The bus boy put on Along Came Polly, the Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston flick and I fell asleep.

I WOKE UP IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF SANTIAGO, ready for another nap. Exploring Santiago would have to wait until tomorrow.

There was a beautiful panorama of Santiago outside our window and we were ready to explore.

“I need a new book,” Jon said.

We found an English language bookstore, bought some overly priced books, and then walked around. Since we had taken a taxi to the bookstore we had no idea where we were in the city.

“I can’t find any of these streets on the map,” I said while scanning my guidebook.

“Oh well, let’s just walk.”

We found a mall, complete with American restaurants, TGIFridays, Tony Roma’s, Ruby Tuesday’s, Benni Hanna, and Starbucks! We couldn’t resist the temptation and decided to have a nice Japanese lunch at Benni Hanna followed by a cold creamy Starbucks white chocolate mocha. Now that’s good stuff! But with the Americanism comes expensive prices. Santiago is not a city to be taken lightly, taxis are pricey, food is expensive and clothing and accessories, no different from home.

“We’ve gotta watch our wallets here, no more Benni Hanna, maybe more Starbucks but no more expensive eats!”

For dinner we got a take-out pizza, trying to stick to our cheap food budget, but the pizza was $10.

“Man, Chile IS expensive!” I said.

We had heard from many travelers that Chile was an expensive place, but I had no idea it would prove correct.

We packed our bags in preparation for our flight to Punta Arenas, trying to get to bed early, which never works. Quinn had to get some energy out, and ran around the hotel room all suited up with Power Ranger/ Incredibles gear on.

“Come on Quinn, time for bed. Time for bed for us too,” I said.

You can see all our pictures from Mendoza to the Chilean Border in the Argentina Photo Album and all the pictures of Santiago in the Chile Photo Album.

Comments

[Ghislain]

Hey kewl pics,
it's interesting how i ended up in this site. i lived in Chile many years, specifically in Punta Arenas
I was able to see in your website other parts of Chile I had never seen before.
Beautiful country and a bit expensive

Regards

Ghislain