Change in Country

Said goodbye to Angie and Hasil and headed to the bus station where I was happy to find our bus already ready! Vamos a Chile!!

One thing we were really nervous about crossing the border was if we would have to pay the American fee which I ended up not having to pay to get into Argentina, but which everyone said you had to to get into Chile.

The ride was beautiful, with one aside of seeing a Super Walmart, looking just like it does at home, on the outskirts of Mendoza. I later looked up Walmart in BA, and there is one, it’s just REALLY far out of town. I definitely did a doubletake though.

For the 2 hours before customs, I passed the time watching the mountains in the distance become mountains surrounding us. It was interesting that we pretty much followed the path of a river, and I’m guessing it must be the lowest land. Even though we were on the second story of the bus, I never felt unsafe and the cliffs were never that big. It definitely reminded me of the roadtrip in Colorado last spring break. We still made some random stops, dropping people off at reserves or secluded areas. Also passed some ski lifts and some really beautiful resorts. I saw some animals as well, and I thought of Brady.  As the ride began, I remember thinking, I need to put some music to this. And I turned on my favorite string mix.

Customs sucked though. We waited on the bus for 30 minutes, then waited in line for at least an hour, which the whole time I was nervous because I wasn’t sure how the fee thing was going to go even though I had it in US dollars, then got stamped. Turns out that was the leaving Argentina stamp, and then we had to get in another line, which was another hour, and that was the stamp to enter Chile. Funny thing was that Rebe and I had the same stuff written on our documents. She passed without a problem. The guy had several questions for me though, which consisted of where I was going to stay….duh a hostel, and what I was studying because I had put student on the card. So then I had to explain that I was a student in the U.S. and just visiting Chile. The whole thing passed within 30 seconds, but it left me shaking that either I was going to have to pay the fee or he just wasn’t going to let me in.

But it passed, and we later found out that since the fee is a reciprocity fee, you don’t have to pay it if you enter via bus because the US doesn’t charge it if you enter via bus. So, something to take note of, that while bus customs suck worse than an airport, it can save you plata.

So then, we got back on the bus, ready to go, and they announced that we had to get off again, this time with our bags, so they could look through those. So that was another 30 minutes, during which I was wondering if my dulce de leche drink would be taken up, but thankfully it wasn’t, and then we made it out. Whew. Definitely an experience.

Back on the bus, they put on the Dark Knight, and I watched that while we rolled out of the mountains. We finally started nearing Santiago, and the bus stopped on the side of the highway! Ack!! Turns out we had mechanical problems, which thankfully had manifested themselves after the mountain pass. I love CATA though because by the time we got off the bus they already had another one for us. We finally made it into the bus station at 7:30, which was only 4 hours later than we had planned, haha.

The bus station was huge, but sketchy at night. Our first thought was to feed ourselves in case it took us longer to find the hostel than expected. We went with McDo, which I would just like to add it was the first time I’ve been to the place since leaving home, even though there’s probably one on every street in BA. Cracked up because we ended up paying several mill for our meal, thanks to the conversion rate in Chile which is about 500 pesos to a dollar.

Then found a restroom, which joy, costed 200 pesos to pee. Crazy, I know, but I definitely stocked up on 200 pesos worth of toilet paper for future bus trips. We then tried to find a map, which was more difficult than we thought because everyone was sold out. But we finally found one, and located ourselves before heading into a taxi. We managed to hit rush hour, so we spent a while in there before he dropped us off in front of our hostel.

I knew the hostel was in front of the Plaza de Armas, but to my surprise, it was actually on the top floor of one of the old buildings. It was so cool! So we got situated at the hostel, met a friend –Sean, who helped us plan out our day and showed us around the Plaza, made a pharmacy purchase, caught up Internet happenings, and then crashed.