Left Mendoza at around 10:30am on Tuesday via bus. The scenery during the drive was amazing, leaving the valley of Mendoza and inching up through the Andes Mountains. Breathtaking. After falling asleep briefly, I awoke at the border crossing of Los Libertadores, one of the border entrances between Argentina and Chile. Upon opening my eyes I noticed white outside my window, whiteness and the jagged skyline created by the massive mountaintops we seemed to be resting on.
Everyone on the bus had to get off and go through customs and a security checkpoint. It wasn't until Lauren almost fainted on the walk back from the bathroom that I realized how high in altitude we were. After customs, we all had to wait in another room (which must have been the same temperature as a subzero freezer) and watch as they scanned our luggage. Everyone was shivering, most of us basically in pajamas, while we observed the border patrol guards in full parkas, even half of their faces were protected. We were then sniffed by dogs and went through metal detectors as the dogs then went onto the bus to sniff some more. The guards came back with three plastic bags that were onboard and asked whomever owned them to please step forward. Two of the bags had fruit in them and one had flowers or something. Turns out that bringing fruits and plant matter across borderlines is against the law especially without declaring them....I'm pretty sure it's like this up North too. The three passengers, an old Argentine woman, an Australian and an Israeli guy had to go up and be questioned while the rest of us boarded the bus. A few minutes later the bus started moving again, but only to pull forward and park.
I watched skiers at the nearby resort pass us by on the mountain for a bit before starting to read my book to pass the time. After a couple of chapters, I noticed the words on the page blur and start moving. Getting dizzy, I shut the book and leaned back in my seat. I stared out the window....still not moving. I started to get hot and claustrophobic and hurriedly got off the bus. I sat outside on a rock in the snow, put my head between my legs and felt better with the cold fresh air. A couple of other people started getting off the bus, some for cigarettes and others who were starting to feel sick from the altitude. I also noticed the water bottle I'd been drinking out of, looked like it got the life sucked out of it...the bottle almost flattened like a pancake.
Everyone started getting chatty, trying to figure out what was taking so long and then this guy said that his friend (the Australian) was still in the building being questioned along with the other passengers and the bus couldn't leave them behind. Apparently, they were going to have to pay a fine of somewhere along $1,000 U.S.! I started to think back to early on in ride when the guy was coming down the aisles to give us our customs forms and noticed an apple sticking out of Laurens purse and telling me that she couldn't bring it across the border. I told Lauren to eat it right away, and remembered to eat the banana I had in my purse as well. What would have happened if we forgot? I couldn't even imagine how furious our parents would've been had they gotten a call from us at the border haha!
All in all we were at the border for about two hours...I eventually felt better and our supposed quick 6 hour ride into Santiago, turned into almost 9 hours. We basically lost the whole day. Still, though driving into Chile was pretty amazing. This country is soooo naturally beautiful and they're patriotism was instantly noticeable. From the first shack in the mountains, to every house after that until the apartment buildings in the city, we saw the Chilean flag flying above doors and on balconies : )
