Santiago

Our bus to Santiago was at 9am so we awoke to an early alarm. It's not actually that far from Mendoza so we didn't need an overnight bus. By not far I mean it was only 7 hours which seems like nothing to us now.

We had been told that the journey to Santiago would be really nice as it takes you through the mountains however we didn't expect it to be as beautiful as it was. For hours all we could see were snow capped mountains, it was amazing. The roads were narrow and wound themselves through the mountains. On some of the downhill bits, we had to take a few deep breaths though as the bus got very close to the edge!

I mentioned earlier that the journey was only meant to be 7 hours however that does not factor in the ridiculous amount of time it takes you to get across the border. Whilst the border crossing from Brazil to Argentina consisted of a quick stamp in the passport and putting your bags through a scanner that no one was monitoring, took less than 5 minutes, the Chilean border was a whole different kettle of fish.

First you have to queue up to get your passport stamped and then you have to wait for them to get all the bags off the bus so they can be scanned. There were 2 coaches in front of us and they only do one coach at a time so this took forever. After the luggage in the hold had gone through we were all lined up like cattle with our hand luggage which then also had to go through the scanners. After what felt like an eternity we were allowed back on the bus and sent on our merry way.

When we eventually arrived in Santiago, and after Simon got called a gringo (followed by something in Spanish which I have a suspicion wasn't very nice) by the luggage man for not tipping (apparently you have to tip the guy who passes you your luggage from the bus, which seems absolutely ludicrous as he literally passes you your bag and therefore no different they getting your shopping out of the boot of your car) we navigated our way to the subway and headed towards our hostel. We are staying in an 8 bed dorm here however the place is huge and the dorm is split into 2 parts so it's really not that bad at all.Read more