Crossing the Andes - Mendoza to Santiago
13 September 2006
(Photos of the crossing and Santiago)

The route between Mendoza and Santiago is probably the main Argentinean-Chilean crossing points. And so there are a number of daily departures. The trip takes about 6 to 7 hours, allowing for border formalities. This is the same route we took on the Alta Montaña trip, so I will not go into much detail except to say that you really want to sit in the front seat on the upper deck to get the most out of spectacular scenery. It can be a little hair raising, however.

The crossing point is called Los Libertadores, after General San Martin and his army of the Andes. Customs and immigration are located on the Chilean side of the frontier and can get very busy with all of the trucks and buses that pass through. Like most countries, Chile is very strict on ensuring that animal, fruit or vegetable products make the crossing with you. Therefore, they x-ray everything. However, some of the smaller Andean crossing points do not have x-ray equipment and, so I have been told, they go through everyone's baggage.

I broke with tradition and before leaving Mendoza I reserved a bed in Santiago in a hostel in the Bellavista neighborhood, just northeast of the centre. Traveling into or out of Santiago and be a little confusing for the uninitiated. There are four main bus stations, though three of them are within a few blocks of each other.

As far as getting around, Santiago has a relatively new (less than 30 years old) and excellent metro system, which I took everywhere. The metro cars themselves have rubber tyres like the Paris metro trains. Being manufactured by Alstom, the French engineering giant, they are probably the same cars as used on the Paris metro. There are of course plenty of bus, some old and battered and some brand new and articulated (bendy buses).

There is also another mode of transport known as a "colectivo". In Argentina, colectivo is the word used for a standard local bus. In Chile and other parts of South America, a colectivo is like a taxi that follows a fixed route, collecting and dropping off passengers along the way. There are also regular taxis as well.

If there is a metro available, I will usually take it over a bus, even if it means walking a little further. The bus station to "La Chimba Hostel" was an easy metro trip.