The Road in the Mountains

After some difficulty waking Colin up (well, actually a whole LOT of difficulty), we left our hostel in Mendoza at 7:30 in the morning on July 7th for our bus to Santiago, which was scheduled to leave at 8 AM. As it turned out, we made it there in the nick of time only to find out that the bus had been delayed about an hour. After the wait, we clamored aboard and were treated to the following sights on our 5-hour trek through the Andes, over the border to Chile, and finally into Santiago.

ARGENTINIAN ANDES

^^Our seats were in the first row of the upper level of the bus so we had a view out the front and the sides!^^

CROSSING THE BORDER

^^The border crossing into Chile was more like a military camp! They lined us up along a wall, brought out a drug-sniffing dog, and explained to us all the rules and regulations for entering in a stern and all-business way. We were separated from our bags, and we watch as, in the background, Chilean customs officials messed around with peoples' personal belongings, pretending to try on women's bras, etc... A man who we were sitting next to on the bus said that he had been to about 30 countries (including Israel) and that this was the most difficult border crossing ever for him.^^

CHILEAN ANDES

^^There were points when the ski lift literally crossed over the highway!^^

^^I think the company that makes these signs must have been getting kickbacks from the government.^^