Waking up in a hot, muggy hostel room with 12 bunkmates at 6:30am is NOT the most pleasant experience---especially if you’re rushing to make a 7:30am bus to Santiago. I think everyone in our room wanted to kill us…honestly, who cared, it’s not like we were ever going to see them again.
So after huffing and puffing, we scored the front 4 seats of the double-decker bus. The 7 hour drive from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile is specifically through the Andes Mountains, so you can imagine what the scenery and view looked like…breathtaking! Ahhh it was gorgeous! About 4 hours into the ride, everyone had to get off the bus with their bags and go through immigration and border control. After Chilean officials almost arrested Shoni for “sneaking” an apple into Chile (god forbid produce should ever enter another country), we headed back onto the bus. The unexpected process took about an hour, which was fine because I came out with a cool Chilean passport stamp (and of course Shoni)…haha.
Haha it was actually really funny because by the 5th hour of the ride we were abnormally bored. They eventually played Oceans 12…this was amazing news, right? Wrong. They decided to show the movie in Portuguese with Spanish subtitles. Seriously? At least play it in Spanish with Portuguese subtitles. I just don’t get it…it’s not like there were any Brazilians on the bus…ugh. This left me to “study” my Lonely Planet book and Lena’s Frommer’s Guidebook from cover to cover. (rule=stick with Lonely Planet…Frommer’s Guidebook sucks, and it’s geared for the average 50 year old who goes traveling post-retirement…meaning, the book doesn’t give you anything exciting to do.)
After seven hours, we finally made it to Santiago and attempted to understand the bizarre currency…
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