01.17.2011

My journey begins from Mendoza, Argentina to Vina del Mar, Chile at 8:07 am this morning, on the bus from my grandmother’s apartment to the bus terminal.  When I arrive at the bus terminal, at 8:22 am, I am more than an hour early for my planned departure at 9:30 am.  Therefore, in Mendocino time, I am about 4 hours early (relatively) for my bus ride.  At the bus terminal, we must wait in the company’s office as waiting in the terminal is apparently dangerous.  The bus system here, to travel throughout Argentina and to other countries in South America, is very reliable and used very often.  So, while I am used to traveling throughout the northeast in Amtrak, here we use “El Rapido.”

Although the bus system is very reliable here, it still runs on Mendocino time.  Hence, when the departure time is 9:30 am, the departure time is actually 10:07 am.  Not too bad…I was expecting closer to 11:00 am. As I am waiting in my “first class” seat, which was in fact glorious, I noticed that a young man brought about 5 bags of freshly made sandwiches.  These are not McDonald’s freshly made sandwiches, but sandwiches you would find at a gourmet bakery (Witherspoon Bakery, for example).  Going back to the food topic briefly, this is how sandwiches are done here and this is what I will be serviced on my journey to Chile.

Chile is just over the Andes Mountains from Argentina.  You would think that over the mountains would be somewhat easy…almost no one on the large highways, big tunnels, and tons of people working in customs.  However, instead of large highways, there was only one path that had one lane both ways.  Instead of absolutely no one on the road, these paths were bombarded with other buses, trucks, and cars…all going at about 40 mph (at best).  And, instead of a huge building in Aduana, where immigration took place, filled with people attending your every need, it was a huge building with about 12 employees attending to about 500 people.  Not a very efficient experience.  And, what makes things slightly more difficult is that the entire system is completely bureaucratic.  Lots of unnecessary papers that you must keep, otherwise you will not be allowed back into Argentina, and lots of lines. 

We get to Aduana, wait an hour on the stand-still bus because they do not allow us to walk out in a certain area of the territory.  Once we are allowed to walk out, we wait an additional hour and a half for our turn to go through immigration.  While we are out, in literally one of the most beautiful areas of the world, the wind blows the dry dirt everywhere.  (Poor woman standing next to me with white Ralph Lauren pants.)  The process within immigration takes about half hour, which is actually amazing.  Then, we begin our journey again in Chile.  I will post some pictures up very soon, but it was honestly an incredible sight to see.  Passing through the dry mountain range of Argentina and passing into the cultivated mountain range of Chile was just gorgeous.  The only complaint was the 31 curves going down the mountain at 15 mph.  And maybe the fact that it took 9.3 hours…a ride that would have taken about 4 hours in the United States.

k bye.