THE BUS RIDE OVER THE ANDES MOUNTAINS

MENDOZA TO VALPARAISO CHILE

The bus from Mendoza to Valparaiso was an amazing ride.  One we will not forget for a long time.  There is nothing like this at home.  Our mountain highways are like freeways compared to this.  The Andes mountains are very different from the Rockies.  There is very little vegetation, just sheer rock from top to bottom.  The ride from Mendoza to the border was similar to our Rockies minus the forest.

 There is a large reservoir of water which they use to irrigate all the vineyards with in the valley and a few ski hills as we reached the top.  Along the highway there is an old abandon rail line and a couple of small remote resorts that they white water raft from. 




The border crossing was definitely a drag.  It took 3 hours to get through.  There is bus after bus after bus waiting in line.  As you get closer you get off the bus and and walk through immigration.  One line up to get out of Argentina and another line to get into Chile.  As you are doing this your luggage is taken off the bus and the dogs go through it.  We made it through the lines ok but of course Bill's backpack was chosen to be searched.  We had also made the mistake of taking fruit onto the bus with us to eat.  Luckily we had declared it properly.  They took it away as well as my dried apricots and then continued to ask if we had fruit.  Bill finally opened his bag and removed the olives, olive paste and Carmel sauce we had purchased and they seemed to be satisfied.  They then asked what his name was and looked at his declaration which was filled out correctly (yes we declared the fruit, thank God) and they allowed him to line up and have our day bags scanned.  We finally were allowed back onto the bus and were then stopped again to do a head count which was  compared to the roster on the bus.  I think their main concern was fruit entering the country, could have cared less about drugs or weapons.  An experience to say the least. 



Then came the decent down the other side.  They have huge snow and mud slides during the winter months so they have constructed huge tunnels in various locations along the way.  They are very narrow and when two buses or large semi transport trucks pass one another it is rather tight.

 There are 28 switch backs from the top to the bottom with no space in between! One right after the other.  They are improving the highway so they only allow traffic to flow in one direction every two hours.  Needless to say the traffic was a little backed up.  However everyone was crawling down this section with the buses and transport trucks barely making it around each curve.  Good thing I'm not afraid of heights. 

 The picture on the rights shows three switch backs, we are on the bottom, the ridge in the middle is another and the truck on the top is on the third one.  This is what it is like down all 28 curves.  It was pretty amazing.  Good thing it was one way traffic or I might have had a heart attack.

 When we started out we thought the trip would take about 8 hours from start to finish, however with the delay at the border and the amount of traffic it took more like 12.  So by the time we arrived in Valparaiso it was 10:30 at night.  It had been a very long day, but worth it just to experience the road and the border crossing.  However having said that, I can cross that off my bucket list and have decided flying is more my style.  We have to make one more short bus trip to Santiago in a few days, but it should only be about 2 hours.  I will let you know how that goes later.

Cheers