Argentina and Chile lie, spooning each other, with the great Andes mountains between them. We’ve crossed these mountains twice by bus – in 8 hour stretches, climbing as high as 4800 meters before descending. We can easily tell the vicuña from the llamas, and we are learning to enjoy blaring dubbed movies on the bus. And we are homing our patience with the 2-3 hour stops for immigration in desolate high mountain border outposts.
From Santiago, Chile, we crossed to Mendoza, Argentina, with gorgeous vineyards set against snow capped mountains. In Northern Argentina, we crossed from Purmamarca to San Pedro de Atacama, passing both mirages of lakes and real lakes teeming with flamingos.
We’ve crossed salt flats stretching as far as the eye can see, and we’ve avoided using the oxygen available for the high altitude stretches.
The buses are designed for long distance routes, with some of the passengers on board for 15 hours or more. Food is served, windows are large, and the seats recline comfortably. One more crossing to come – in Tierra Del Fuego, we will cross one final time from Chile to Argentina to visit the Argentine Patagonia.
Wish we were there already!! Counting the days until we meet up with you as everyone else counts down to Christmas. ? McKenna finally found a pair of hiking boots she approved of and Tierney has found a green rain jacket she will need to apparently to keep out the wind, rain and potential gigantic black flies the sales man at the store couldn’t talk enough about. Had Tietneys eyes as big as saucers telling us about the flies and other adventures he had during his eight months in Patagonia. Have you heard of these? Will be so glad to leave the pouring rain and wind in the Pacific Northwest right now hopefully for some amazing vistas, sun and crazy winds down there. See you in 12 days!