Day 10 - La Serena, Chile (Wednesday 28 March 2012)
We left Mendoza, Argentina bound for Santiago, Chile at 10.30pm last night, the bus trip was expected to be about 8 hours including a stopover at the Chile-Argentina border, so arrival in Santiago at about 6.30am. The bus trip was going smoothly and we were getting some sleep and then we reached the border. We all had to get off the bus and go through customs etc. I found the Chilean authorities were very thorough. They constantly had the dogs running through the customs area and they put all bags through the xray machine. This is in contrast to the Argentinian authorities who just stamped our passports and let us through 4 days earlier. I prefer the Argentinian authorities. During the scanning of bags, Ann's bag got put aside after it went through the xray machine. Its fair to say Ann was a bit confused and nervous at the same time. In the end there was nothing to worry about as they randomly select bags and have a look through them.
Once all the formalities were completed and we had our souvenir passport stamps, we were back on the bus ready for the second half of the journey. Small problem though, the bus wouldnt start. Fantastic, we are stuck in the middle of nowhere, at 3 am at the top of the Andes about 3000 metres above sea level with a bone chilling wind. We stayed on the bus and got some sleep. About 8 am we were told to get off the bus and jump on another bus. A replacement bus was bought up from Mendoza. Whilst we were getting off the bus, Ann fell down the steps (we were on a double decker bus). The poor girl, she was still have asleep. It must have hurt alot but she kept a calm face, probably through embarresment more than anything.
We arrived in Santiago at about 1030am. From there we went and booked our bus to La Serena. We managed to get a bus which departed at 1130am which was good. Our trip up was alot smoother than our overnighter, was pretty happy about that. We got to La Serena about 6.30pm and walked to our hostel. We have booked a double room with a shared bathroom and kitchen. We didnt know this at the time of booking but the room is an apartment style room and has three separate bedrooms which shares the facilities. The hostel is pretty quiet at the moment so we have the apartment to ourselves. Pretty happy about that!
Also some good news for me, while I type this I am watching a 30 minute show dedicated to rugby! They are showing some local Chile games (not great quality but hey, rugby is rugby!!!). Also they have shown highlights of the Super 15 games played over the weekend. Cant understand what the presenter is saying but still good to see some footy.
La Serena - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Serena,_Chile
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