Over the Andes into Chile

Having determined which bus we wanted to take into Chile, we had to figure out how to get to the bus station in downtown Cordoba. Remember, our car fit only our bodies, not all of our stuff. We finally decided that the best plan would be for me to drive Andrew and Christopher to the bus station with all of our stuff. After we bought our tickets, I would drive back to Alta Gracia and pick up the four girls. We would then return the rental car and take a taxi to the bus station, leaving plenty of time to spare. Everything went according to plan, except that with traffic and few other minor problems by the time I arrived back in Cordoba, we were running about an hour later than we had hoped. I still needed to return the car, but we had allowed extra time, so I wasn't too worried. I had the address for the rental car agency and a good map. Unfortunately, we discovered that the agency wasn't actually at the address listed the internet. What to do? I tried calling them, but my phone was having some type of technical problem that wouldn't allow me to make the call. Now I really started to get worried. I retraced my steps again thinking that maybe we had some how missed it. Unfortunately, as I tried to retrace my steps, I got lost in the maze of one-way streets in the downtown area. As we drove down a busy main street, Morielle shouted out that she saw a sign for Alamo. Frustratingly, due to traffic, I couldn't get over and had to go back around again. More one-way streets and I found myself lost again. Finally, we located the sign and sure enough it was an Alamo; not the one listed on the internet, but still an Alamo. I pulled over and went into the hotel where the office was located. It was closed! Now I was really in trouble. Our bus was leaving in less than an hour and the only other place I could return the car was at the airport a good 30 minutes away. I talked to someone at the front desk of the hotel in my best Spanish and he offered to call the Alamo office at the airport for me. The guy on duty turned out to Martin, the man who we had filled out our initial paperwork with. Fortunately, he spoke fluent English. I explained my dilemma and he told me to just leave the car there at the hotel and he would take care of everything later. The man at the hotel desk informed me that the bus station was only seven blocks away. We'd make it, praise God!! We grabbed our stuff, walked rapidly to the bus station and arrived with about twenty minutes to spare. If Morielle hadn't "accidentally" noticed the Alamo sign, I don't know what we would have done.

Our bus was scheduled to leave at 10:00 p.m. We were grateful to have been able to get tickets because the bus drivers were planning to go on strike at midnight (the second time that week), and any buses scheduled after that wouldn't be running. 10:30 rolled around and we were still waiting. 11:00 passed and still we waited. When it passed 11:3o we started to worry. What if the bus didn't arrive before midnight? Would it still leave? Finally, at around 11:50 our bus showed up. We all climbed on exhausted but relieved, and got ourselves settled for our 16 hour bus ride.

I thought the younger kids would fall asleep right away, but for some crazy reason they decided to show a cartoon until 2:00 a.m. It's pretty hard to sleep when there is a movie playing right in front of you. Finally, after the movie was over, we all fell asleep. The bus had "semi-cama" seats, which meant that they reclined quite a bit. It was not super comfortable, but was better than trying to sleep in an airline seat.


Sleeping in our semi-cama seats

When we woke up we were coming in Mendoza, the last major city before heading up into the Andes. We got a quick break at a gas station to stretch our legs and brush our teeth.


Andrew & Chris in front of our double-decker bus in Mendoza. Our seats were upstairs.


The Andes appear in the distance.


Driving up into the Andes


A really tall mountain.

We climbed back in and started our climb into the Andes. I was excited. I have wanted to see the Andes for as long as I can remember and now, here they were!!! I quickly decided however, that I had best keep my eyes on the mountains not the road. Remember my description of Argentine drivers? Well, our lives were now in the hands of an Argentine bus driver who passed trucks on windy mountain roads with a sheer drop off on one side. Lots of prayers went up over the next five hours and at one point I looked down one of these drop offs and saw a truck that hadn't made it. The truck was completely destroyed and they were in the process of trying to get the driver out as we drove by. I can't imagine that he survived. It was a sad and sobering moment.


A truck and truck driver that didn't make it.

One of the challenges I faced as a parent as we drove over the Andes was the graphically violent and sexual charged R rated movie they chose to show as we traveled. I finally had to have the younger kids cover their heads with a blanket and look out the window. I just don't understand why people show this kind of material when there are children present. What are they thinking? The imagery was horrific and instead being able to totally enjoy the beauty out my window, I had to deal with unhappy kids who didn't enjoy having to travel with blankets over their heads. This was one of the reasons I had hesitated traveling by bus in South America. A friend had warned me that the movies were usually pretty bad, and now I was having my own first hand experience. At least the view out the window was pretty. They both finally fell asleep. My other kids ended up sleeping through most of the movie as well, so we survived.

At last we reached the summit and arrived at the border between Argentina and Chile. We passed through customs with out any real difficulty even though two of our bags had to be searched. Then we began our decent in to Chile. For those of you who have never seen the Andes they are simply amazing. We took lots of pictures, but none of them do justice to sheer magnificence of these mountains.


The border of Chile was at the summit.


Another view of the summit.


Safely in the valley looking back at the Andes

Finally we arrived in Santiago. We were exhausted but grateful to have made it safely. The next challenge was trying to figure out how to pick up our car. As we stood there looking very much like confused tourists, an incredibly helpful Chilean woman who spoke English quite well came up and offered to help. Since our phone didn't work in Chile, she offered to call the rental car agency from her cell phone. Once we discovered that it was more than a half an hour away from the bus station, we realized that our original plan of sending either Andrew or me to pick up the car and then get the rest of the family at the bus station was probably not a good one. Unlike the bus station in Argentina, there really wasn't any place to comfortably hang out while waiting; and unlike Argentina, we really stood out in the bus station with our lighter hair and fairer skin. There was no way we could pass for locals here. We decided that our best bet was to all take taxis to the car rental place. We enlisted the help of the guy who appeared to be assigned to the task of matching riders with drivers. He took stock of us and our luggage and went to talk to the taxi drivers. They decided that we would all fit in one taxi, luggage and all. We couldn't believe it. It was just too funny. But sure enough, with his roof rack and trunk, all of our stuff fit. Andrew sat in the front seat with the driver and the rest of us climbed in the backseat of yet another car that was designed for only five people. This time, however, instead of trying to cram five people into the backseat, we were cramming six!!! But, hey, were in South America. Here can you get away with piling eight people into a five passenger car. We all got very cozy and off we went.

When we arrived at the rental car agency, we were thrilled to find out that they had another Hyundai eleven passenger van waiting for us! Finally we could spread out a bit and fit all of our stuff comfortably. We now were ready to begin our adventures in Chile!!