Salta

Hi all,

I know I said there would be no blog today, but I just had to share our experience of crossing the border from Chile to Argentina with you all. 

So last night after I posted there was torrential rain to the point the streets flooded. It was insane. We had to walk to the shops to buy snacks and got saturated and dirty. We were meant to leave at 7am but due to the rain the police closed the border. At one stage Rodrigo said we would not be able to cross and have to stay another day, but luckily at 9.30am we were able to leave upon being told the border was open. 

So now. Let's play a game. It's called "Get Out of Chile and Into Argentina". Firstly you have to drive for three hours from San Pedro to the border. Then you have to sit in a bus with no idea what's happening for half an hour. Next, take your passport and four identical forms for Argentina you have to fill out and stand in a "queue". No, not a queue, a giant mess. With random people pushing in, one woman giving her children alcohol to sniff so they turn into zombies and don't play up (no joke - disgusting), screaming babies and people pushing past you all the time. After you've been standing a while, the police will say something in Spanish and the entire room will turn into even more chaos, switching queues because someone has decided it's a good idea to swap the queues when you've already been waiting an hour. Next add some more queue jumpers and three idiots who, no matter how many times are told they're in the bus and not the car queue, insist on staying in your line and then arguing for ten minutes when they get to the front about why they're in the wrong queue. When you get to the front, the policeman in your queue will disappear to have a lunch break and make you wait another ten minutes. After 2.5 hours you finally get your passport stamped and move to the Argentina queue. This part is all smooth sailing, but wait, it's not over yet! Go and get your bag scanned (after waiting for them to turn the scanner on!!) while the man "checking" them chats to you and doesn't look at the screen at all. Follow this by waiting in the wind and rain while your bus is checked by customs. Welcome to Argentina! Worst. Border crossing. EVER. Worse than Russia! RUSSIA! Are you kidding me Chile? Up your game!!! Lol. All part of the experience but sheesh, seriously!

The rest of the day has been spent on the bus. All in all including the border it took us 12-13 hours. We had one stop in a cute little town. Problem being because we were delayed and none of us have an Argentinian money, we haven't been able to buy food. So on the bus from the time we left until we arrived in Salta I ate: 3 bananas, 1 apple, 2 small packets of Doritos, 3 small packets of Skittles. I got so hungry I started eating vegemite out of the tube!! Haha. 

I passed the bus ride by reading up on Salta and Buenos Aires and listening to music, and finally at 11pm we arrived!

Tonight we went and swapped money on the street (so suss - but you get a better rate!!) then had empanadas and McDonalds for dinner! 

Photos tmro (took hardly any today!)

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox