Back over the Andes

On the Thursday 17th January we left Valparaiso bound for Mendoza, back over the Andes in Argentina. All the direct buses were sold out so we had to first get back to Santiago and procure transport from there. A bit of a detour but not too dramatic.

The Santiago - Mendoza run is a busy route, and we had no trouble buying tickets for a minibus leaving within 30 minutes of our arrival at the bus station. Normally we wouldn't have dreamed of getting a minibus for this kind of distance, but we knew that at the border everyone on public transport would have to disembark, pass through customs and immigration control on foot, and have their bags X-rayed. Given all this, we expected that a minibus would get through quicker than a full bus. (And the verdict... not really! and certainly not worth the discomfort of the seats)
After seeing snow and shivering our socks off at both sides of the border crossing from Bariloche to Osorno, we were darned if we were going to let the weather catch us out again. The Samore pass from Bariloche to Osorno peaked at about 1200m, and we reasoned that, although we were now about 1000km nearer to the equator, the weather was bound to be cold again, especially as this pass peaked at about 3200m. Imagine our surprise, clad in jeans and warm jumpers, me with a woolly hat in my man-bag, with the temperature at about 30°C at the border. And as we drove down to Mendoza, the temperature rose to nearer 40°C. As soon as we were off the minibus we practically stripped off right there on the bus station platform.

The scenery visible from the Santiago - Mendoza road was incredible; the innumerable colours of the Andean rock contrasting with the snow at high level and surprising occasional patches of bright green grass, straggling thinly across the more sheltered slopes. We passed ski lifts and resorts (deserted - out of season) and Chilean and Argentine army training bases. We also caught a glimpse of the 'Puente del Inca' - a natural stone bridge worn away by the River Mendoza, close to the Argentine side of the border. One of the climbs on the Chilean side involved about 27 hairpin bends, one after the other - the bends were even numbered. We also saw a couple of hundred people crossing the pass on horseback, seemingly re-enacting Jose de San Martin's Army of the Andes' crossing from Mendoza to liberate Chile from the Spanish. Not an easy task now, and certainly not 200 years ago...

Robin