Walking to Chile, or, God bless Germans
After much debate - mostly involving time and money, though I´ll spare you the boring details - we decided to head to Chile and then North instead of going deeper into Patagonia. Warmth and beaches had a greater call than cold and mountains.
We left El Bolson on... I can´t remember... what day is it now? Anyway... we left El Bolson by walking to the gas station at the edge of town and sticking our thumbs out. Needless to say, most drivers are somewhat reluctant to pick up three, male, and ragged-looking hitchhikers, so we decided to split up and meet in Bariloche. I eventually managed a ride in the back of a pickup truck, and Lebn and Sam got rides an hour later with some truckers. The drive was lovely in the back of that truck, I´ve always been fond of riding in a truck bed, but unfortunately, the driver´s stop was 10 kilometers outside of town. I hoofed half of it and caught a city bus the rest of the way and made it to our meeting spot about 20 minutes before Lebn and Sam who were dropped off within the city limits.
We inquired about a bus to Chile and discovered that, as it is the end of the summer holiday here, buses were booked for days with vacationing Chileans returning home. We hemmed and hawed for a day and a half about what to do next, and decided to ride the local buses as far as we could then hitch the rest of the way. We made it to a sign that said Chile was 30 kilometers away and decided that instead of just waiting in the middle of nowhere, we´d start walking, thumbs in the air. It was 7pm when we started. We walked 10 kilometers without a ride in sight. It was dark when we decided to camp. We set up close to the side of the road with a couple of guys from Chile who were also hitching. We cooked dinner and got more water from a river that was about 25 meters away and went to sleep on the soft earth. It was a pretty great place to camp.
We woke up early the next day, fully prepared to walk the 20 kilometers that separated us from the border, where we felt confident we could get a ride from all of the cars stopped to go through customs because, as anyone who´s ever hitched before knows, unless you´re a girl (and even if you are), it´s a lot easier to get a ride if you´re talking face to face with someone than if you´re just a thumb on the side of the road.
After about 2 or 3 kilometers though, we reached the first border checkpoint. It was the one for the Argentina side, the Chilean check was the farther one. After about 10 minutes, all three of us got a ride crammed in the back of a pickup truck rented by a nice German couple on their way to some hot springs. Once again, the view from the back of the truck was spectacular. There were tremendous cliffs, lush forests all around us and towering, snow-capped volcanoes in the distance. The German couple was so nice, that they took us past the hotel where they were staying, another 15 kilometers or so, to a gas station where it would be easier for us to catch a ride.
It had one pump and was still out in the middle of nowhere. We spoke to the gas station attendant and learned that there was a bus that was coming by soon that could take us to the center of the small town we were on the outskirts of, but we had no Chilean pesos with which to purchase our fare. But the attendant was nice enough to trade 4 American dollars that I still had in my wallet for the 2000 Chilean pesos we would need and the bus arrived not 5 minutes later. Once on the bus, we learned that, for 400 pesos more than we had, we could ride it all the way into the next major city. We offered to buy more pesos on the bus, but there weren´t any takers, then the driver said we could work it out when we got there.
One passenger on the bus though, apparently took pity on our plight, and gave us a bag with a liter of beer and three unidentified canned meats without saying a word. I bumped into him yesterday and found out he was German too and didn´t speak Spanish or English very well through a hodgepodge of the three languages. But anyway...
So we were in the town of Osorno, deciding what to do next, looking through our travel book and some notes and recommendations that friendly Chileans had given us on the way, and decided to inquire about tickets to a town called Valdivia. The ticket agent said there was a bus that was supposed to be leaving right then, but hadn´t arrived yet. We decided to continue on the travel wave we were riding, bought the tickets, and have been here for two days now. It´s lovely, on two rivers, and very close to the coast. So... after 2 pickup trucks, 2 big rigs, 5 buses and a lot of walking, we made it further than the booked buses in Bariloche would have taken us, at a third of the cost, and we beat them to our destination. Not bad for a bunch of gringos.
And today we´re going to the beach.
We left El Bolson on... I can´t remember... what day is it now? Anyway... we left El Bolson by walking to the gas station at the edge of town and sticking our thumbs out. Needless to say, most drivers are somewhat reluctant to pick up three, male, and ragged-looking hitchhikers, so we decided to split up and meet in Bariloche. I eventually managed a ride in the back of a pickup truck, and Lebn and Sam got rides an hour later with some truckers. The drive was lovely in the back of that truck, I´ve always been fond of riding in a truck bed, but unfortunately, the driver´s stop was 10 kilometers outside of town. I hoofed half of it and caught a city bus the rest of the way and made it to our meeting spot about 20 minutes before Lebn and Sam who were dropped off within the city limits.
We inquired about a bus to Chile and discovered that, as it is the end of the summer holiday here, buses were booked for days with vacationing Chileans returning home. We hemmed and hawed for a day and a half about what to do next, and decided to ride the local buses as far as we could then hitch the rest of the way. We made it to a sign that said Chile was 30 kilometers away and decided that instead of just waiting in the middle of nowhere, we´d start walking, thumbs in the air. It was 7pm when we started. We walked 10 kilometers without a ride in sight. It was dark when we decided to camp. We set up close to the side of the road with a couple of guys from Chile who were also hitching. We cooked dinner and got more water from a river that was about 25 meters away and went to sleep on the soft earth. It was a pretty great place to camp.
We woke up early the next day, fully prepared to walk the 20 kilometers that separated us from the border, where we felt confident we could get a ride from all of the cars stopped to go through customs because, as anyone who´s ever hitched before knows, unless you´re a girl (and even if you are), it´s a lot easier to get a ride if you´re talking face to face with someone than if you´re just a thumb on the side of the road.
After about 2 or 3 kilometers though, we reached the first border checkpoint. It was the one for the Argentina side, the Chilean check was the farther one. After about 10 minutes, all three of us got a ride crammed in the back of a pickup truck rented by a nice German couple on their way to some hot springs. Once again, the view from the back of the truck was spectacular. There were tremendous cliffs, lush forests all around us and towering, snow-capped volcanoes in the distance. The German couple was so nice, that they took us past the hotel where they were staying, another 15 kilometers or so, to a gas station where it would be easier for us to catch a ride.
It had one pump and was still out in the middle of nowhere. We spoke to the gas station attendant and learned that there was a bus that was coming by soon that could take us to the center of the small town we were on the outskirts of, but we had no Chilean pesos with which to purchase our fare. But the attendant was nice enough to trade 4 American dollars that I still had in my wallet for the 2000 Chilean pesos we would need and the bus arrived not 5 minutes later. Once on the bus, we learned that, for 400 pesos more than we had, we could ride it all the way into the next major city. We offered to buy more pesos on the bus, but there weren´t any takers, then the driver said we could work it out when we got there.
One passenger on the bus though, apparently took pity on our plight, and gave us a bag with a liter of beer and three unidentified canned meats without saying a word. I bumped into him yesterday and found out he was German too and didn´t speak Spanish or English very well through a hodgepodge of the three languages. But anyway...
So we were in the town of Osorno, deciding what to do next, looking through our travel book and some notes and recommendations that friendly Chileans had given us on the way, and decided to inquire about tickets to a town called Valdivia. The ticket agent said there was a bus that was supposed to be leaving right then, but hadn´t arrived yet. We decided to continue on the travel wave we were riding, bought the tickets, and have been here for two days now. It´s lovely, on two rivers, and very close to the coast. So... after 2 pickup trucks, 2 big rigs, 5 buses and a lot of walking, we made it further than the booked buses in Bariloche would have taken us, at a third of the cost, and we beat them to our destination. Not bad for a bunch of gringos.
And today we´re going to the beach.
posted by Zackataca at 7:07 AM
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