A Chilean Adventure

After reading the Chilean guidebook, we decided that the cheapest way to get to the southern part of Chile would be to rent a car and drive there. Taking buses would be too inconvenient and expensive, there’s a big ferry but it was about $800 each, and flying just didn’t seem like it would give us the freedom we wanted for the cost. We worked it out with a Chilean car rental company in Puerto Varas and today is the day we got to have our car!

We spent the morning buying some groceries, most of which consisted of bread, jam, crackers, and a few other non-perishable items. We even decided to risk getting some fruits that could be easily peeled. Then at noon we went to pick up our car.

It’s a Chevrolet Corsa Extra, which is kind of similar to a Cavalier. When we looked inside, we found that it was a manual. That wouldn’t have mattered, except that I accidentally forgot my driver’s license in Valdivia (which makes me really angry!) and Danielle has no idea how to drive a stick! Augh! Now what!? I assured Danielle that I’d be able to teach her how to drive it and the guy with the rental company assured me that we wouldn’t see any cops on most of our route so I could probably drive anyway.

Although it was Monday in Puerto Varas, the city was full of pedestrians and cars that certainly wouldn’t have the patience for someone who didn’t know how to drive. I took the wheel and got us out of town to some back roads where Danielle could feel free to practice without hitting anyone or anything. She was a great student and learned quickly! Taking off in first was a little tricky yet, but the car was a little touchy so she just needed more practice. It was a little scary at times and I had to tell her when to shift for a very long time until she felt comfortable, but that’s understandable. She is very excited that she learned how to drive a manual and can’t wait to tell her whole family. I was very excited to start our grand road trip that would take us through Argentina to get to southern Chile.

On our drive this afternoon, we turned off onto a dirt road to grab a bite to eat in our car. When we went out to the highway again, we saw three girls around our age hitchhiking, so we decided to pick them up. It’s an adventure, right!? Turns out that hitching is a primary method for people our age to vacation in Chile. We got to know our riders a little and found them to be pleasant company. They even had CDs for us to play! (You don’t get many radio stations driving through the Andes!)

We thought we could already see the Andes from pretty far away, but we were very wrong - it was just the foothills. Once we got into the range we were amazed. I was actually pretty glad that I wasn’t driving so I could take in the views. I really can’t describe it and I don’t think photos will be able to do it justice.

In the middle of the range, we had to cross the border into Argentina. I don’t think we would’ve made it without our travelers helping us understand everything. First, we had to go through the procedure to leave Chile. There was some paperwork, they stamped our passports, and we had to prove that the rental place was letting us take the car out of the country. A few kilometers down the road, we had to do it all over again to enter Argentina. It’s not just a window that you drive through and show passports, we had to park the car and go inside a building and stand in two long lines in each stop. It was time-consuming, but good to know that they have some pretty good security.

The next stop was San Carlos de Bariloche, where we would stay for the night. We decided to get the best use of our car and just sleep in it at a campground. It was late when we got into Bariloche, but again the hitchhikers came in handy because they could easily ask people on the street where the campsites were. We did learn that we have to be somewhat assertive with hitchers because we stopped at four campgrounds before they found one they were satisfied with: they wanted to be with other students, they wanted it to be cheap, and some of them were full. We just wanted to go to bed!

Once we finally found one, none of us had Argentine pesos so we had to go back into the city (which took about 15-20 minutes) to find an ATM. On the way back to the campsite we decided to fill up the car with gas. In Chile and Argentina they have hired people to pump the gas for you and you can pay them without getting out of your car. It’s pretty nice! As we were waiting for the guy to fill the tank, we pulled out some crackers because we were starving, and Danielle made a pretty funny comment. She said, “We’re weird! We’re sitting in a car at a gas station, at midnight, eating crackers, and we’re in Argentina!”

Weird, hungry and tired, Back at the site, we ate more crackers and some dry cereal and we put the seats back and slept. It wasn’t a restful sleep because our little car didn’t do much to keep us warm. All we had were the clothes we were wearing! We woke up freezing!

Another thing - now we have Chilean pesos and Argentine pesos. Confusing! The Argentine conversion rate is much easier to figure out though. One U.S. dollar is three Argentine pesos versus one U.S. dollar is about 545 Chilean pesos. Too much math!