Crossing an international border twice in one day

12 January 2010 - Tierra del Fuego

Crossing an international border twice in one day
Today we travel the 200 km from Ushuaia (Argentina) to Rio Gallegos (Argentina) - a relatively short ride you would think, well think again, this is a 12 hour journey including crossing the same international border twice and a ferry crossing.

Chile and Argentina had lengthy and intense border disputes over this largely uninhabited (and uninhabitable) area - as far as the eye can see wide open dry steppe/ pampas. It is hard to believe that the two countries were on the brink of war over this territory in the '70s. There is a famous Chilean movie "mi mejor enemigo" (my best enemy) which tells the story of a troop of 5 Chilean soldiers getting lost in the pampas in the 70's and encountering a troop of 5 Argentinian soldiers. Both troops are charged with defending their border, but no one knows where they are or in which country, let alone where the border is - it all just looks the same, flat nothingness. Today, the most southern part of Argentina can only be reached by crossing Chilean territory.

Our bus leaves Ushuaia at 5 a.m. At 5.15 a.m. an obnoxious tourist with an open bottle of wine manages to get a cigarette from another passenger giving him a sip of wine in return. She then proceeds to light up and smoke the cigarette in the toilet of the bus leaving the door wide open, and seems surprised when the bus assistant informs her that smoking is not allowed. We wonder how we will survive this bus ride.

At 11 am the first border post: fill out the immigration form, everybody off the bus, queue patiently, get an exit stamp, good bye Argentina, for now. At 12:30 am, a few kilometres down the road: fill out the immigration form, everybody off the bus, queue patiently, get an entry stamp into Chile. And then this is Chile which strictly forbids entering with fruits, diary or meat products. Good thing we bought tons of snacks for the bus, fruits, cheese and ham sandwiches! Luckily we remembered before the border post and managed to eat most of it. We declare our two ham sandwiches: the customs officer would not let us enter with the sandwiches, but allows us to eat them on the spot.
Finally we are all back on the bus, then an immigration officer enters and confiscates an open can of beer and a bottle of wine from the previously mentioned obnoxious tourist. At 2pm the third border post, at least here the Argentines and Chileans are in the same building: fill out the immigration forms (we can do this in our sleep by now), everybody off the bus, queue patiently twice, exit Chile, enter Argentina.
At 6pm, 13 hours and 200 km later, we arrive at our destination, Rio Gallegos (Argentina). Well the border disputes may have been resolved and relations between the two countries may be good, but they don't seem to be at a stage yet where travelling to the south of Argentina over Chilean territory can be organised more efficiently.