South America, Days 137 to 141 - Stage 27: Rapa Nui to Mendoza, Argentina

Walking along the rocky coastline at Rapa Nui

Day 137 Monday continued 

It did finally stop raining in the middle of the afternoon. Just as we were considering going out, and trying to decide which door was Sarah and Gerritt's to knock on, they appeared too. We headed off for the 40 minute walk to a restaurant we'd all sort of fancied, by the turtles, Pea Restobar. We went via the craft market, just because, even though none of us want to buy. It had appeared half closed on Sunday and was still half closed on Monday!

That made it just about 17.00 so acceptable for dinner and beer so that's what we did.

Walked back again, via the ice-cream shop, and went up to S&G's room for sunset and to help them finish their beer as this is their last night. All jolly civilised!

Watching sunset from Gerrit and Sarah's balcony

Day 138 Tuesday 

We waved goodbye to S&G after breakfast and headed into town. A good plan as the electricity is going to be off for 4 hours.(In fact it's still off, but I'm hoping it'll be back soon.)

The harbour at Rapa Nui, it may look calm but there's no boats going in our out 

We walked to the harbour, just to have a look really. We saw the glass bottom boat which looked a bit disappointing, not quite what we would have expected, so glad we didn't book it, on a very dull day like today and after the very rough weather of the last couple of days the visibility wouldn't have been good. 

There was a turtle swimming in the harbour though

Back towards town via a supermarket to buy snacks for our bus ride over the Andes, the day after tomorrow, probably a very expensive way to do it, but time is going to be limited. What was surprising in the supermarket though was that you could get a reasonable bottle of wine, Casillero del diablo for about £5. We spent more on a coffee with ice-cream for lunch! Back to the hotel to almost do our last bits of booking, but the power is still off, so no WiFi. Guess I'll go and have a shower then!

And fish eating the remains of something. Not sure what it is, but you can see some vertebrae on it and some more on the seabed through the murky waters

Day 139 Wednesday 

We had the morning to kill, so in-between rain showers and electricity going off, again, we went into town to get a bite of lunch, before the lovely Odette took us back to the airport for our flight back to the mainland. It all went smoothly except for getting wet feet while walking. They had pretty much dried by the time we landed and had to put our shoes back on. A short day, (we lost two hours) doing not a lot, before for me, a really rubbish night sleep 

There's the glass bottomed boat in harbour. Glad we didn't bother, it would have been fairly unpleasant in 1.5m swell!

Day 140 Thursday 

Off to Mendoza, so back into Argentina. We could have flown this, but Brian wanted to do the 8 hour road trip over the Andes instead. As I said I slept really badly, constantly waking to look at my phone, about checking in for the bus, crossing the border, how it was all going to work. Three hours sleep is not enough, particularly when I'm meant to stay awake on the bus as the scenery was the whole point of this!

Views as we walked round the island. Each of those hills is an extinct volcano

The journey up the wiggles of las caracoles was interesting. I'm not sure the front upstairs was the best place to be!

I'd read horror stories about the border crossing in the other direction, but this way there were lots of smug comments about being through in 45 minutes. It took us a lot longer than that, about 2 1/2 hours. Nothing seemed to be happening when we arrived, then eventually the passengers of the bus two ahead of us were taken to a window which seemed to be customs Chile, but hopefully it was everything. We all queued for one man who looked at us, scanned our passports and took the PDI slips of paper that you are given on arrival in Chile (very important and easily lost). Back on the bus which inches forward across the 5 lines of cars to the one bus lane where all the luggage is taken off and scanned (I think) with a few items being held for examination. We all walked through carrying our hand luggage, hoping our bags hadn't been selected. They hadn't, so back on the bus and away. No stamps in our passport, but there weren't when we entered on the ship either, so hopefully it's all OK. Who knows what time we will actually arrive in Mendoza, 175km to go, but we've got a few days to recover!

We stopped for an afternoon cake and ice cream coffee stop and a little bird came to join us...

What did surprise slightly was having to tip the guys loading the bags onto the bus, and the guy unloading in Mendoza, but the driver also came round at the border collecting for the guys there too. like we had a choice!

We got to Mendoza just before 19.00 so actually only half an hour late which all things considered wasn't bad. Check in at the Abril Boutique Hotel and out to the nearby Irish pub (Believe) for something to eat as apart from breakfast we've not had much at all for the last two days. Thankfully we were leaving just as the rapper starts outside!

Is this Darwin's theory of evolution in practice? It looks like a sparrow, but look at it's modified beak. Has it evolved to eat specific food only found on Rapa Nui, an island 2075km from the nearest other inhabited island?

Day 141 Friday 

10 hours sleep, unbelievable.

Out for a look at Mendoza which feels very safe and comfortable. We've walked around many parks and plazas, though not much else to see, we don't think. The old town was destroyed in an earthquake in 1861 so there are a few ruins, which we haven't been to see. The new town is perfectly fine but hasn't got the charm of some of the cities we've been through.

We did stop on the park at the information office where she was just about to tell us about the Estados Malvinas Argentinas, when she asked where we were from.... I apologised for being British, but she laughed and didn't hold it against us.

Jackie finds a cat

Off to look at the Justice Palace and found ourselves outside a barbershop. Brian has been going on about his hair for ages and we have some spare time so in we went. Again, I wasn't sure telling the lad we were from Britain as he was approaching your head with a pair of scissors, but he was probably only born this century and really didn't seem bothered! Having cut Brian's we asked him about cutting mine. He was fine about it, bearing in mind this was definitely a barbers not a hairdresser, and I'm very happy with the results. So for 14000 Argentine pesos, just over £10 which included a tip that he obviously wasn't expecting we are both shorn. Hurrah.

I had been worried about prices in Argentina, Buenos Aires was expensive, but here really doesn't seem too bad. Our biggest problem is that trips all seem to want cash, which is a problem. We are carrying more dollars than we usually would, but are really not happy about it. Card is accepted most places though efectivo (cash) will often give you a discount, but tips all have to be in cash. 

A bird of paradise plant growing in the garden of our hotel on Rapa Nui

Last photo of a Moai on our walk back to our hotel just before we left to catch our 5 hour flight back to Santiago, Chile

After a night in a hotel in Santiago after our late evening flight from Rapa Nui, we were up and at the bus station next day for our 10:30am bus across the Andes mountains to Mendoza in Argentina

We'd booked this bus ticket online several weeks before and we got the front seats upstairs, so hoping for great views on the spectacular pass over the high Andes past the highest mountain in South America, Aconcagua

And so it proved, the views just got better and better as we progressed. Over 8 hours including a 2.5 hour stop at the border crossing, but we were comfy in reclining seats and an ever changing view

Including this rather interesting set of switchbacks up the side of a mountain. The flight might only have been less than 2 hours, but you don't get these views, or the space we had in our seats!

Bye-bye Chile. The actual border formalities are at a specially built compound well into Argentina. You could just drive past if you were unaware, as its so far into the country but, if you did, you'd be in trouble when you came to leave, you would not have been checked out of Chile nor checked into Argentina. We'll actually drive back up, past the check point on Sunday when we come back to do our Aconcagua hike, that's just inside Argentina, but between the border and the check point. 

See that mountain through there in the distance? That's Aconcagua. We'll be back walking through that valley from somewhere around here on Sunday to it's base camp. So we're over the border now into Argentina, but haven't yet reached the border check point

We're past the border checkpoint and heading downhill towards Mendoza and just look at the scenery. Maybe I should have filtered this photo in some way to bring out the colours more as, in real life they were stunning. The mountain on the right was vivid orange, yellows and red, in front was a green mountain and, beyond a deeper red mountain. Just amazing! They'd put on a Beverly Hills movie dubbed into Spanish, but we ignored it and looked at the scenery

Spent 60,000 Argentinia Pesos (about £43) on this bit of paper at the Pago Facil Western Union branch in Mendoza today. It's our Aconcagua park permit to allow us to go in for our hike on Sunday (that's in addition to the guide fee of over £300! Expensive stuff for a walk!)

However the haircuts were a bit cheaper in this interesting barbers. The painting on the back wall is of Eminem and the other is Ethan Slater, Ariana Grande's boyfriend. They were playing this type of music in there which was OK. He asked where we were from in England, I told him Birmingham, which didn't seem to mean much until I asked him if he knew the football team Aston Villa. Ah, OK, he said with a smile (no point asking him if he knew my team, Birmingham City!)

The advantage of Jackie having a photo of how she wants it, he could just copy it. He did a nice job for us both, mine's the usual number 3 al over, which means I now don't have to think about it again until after I get home in 6 weeks or so