Argentina

This page will include everything north of Patagonia in Argentina. For the Patagonian region, click here.

Border 1: Cristo Redentor de los Andes

Chilean Side

The border and buildings before the tunnel are for people coming into Chile. Simply drive by the booth where you will be stopped and given a ticket with how many people are in your vehicle written on it.

Argentinian Side

Just after the view point for Aconconagua take a left into the obvious immigration/customs area. Buses and very tall vehicles will be lined up in the right most lane, go around them. You’ll drive into the building in the left lane. Each kiosk you stop at has two people in it, one person from each country in it. It’s very easy and straight forward.

Kiosk 1: Stamp out of Chile and into Argentina. You’ll need passport, tourist card from Chile, new tourist card for Argentina (can be filled out in advance if you’re waiting in the line of cars), Chilean vehicle permit, and printed proof of payment for visa/reciprocity fee (purchased in advance if you’re from the US/Canada/Australia), and ticket from Chilean side with number of people in vehicle. They will stamp your ticket and you will need it later in Argentina, don’t lose it. We were not asked to show proof of insurance.
Kiosk 2: Turn in your Chilean vehicle permit. Argentinian person will issue you a new one. You’ll need driver passport, title/registration. No copies necessary.
Kiosk 3: Searching/Fumigation. They asked us if we had any fruits/vegies. We told them all we had was one onion; they didn’t take it, search us, or do any kind of fumigation. Exit building and get back on the highway.
After you pass the Puente de Inca there will be a person at a checkpoint who will check your papers and take your stamped ticket.

Our route

Argentina Tips

Take advantage of the unofficial exchange rates in Argentina to nearly double you money! Bring dollars with you and change them on the Blue Market. When we were in Argentina we were getting an average of 13 pesos to 1 USD while the official rate was 8.5. A few key things to remember:
- Bring the money with you before entering Argentina. While you can get US dollars in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile for instance, you will not be able to in Argentina.
- Bring unmarked, crispy, new 100 dollar bills for the best rates.
- Try to find a reputable changer. Ask around, everyone knows where the best place to go is.
- The more you change at once the better rate you will get. Don’t change too much though, it’s hard to change back when you leave!
- Look up the current rate before you go to change, it’s constantly fluctuating. Many websites list it. Just google Dollar Blue.
- Read a quick tutorial on how to spot counterfeit bills. We didn’t have any issues and visited numerous changers, but knowing how to check the bills certainly eases the mind.
Eat as much meat as you can! Grocery stores and carnecerias sell incredibly good cuts of meat for insanely good prices. We lived off fillet mignon practically our entire stay! Look up your cuts online. Bife and lomo, for instance, are good bets!
Drink lots of wine! It’s great and cheap!
Everything really closes down for siesta, especially in the not so touristy places and bigger cities. Be prepared to eat a dinner out quite late in the evening. Things get rolling around 10p!

Northern Chile: A Great Big Hole, Desert Star Gazing, Pisco and Street Art

November 17, 2014February 2, 2016 Eric 1 Comment

The Atacama Desert is pretty freaking big. 41,000 square miles big. It took us several long days of driving to make our way through it. Two other relevant bits of data: It’s also called the land of 10,000 mines and it is the driest non-polar desert in the world – the former leading to a tour of the largest copper mine in Chile and the latter partly explaining why so many of the world’s most important observatories are located here. It also provides plenty of opportunity for middle-of-freaking-nowhere-camping, which even after nearly a year on the road never gets old… (more…)

Chile

This page will include everything north of Patagonia in Chile. For the Patagonian region, click here.

Border: Hijo Canyon, Bolivia – San Pedro, Chile

Don’t forget to stop at the remote Aduanas office inside the Park at the Boric acid plant to hand over your vehicle papers!!!

Bolivia Side – Hijo Canyon

Go to Aduana office, turn in permit (S22 26.454 W67 48.357)
Drive to immigration (S22 52.860 W67 47.901)
Stamp out. New requirement at this border is a Bs fee of 15-20 pp for maintenance of the border.

Chile Side – Drive 30 minutes to San Pedro

Go to immigration, fill out tourist card. They will enter info into computer and hand passports and copy of tourist card.
Go to aduana’s. Give registration and driver’s passport (they will not need copies). They will give you a vehicle permit.
Across the street is the declaration building. Need to fill out forms declaring stuff. If you have any eggs, milk, cheese, vegetables, you need to say yes on form. They will search your car and if you said no, it is a $200 US fee if you have anything that you did not declare.

We were never asked to present proof of Chilean insurance at either border or during our time in the country, but it is obligatory. You can easily and cheaply purchase it online here: http://www.magallanes.cl/venta/index.aspx?key=k66cl3

Our Route

Chile Tips

Be careful entering Chile. They will hijack you for your food at every border! Sometimes they take your cheese and vegetables, other times they’ll take your meat and dairy. The best thing to do if you’re like us and carry a lot of food with you is to stop before the border and hide it. Do this at your own discretion though – if you were to get caught they claim there is a $200 fine. We hid our food in a backpack way under the bed and left a few things in the fridge on purpose, claimed them on the form, and let them confiscate it. Worked fine.
Copec truck stops/gas stations are excellent places to camp free if you’re on a major highway. They have bathrooms, showers, security, free wifi, and sinks for water and dishes.
We were randomly pulled over and had our van searched by drug dogs, this would be a bad country to drive around in with anything.
The limit for drinking and driving is so low in Chile that you essentially cannot even have one drink.
There are a lot of campgrounds in Chile’s cities, but they’re expensive. We found stealth camping or camping at Copec stations saved us a great deal of money.
Gas is also really expensive.