The Worst Bus Journey

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I got to La Serena, Chile today, at 18:00 instead of at 10:30. The reason for this long delay is the border between Argentina and Chile. Chile, for some reason, does not want anyone to bring fruits, vegetables or animal products inside its borders, which is fine. The problem is, they inspect everyone´s bags with a machine, like the one at airports, but they do it with typical South American efficiency, which is, very inefficiently. They insist on inspecting the bags of an entire bus one after another, which is a problem, because people tend to wander off while they are waiting for other people who have wandered off to come back. Because of that, every busload takes about an hour, and of course, there are lots of buses. We got to the border at 2:00 and left there at 10:00. Indeed, the worst bus journey I had (at least so far, but that´s saying something after being in Bolivia).
Now I´m in La Serena, which seems to be a very nice and relaxed city. Tomorrow I´m going on a tour of the Elqui Valley, and to the observatory, which makes it a pretty long day, and the day after I´ll probably go on a pinguin tour, and then on to Valparaiso, for New Year´s.

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