Last Supper and Bus to Santiago de Chile (07.10.08 - 08.10.08)

Last meal in Buenos Aires - These are a few of my favourite things:
A delectable piece of Argentinean Steak, a mouth-watering beer and my scrumptious wife (The only things missing were my ipod and Wii) .

View from the mostly empty sleeper-bus to Santiago - crossing the Andes (again) is still spectacular but not as scary in Argentina.

We enjoyed the view outside our windows whilst the attendant who was supposed to be serving us in first class was flirting with the attractive girl from the seat next to us. He seemed more intent on smoking with her in the driver´s cabin than cleaning up the rubbish stewn across our cabin.

We crossed the Argentinean/ Chilean border halfway through a several km long tunnel, although the border checkpoint was obviously on the far side of the tunnel. The border security was as tough as anything we have encountered – probably even more thorough than that at Heathrow. Our bags were comprehensively sniffed and scanned, Karyn having to explain to a customs comandanté the composition of all her souvenirs. She then watched horrified as they ripped open our new antique painting and then declared: ‘Oh no, we have a problem here’. Thankfully after a close inspection from the resident antique timber painting consultant, our souvenir was declared ‘safe’ and allowed to pass (even without a bribe). The comandanté commented on the ease at which he terrified Karyn and then with the assistance of three helpers (junior customs capitáns) re-taped our painting rather carelessly.

The sniffer-dog completed a meticulous sniff-search of the bus (even smelling the inside of the bins and the toilet). Having come-up empty-pawed and still enthusiastic to find contraband (like what we saw being smuggled over the Bolivian/Chilean border), he bound over all our fragile and precious collectables, spilling hand-bags and shopping bags in his wake. Despite the intrusive security, I did manage to smuggle through my Amazonian monkey comb (a sizable thorny seed pod used by monkeys for grooming), an object the Australian customs officials will very much love to get their hands on.