We've veen stuck here on the border--way in the tips of the mountains---for 2 hours now. In a line of buses on our way across the Andes from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile, we sit and sit until someone comes on the bus and yells something about documentos and we all file out. 
 
I'm not about to leave the camera bag, two kindles and an ipad on the bus though, so me and my weighted down shoulder bag head down the steps and into the customs shed for processing--right behind Bob. First we're in line 1--wait, wait, stamp, stamp, stamp---then we're hustled into line 2 for what looks to us like exactly the same wait, wait, stamp, stamp, stamp.
 
Who knows?
 
Then back on the bus for more waiting as all the luggage is off loaded and run through a scanner. Not us. Not our carryons. Just the checked bags.
 
A smuggler could have a hayday at this entry, but it's better than the walk through without a care "checkpoint" from Arg to Bolivia.
 
These countries have such lax security---don't they ever have terriost threats?
 
Oops, I spoke too soon. Once they'd gotten us all back on the bus and seated--no one standing, mind you--- they had us all get back off the bus and back into the same customs shed we'd just come out of, but this time with our carryons. 
 
Is someone secretly filming this? This is good stuff.
 
We were over three hours getting through customs and off down the mountain into Chile and Santiago, today's destination.
 
If you want an eyeful of the Andes try Google Earth for Aconcagua--it's the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere and the monolith we've been skirting around since we left Mendoza.

I apologize, but all these shots have been taken out of my bus window and probably anyone who isn't as enthralled by mountains as I am won't even be interested, but to me they show how tough this country is. How tough it is to make a living a few miles outside of the circle of vineyards around the oasis that's Mendoza.

A word about the road leading off the mountain into Chile: last time we were up here we read afterwards of a bunch of tourists whose bus had plummeted off the road and down the mountain side. Seeing this thing close up, we can totally understand how that could happen.