It was our last morning in Mendoza and when David went down to the reception/breakfast room to check emails (WiFi didn't reach the room), he was asked if he wanted breakfast. When we booked through Booking.com it stated that meals were not included but it seems that breakfast was, even though we were never told at check in. Luckily, we didn't actually miss much - it was weak Nescafe and dryish bread/pastries.

We took a taxi to the bus terminal to catch the 9:30am Cata Internacional to Valparaiso in Chile. The views, once again were good - David always says that even if you return on the path you came, you will always see something new or from a different perspective to make it interesting - and he was correct. There was also some good movies on the bus this time and we were given snacks.

We drove across the border into Chile for quite some way without getting stamped out of Argentina, but assumed it must just be similar to the process going the other way. We soon pulled up at Los Libertadores border control area and there were quite a few buses ahead of us in the queue, which we didn't think much of at the time. We should have maybe begun to think it might be a slow process when they brought round a lunchtime snack and put a new movie on while we were waiting in line.

Maybe the Chileans went for lunch and then had a siesta because it was taking ages for the buses to get through. Cars seemed to be getting through no problem, looks like they had a different control and inspection point. In the end, we spent 3.5 hours at the border. We still have no idea why it took so long to process the other buses ahead of us because our bus went through in maybe 10 minutes. Chile does have similar biosecurity controls to those of New Zealand, but there are X-ray machines and dogs to do the searching. We should be thankful I suppose for waiting inside the warm, comfy bus watching a movie instead of being out in the cold...there is a ski resort next to the border which only closed a few weeks ago.

When we finally got on our way, the bus started its slow drive down a windy road. We forgot to check how many bends there were, but must be about twenty. The movies were put on for the second time, which suggested we were going to be quite late. We eventually passed through the town of Los Andes, which was surrounded by lots of vineyards or grape farms. We were still a long way from Valparaiso and the sun was starting to go down. We reached Vina del Mar, just round the coast from Valparaiso, as the sun finally set around 8pm and we did get a great view from the bus.

It didn't take long for the bus to get to Valparaiso bus terminal and as soon as we had our luggage, we jumped into a taxi to take us to hostel Luna Sonrisa. Despite how late it was, they still held our room which was great. It was a twin room with shared bathroom, and there was a bit of noise coming from the kitchen downstairs but it did quieten down by 10:30pm.