Our final journey in South America turned out to be completely different kettle of fish from what we had been used to. After the disappointment of no skydiving and having our palmtop stolen in Cordoba we boarded a night bus to take us to Mendoza. We arrived with no problems and well in time to catch our connecting bus just across the border to Santiago. The trouble was the border at this point was closed due to strike action!

We HAD to get to Santiago before 8am on the 20th to catch our flight to Easter Island. We had two options. Take the alternative route by bus which would take 52 hours (which was a no go) or book on a flight to take the 50 minute hop over the Andes. We managed to get back half what we had paid for for the cancelled bus trip leaving us 10 pounds out of pocket for nothing then a further 430 pounds spent on two tickets including taxes to get us to Santiago.

Great... After all that expenditure we slept the night in the airport to avoid more costs!