It's become a general ritual for myself and amongst many travellers to always opt for the night bus when travelling substantial distances, which in south America at least is often. You save on a nights accommodation and save a day for sightseeing. The first ocassion when I would say this was a bad idea was the border crossing from Mendoza to Santiago.
For an approximate 8 hour journey we opted for the 11pm bus, but wanting to save on cab fare and not wanting to be walking around in the dark headed to the bus station at about 8.30. Finally on the bus after a couple of hours of procrastination and making friends with small children we tried to sleep probably falling into the deep by about 1am. At 4am we were woken up at the border and made to stand in a que in the freezing cold before being let in to immigration. 2 hours, 3 forms and 1 small earthquake later we were back on the bus. We had been shouted at in Spanish that everyone's forms were wrong and waited for 40 minutes ready to have our bags searched while Chilean officials chatted. No one was enthralled. Trying to get back to sleep was a no go and we arrived in Santiago tired and dishevelled.
We headed straight for the cash machine to find that £1 was equivalent to thousands of Chilean pesos and I soon got duped out of a tenner due to my lack of brain capacity mixed with general inability for Maths.
Arriving at our hostel we had several hours to wait around for check in. In short, dont do it!
For an approximate 8 hour journey we opted for the 11pm bus, but wanting to save on cab fare and not wanting to be walking around in the dark headed to the bus station at about 8.30. Finally on the bus after a couple of hours of procrastination and making friends with small children we tried to sleep probably falling into the deep by about 1am. At 4am we were woken up at the border and made to stand in a que in the freezing cold before being let in to immigration. 2 hours, 3 forms and 1 small earthquake later we were back on the bus. We had been shouted at in Spanish that everyone's forms were wrong and waited for 40 minutes ready to have our bags searched while Chilean officials chatted. No one was enthralled. Trying to get back to sleep was a no go and we arrived in Santiago tired and dishevelled.
We headed straight for the cash machine to find that £1 was equivalent to thousands of Chilean pesos and I soon got duped out of a tenner due to my lack of brain capacity mixed with general inability for Maths.
Arriving at our hostel we had several hours to wait around for check in. In short, dont do it!
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