From Santiago to Buenos Aires - 1,740km in 4 days

Once across Argentina: From Chile's capital Santiago, we want to cross the huge country to the next capital: Buenos Aires! For that, we have to cover almost 1,800 km and we want to do it in 4 days!

We start from Santiago in a minibus to Mendoza, once again a spectacular crossing of the Andes, where our little bus winds its way up curve after curve until it starts snowing at an altitude of almost 3,200m! This whole thing is particularly nerve-wracking because the nice bus driver doesn't seem to find the route as spectacular as we do and keeps glancing at his phone to scroll through his WhatsApp contacts... After about 3 hours, we reach the border - in the middle of nowhere between curves and tunnels at a perceived minus 30 degrees.. The border crossing is quite simple, we don't even have to fill out a single form for that. Behind the border, the landscape reminds us a lot of Purmamarca, colorful hills as far as the eye can see! We wind our way back down and after a total of about 6 hours of driving, we reach the million-city of Mendoza. Here we spend the night to take the overnight bus to Córdoba the next day.

When we have dinner at the hostel in the evening, 2 girls from Buenos Aires ask us if we are from Germany and if we are here for the show on Wednesday. Show? We have no idea, we haven't heard anything about it. A German rock band is apparently playing here, but we can't understand the name at first. Hmm, we don't know... we think... and ask again: 'And what's the name of the band?' - 'DI TOTTE HOSSE' ---> Die Toten Hosen???? Waaaaat, they're playing in Mendoza???? We're already annoyed that we've already bought the bus tickets and can't go to the concert. But then the two of them tell us that they will play in Buenos Aires on Saturday! On Saturday??? We'll be in Buenos Aires too!!!!! :) 5 minutes later we've already bought the tickets online for the so-called 'Hosen Fest' in the capital! We can hardly believe our luck and this coincidence, but in a few days we will actually go to a Die Toten Hosen concert in Argentina!

The next day, we stroll through Argentina's greenest metropolis and visit all the parks, including Cerro de la Gloria, from where we can admire the surroundings from above. In the evening, we continue to the 10-hour distant Córdoba (after having dinner in the park, as the hostel would have charged us for using the kitchen for another half day). After a short excitement at the bus station (after waiting for 20 minutes, the bus drives away in front of our noses because we were told that we would be traveling with a completely different bus and we didn't even know that these two bus companies belong together), we are rebooked to another bus and spend the next 10 hours together with 120 dB loudly snoring fellow travelers on the bus.. But at least the toilet doesn't stink and there's water AND even soap!! We haven't experienced this luxury before, so we eventually fall asleep...

...and arrive in Córdoba somewhat on time to bright sunshine! The hostel is only 200m away from the bus terminal and our room is even ready at 7.30 am, so we can sleep a little longer. Then we stroll through the city, visit really beautiful squares and churches, and do some music shopping, as Jan is still considering buying a guitar for the road. Unfortunately, without success. In the evening, we take on the challenge of finding a restaurant with vegetarian dishes (or at least one!) that is not pizza. We're lucky at the third one and can order the only meatless dish: omelette with vegetables and cheese. And it's really delicious! If you wanted to eat vegan, you'd probably starve to death here...

After spending the night, we want to continue to Buenos Aires in the morning - it's only about 4 hours away - ...for some reason we think. That's why we want to buy the tickets spontaneously in the morning. When we wake up and Lisa reads a message from her mother saying '...that's quite far away'... we start thinking. When exactly did we check that it's only such a short distance? We open Google Maps and can't believe our own stupidity.. 700KM!! And here we thought we had the long bus rides behind us. We must have mixed up some things during all the planning. Well, let's have a quick breakfast and off to the bus station. When we arrive there, the next surprise awaits us: it takes 11 hours by bus! And the next bus leaves at noon, so we would only arrive at midnight. That's not an option for us, so we are already expecting another night journey.. But we don't really feel like it. Then Jan has the brilliant idea to check for a flight. Thanks to the free wifi at the bus station, we find out that there are indeed some flights available, but they can't be booked for the same day anymore. So we decide to take the next bus to the airport to buy tickets there. Said and done. Imagine this: The two super-planners without a ticket at the airport! But it was the best decision. We get a fairly cheap flight for the afternoon, which takes us to Buenos Aires in just one hour. Including a gigantic view of the 6 million city! Of course, we generally try to take the bus as much as possible, but in this case, we're very happy with our decision. We arrive at 3:30 pm and take the train to our amazing accommodation: The currently empty house of Jan's friend's mother!