At the border...



Graffiti bringing the streets some heart...
Jimmy...
Coastal town in Chile...
I was pretty happy to leave the waveless city of Santiago and head back to my beloved Buenos Aires. One aspect of Santiago I really did love was the flourishing graffiti culture. Wandering the streets you can find commissioned and illegal works of stencils, wild styles, 3Ds, freaky Euro styles to political stompers and everything in between. The uninvited colour and flare really lights up the otherwise dull streets of the city. Boarding the BA bound double decker in the morning for another whopper 24 hour journey through the Los Andes, I was given the very front seat of the top deck - a pretty daunting view especially around winding cliffs. I was sitting next to a Chileano grandma and we chatted for hours about each others country and what we loved about BA - great Spanish practice. As we drove through a particular mountain tunnel, she told me the exact point at which the water runs in opposite directions from the peak - was the border of Argentina and Chile. As we approached the border the road became uncomfortably winding and on one particular bend I peered down and saw a burnt out bus upturned halfway down a cliff! At this point I got up and sat down the back for a while...
Apart from the dodgy cliffs, the drive through the famous mountain range was stunning; arid snow capped jagged peaks gave way to lush fertile valleys as we were welcomed into the great Argentina once more.