Just a quick catchup since my last post, I took a 22 hr bus ride to Mendoza which is wine country. I now really like red wine, never thought Id see the day! I took a bus to nearby Maipu with some fellow hostel buddies and we rented some bikes to tour around the Bodegas. We skipped most of the tour and went straight for the tastings, which made for a hilarious bike ride back after about 4 wineries, hehehe. There were even police on patrol to stop drunk biking.
After a few days of sun, swimming pools and wine I took an early bus to Santiago Chile, about 7 hrs away. The ride was thru the Andes and very beautiful. I ended up sitting at the border for about 4.5 hrs (Chile is very strict about bringing in outside food so every single bag had to be scanned and searched for hidden bananas). While my bag was being scanned I had the following conversation with the Customs officer (in spanish):
As the customs officer is looking at my declaration of goods
Officer: Whats your name?
Me: Alexis....Barnes....
Officer: No..Its not. Let me see your passport
Me: Of course...(hands the passport over and he looks at my name, and gets a mad look on his face)
Officer: Your name is a mans name, not allowed
Me:uhhh, well yes. It is a male name, but in the US its also a womans name...its MY name...
At this point he walks away and talks to someone then comes back
Officer: You need to put another name here, your not a man
Me: ok... (so I put my middle name in front of my first name and he seemed to be satisfied). Ai yay Ai
Chile has a famous national dish. Its a hotdog. But its a hotdog with 2 inches mayo and guacamole and various salsas. Very hard to each and not a good choice when youre waiting at the border and still have 4 hrs on the bus to go...
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