Crossing the Chile/Argentina border is quite a hassle, lots of getting out of the bus, then back on then back off and so on and so forth. Things become even more of a hassle when you're smuggling olives across the border.
While on a lovely wine tour in Mendoza, Argentina, Andrew and I sampled the most amazing olives(aceitunas) on the planet. Chile, unfortunately has the blandest olives on the planet, so we decided to take our chances on smuggling two kilos back into Chile.
We didn't think it would be a problem but we asked the bus driver anyways. He clearly said "No, No Olives!" (plus some other things, but I could only translate that much). I started to panic, I needed these olives to be happy, if you know anything about me you know I can not live without olives, I need the salt, I need the brine, I need it all! I convinced Andrew not to throw them out, I thought maybe we could hide them in the bus in the bathroom or something. He eventually talked me out of hiding them, he thought it best to claim them and if they throw it out they throw it out, its only $12. We were stressing about it, we didn't realize how much we missed them before we went to Mendoza. A nice Chilean woman told us we should be fine so we felt good as we put our backpack (holding the containers of olives) on the conveyor belt to be examined. We got pulled aside, Andrew had to empty the bag out and show them everything we had tried to smuggle on (we also took apples) while I made a run for the bus and waited for him to emerge. Once I saw him he gave me a thumbs up, we got the Olives across, we were in the clear.
A few minutes later we were busy celebrating about to crack open a jar when the bus driver comes stomping in the bus saying "Before we left, someone asked me about olives, I need to know and you need to come with me!" Since the olives got approved by border patrol Andrew didn't raise his hand, a few minutes later he came down the aisle and told us to follow him out of the bus. Andrew and I didn't even look at each other we were so scared and confused. He led us to this big black duffel bag that was sitting on a table wide open FILLED with cigarette cartons, wine bottles, and cheap little happy meal toys "this is yours, isn't it" "no its not ours, our bag is blue" he starts taking out the cigarettes and a wine bottle shaking his head and walks away (apparently someone on our bus didn't claim their bag after they saw it being searched). We got back on the bus and everyone was chattering but stopped once they saw us, of course we were sitting in the last row. I could tell everyone was upset that we were causing such a delay. Andrew and I sat in silence for a solid five minutes. After our hearts settled we opened up some olives and had a beautiful ride home, these Olives were totally worth the trouble, and possibly another trip in March!
More on Mendoza later, for now here are some pictures!!
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| OLIVES! |
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| Heaven on earth |
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| Wine tours |
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| Bye Bye Chile |
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| On the boarder of Chile/Argentina |
