Customs crossing and an Incan artifact - Aconcagua and Santiago
Our Argentina and Chile trip wrapped up with a tense bus journey over the Andes, a visit to a pre-Columbian museum in Santiago with its beautiful quipus, and walking around Santiago. This story shares more about our customs stop at the border and the history of quipus.
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To get from Argentina to Chile, there are three main border crossings that tourists take. One is in the north, one is near Mendoza, and one is in Bariloche. Because we were in Mendoza, we took the bus to Santiago. It is a stunning route with amazing views of the Andes. We took Route 7 in Argentina to Route 60 in Chile, stopped at Chilean customs and immigration with a perfect view of Aconcagua.
The customs agents told us all to get off the bus and take all our stuff with us. Chris decided to leave his backpack on the bus and I thought that wouldn’t end well. We lined up in the customs building, all had our passports checked, and then waited for about two hours while almost nothing happened. We talked with other people, looked at the highest peak in the Americas, while the buses idled and garbage covered the landscape. The air smelled of exhaust and rotten garbage. It was like the rest of the trip: good and bad to each experience.
The border patrol eventually took their dogs onto the bus to inspect it. What did they find? Someone had left their backpack on the bus! They called Chris aside and spoke to him about his backpack. They had found nuts in his backpack and he hadn’t declared he had nuts. Recalling the event, Chris said that they were very serious customs officials, they weren’t kidding around. He said he was “saved” because I had declared I had nuts and he said he was carrying them for me. Our journey continued and we went down the mountain, taking numerous switchbacks and hairpin turns.
We wrapped up our tour with three days in Santiago. One of the places we went to was the pre-Columbian museum with amazing artifacts of life before the Pizzarro invaded. What I liked best, and what stays with me all these years, is the quipu (also spelled khipu). They are knotted cords that the Incas and other Andian empires used for record keeping. Without a writing system, the quipus were a way to keep track of accounts, records, dates, birth records, family lineage, census data, and abstract ideas. They have different types of string, different types of knots, and in all different lengths.
The people who kept the quipus are known as quipucamayos. With the different types of knots, the quipucamayos could convey different numbers and ideas. These individuals used quipus as a memory aid and memorized oral accounts of the quipu. They passed the story down through the generations.
Many quipus were destroyed when the Spanish invaded the Incan Empire. However, some still remain and are preserved in different museums around the world. Given that the devices are so old and made of natural fibres, they need to be stored in areas with controlled humidity, light, and temperature. Quipus can be made from wool or animal hair as well as cotton and suffer from mold, insect infestations, or light exposure. The quipus we saw in the museum in Santiago were kept in dark rooms with very dim light. They were carefully placed on boards with each string separated and held in place with pins.
We also visited Santa Lucia park with its beautiful statues and art. Chris enjoyed that park for its stairs, fountains, and buildings built into the hill. At the end of the long trip, walking around Santiago helped us wind down and prepare to get back to our everyday lives. I remember that after two and a half weeks of learning the Argentine accent, I could not understand the Chilean accent. Chris had to do all the talking for us! I still managed to order beer, guacamole, and chips.
A lot of things on the Argentina trip made me laugh at myself and taught me not to take myself so seriously. The experiences showed me that expectations and reality don’t always align and that it’s better to go with the flow than to force things into my own expectations.
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