hitchhiking love

scott and my first experience hitchhiking couldn't have been more rewarding.

the morning leading up to said experience started with getting up at 5am to leave the house at 6. we were told by several individuals that there was only one bus (that left one time a day) and headed in the direction we were going (baños morales). the problem was no one could tell us when that was. so, we did what any sensible person might do... we left really early to ensure we would make it in time.

upon arriving at the side of road where the bus was to pick us up (at 7am), we were told by a taxi driver that said bus to b. morales would leave at 9am. that left us almost two hours to chill in front a santa isabel supermarket. scott was not happy to say the least, his water had leaked inside his backpack making him and his sleeping bag quite wet (needless to say, the morning wasn't particularly warm either).

we arrived back at the bus stop at 8:50. now you have to keep in mind... there are about 10 buses (some truncated, some green, purple and blue, some colectivos, others not) that arrive within a 10 minute period of time. some buses don't even stop, you have to know ahead of time when to flag them down. generally there are signs on these buses that indicate the various destinations available. well! we did not see one bus with the sign we needed to see. the taxi driver returned and tried to assist us by asking a bus driver about the 9am bus. his response was that that bus only runs during the summer, the current season being fall. what to do? some hippy looking chilean stuck his head out of the bus and yelled to us that we should get on the bus anyway, at least it would take us in the direction we wanted to head in.

cajón de maipo is the name for a series of towns (pueblos) that head in an easterly direction towards argentina. some towns are not particularly safe for gringos like us to wander in. it was suggested to us that we head to a town called san gabriel and stay there, there are still trees and greenery our chilean friend says. (the further east, closer to the andes and volcanoes the less green stuff there is). disappointed i wasn't making it directly to the baños, scott and i discussed the possibility of hitchhiking. meanwhile, the bus driver (who could only bring us as far as san josé) said we should get off there (the last stop), stand right where we got off his bus and wait for the next one. this bus was 10 minutes behind, traveling (of course) in the same direction.
*side note- without being critical i have to say that logic here in chile can be quite interesting. for example, you sometimes need to buy 5 packages of hamburger meat (all the same size because they are not sold any other way) to get the amount you need. in my mind, why not make bigger-sized meat cartons so people buy and consume less packaging? along the same vein in this little vignette here, why didn't this bus run through to the next town? was there somewhere this bus just needed to be?

anyway, we got off the bus and deciding that this whole thing was quite worth the adventure, we boarded the next one with a final destination of san gabriel. we knew nothing of the return bus schedule and thought we might need to hitchhike home the next day... when we arrived in san gabriel we had the expectation (through yet another conversation with a nice chilean) that some other bus might leave from there and take us to baños morales an hour later. sweet! this is how being spontaneous pays off. well we waited that hour, only to then find out from the carabineros that just kidding, that bus comes in 3 and a half hours. so we said screw it, let's hitchhike. only 100 feet down the road we "hacimos los dedos" and the first car stopped.

scott and cait: ¿adondé van?
truck filled with 4 twenty-somethings: arriba
scott and cait: ¿podemos....?
truck with people: sí

and we jumped in the back of their truck, quickly turning off the dirt road and heading just as they said, up. having no idea what could possibly be "up" especially considering that everything i had read and heard about was east and straight, i was excited at what possibilities this new direction contained.

after several minutes we started to see this...