The random adventurers: The special features of hitchhiking in Chile

Lovingly dedicated to Chile, the country that everyone talks about as "the easiest to hitch in South America". A hint: it isn't.

Me and a handful of blackberries for Chey.

We left Entre Lagos towards the north on a very cloudy morning. Still it wasn't raining, so we enjoyed walking out of town towards the road, passing little houses surrounded by relaxed chicken and working people.

In the beginning everything went fine. We got a decent lift with heaps of leg room in a beautiful van, with a guy who bought us caramel peanuts from a street vendor. Sweet.

Said guy was going to the next town, but he said he could drop us before the entrance of the town, where the roads connected, so we could go further. What he didn't mention was that that spot was proper highway.

Slightly confused as we got out of the car and thanked him, we crossed under a bridge-y bit to see what was there...

Yep, still highway.

We walked a little bit up a side road where no cars were going, that seemed like the entry to a police training field, and then we decided that one of us should stay with the backpacks and the other would go check if there was any spot further where it was not-suicidal to stand on the side of the road.

Chey stayed taking care of our things, and I aimed to go about 600 metres further. The side road was separated from the highway by a little hill covered in blackberry bushes, a pretty nice sight.

I skipped up the little road, and from time to time I would climb the hill and look down at the highway some 2 metres downhill on the other side. Still nothing.

Finally I gave up and went back to Chey to make a plan B. On the way back I gathered as many blackberries as I could, thinking that bad news are not as bad if you have berries.

We ended up deciding that we would try the ridiculousness of hitchhiking by the highway. Do you know why is that illegal in most countries? Because it's scarily dangerous, that's why.

Nonetheless, as we stood there being immensely careful and pretty much blending into the guardrail, we saw a strange thing: not one, but TWO other people stood 100 m away from us (in front, not behind, in an absoultely no-code-y fashion) and were picked up in no longer than 15 minutes!

We couldn't believe it, but after a while we had the same luck. A family car stopped for us, completely disregarding the fact that dozens of cars were zooming by. We climbed in and they took us to a more normal crossroads...

A more normal crossroads where there were three groups of hitchhikers. We started to notice a pattern.

It took us a while to figure out a strategy there, but after all I think we all got lifts in the order we arrived.

Me and Chey got one with a cotton-candy-making family, where we sat on the back of a van with two little girls that asked us the best questions so far, like "Do you like elephants?" and "Are there beds in Australia?".

Cotton candy making gear.

Chey trying to sneak a picture of me and the little girls.

One more crossroads, one more lift with a lovely couple, and we were left (finally!) at the next big town: Temuco.

We walked into town through a suburbial, gray and ugly area. After some 20 minutes walking we asked a girl how to get to the city center. She explained we had to take a bus, and gave us enough cash to pay for both our tickets! (FYI we never asked for the money, of course, just mentioned our moneylessness during the conversation without any intention. It was just the kindness of her heart).

So after that long day, the bus left us in front of another "hotel California", where we spent a night full of fun and giggles, and recovered our energies to continue the following day.