How do you stay in Buenos Aires forever with a tourist visa? What the people commonly do is to exit Argentina every three months and come back through the customs. "Its very easy! They always let me through, no questions asked! I've been travelling to Uruguay every 3 months for 3 years now!!" So sayeth my tall, beautiful and blonde New Zealand friend, who had been here for ages. I met her dancing in El Beso. Well, we shall see if that applies to a not so tall, not so beautiful, and definitely not blonde chinese man.
Uruguay was out of question for me, as I (Singaporeans) needed a tourist visa to Uruguay. Not only that, the Uruguayan counsulate needed some Uruguayan to actually invite me to go to their country for the visa to be approved. What are the chances of a Singaporean getting to know an Uruguayan well enough for them to be the guarantee of my trip, before even stepping on Uruguayan soil? The answer to this weird policy would probably be left best answered by our friendly Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
So Chile, where I do not need a visa, is the next best country for sealing a three months tourist pass extension. Its right beside Argentina; 2 hour plane journey. Not too adventurous like Bolivia; where I would go when I finally decide to take up cocaine smuggling, wait... I don't think you actually need to smuggle cocaine in Bolivia.
I would have liked to go to the hot, exotic, topless beaches of Brazil which are full of silicon enhanced breasts and butts, however... I would need a visa for that place; damn. The other latin american countries are all too faraway.
Originally I wanted a take a bus journey from Buenos Aires to Santiago, the capital of Chile; passing by The Andes in the process. But the 24 hour one way bus trip would cost 180 pesos (90SGD), which costs as much as a 2 hour plane ride by 'Voegol', a brazilian operated airline (http://www.voegol.com.br/ARG/).
Being cooped up in this metropolitan city, Buenos Aires, an island boy like me who grew up in Singapore decided to hit the beaches of Chile. A chilean tango couple here in Buenos Aires told me that the nicest beach that is near Santiago is called Papudo. Its not as crowded, with a clean beach and chilly waters.
Not wanting to be alone, I then asked the lovely Sil, my tango practise partner if she wants to go with me; I took a long shot. To my pleasant surprise she said yes. So Sil and me would spend a weekend in Chile.
Sil told me she has fear of flying and is most afraid when the plane takes off. I told her that is when I feel the most comfortable, because it means the trip is finally taking place; I detest all the check-in, check-out processes and adminstrative proceedings for travelling. True enough, the trip almost hit a snag even before we left the airport of Buenos Aires.
I entered the check-in counter of Voegol, and the lady behind the counter curtly asked for my entry visa to Chile. Well, I explained to her Singaporeans do not need a tourist visa to enter Chile, like we do not need a tourist visa to enter Argentina for a period up to 90 days. She looks at me straight in the eye and said "Singaporean passports needs visa to visit all places in the world." Then proceeds to correspond with higher authority with her walkie talkie. "Does a Singapore passport holder need a visa to travel to Chile?" She asked. "Si!" I heard a male voice from the other end. She did not even bother to explain to me, just held the walkie talkie near my face with a smug look.
"Sorry you are not going to Chile" and she tore up my tickets. "Come back again on monday when the Chile Embassy is open and we'll get you the necessary visa to go." I was horrified. What can I possibly do? I checked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (http://www.mfa.gov.sg/) before I booked the plane. And how am I suppose to change the flight till monday on such a short notice? What about Sil who took her leave off work?
Refusing to believe the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore could be wrong (if there is one thing Singaporeans are good at, its paper work and administrative processes; almost clockwork). And taking the cue from the casual manner the lady is handling this problem, I asked her, "Well, do you want me to come with me to show you the website of my Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Also I called the chilean embassy and they told me I don't need a visa."
As if that pathetic rant is going to scare her. She rolled her eyes and then spoke to the walkie talkie again. "The guy says chilean embassy told him that he doesn't need." The line behind me was building up but I steadfastly refused to leave, while contemplating between the possibility of going back to Singapore early, or slipping her a 100 peso bill (hey we're in South America!).
Hope against hope, the man behind the voice came back, "Singaporeans do not need a visa. I made a mistake." On hearing that, I almost wanted to pounce on her and strangle her right there and then. But I kept my cool and just stared at Miss 'All Singaporeans need a visa' print my new airticket with uneasiness. "I'm sorry sir, here's your ticket." Well, I feel more relieved than vindicated. I anticipated that these administrative bullshit will crop up anyway.
The flight was peaceful and I did get an airplane view of the Andes. Spectacular, but ranks behind the airplane view of the Himalayans of Nepal and Tabletop Mountain of South Africa.
On arriving the chilean customs we found out that Sil's DNI (personal identification card) has expired. But it did not really bother the customs officer there. Pays to be a pretty argentine woman.
Santiago, Chile feels very much like Buenos Aires. It is more peaceful, cleaner, with lesser hustle and bustle compared to Buenos Aires. The pavements are wider, without rubbish and vagrants. There are dogs sleeping around but unlike Buenos Aires, no dogshit. On the other hand, it does not have the kind of character Buenos Aires generates; lesser cultural monuments, less elaborated architechture and the people stand out lesser. Buenos Aires gives a very particular old world french/ italian flavor, Santiago has none of that.
Nevertheless I like this place. One could live here for a long time. It feels safe and the people are more serene. To me it feels like a city on the verge of breaking into a developed country. The strong middle class is quite evident on the streets; consumerism is strong, low inflation in the shops, and poverty is not visible on the streets. It has an advance public train system. [I arrived at the time where the public bus system (Transantiago) was going through a transition, so the disgruntled people were complaining about the changes.]
Sil and I took the chance to shop for some electronics. The prices of electronics in Buenos Aires is incredibly high due to inflation. Argentineans going to Chile to get electronics is not uncommon; much like Singaporeans going to Johore to get petrol, or toilet paper, or a lapdance.
The visit to the museums of Santiago was pretty fascinating too. Due to the elongated geographic nature of Chile, the culture, living habits of different tribes differ greatly with their location. If I ever take up anthropolgy or I ever visit Chile again, it would be for these trbes and their crafts.
At night Sil and I headed out to a milonga that was called "Patio E'Tango" (http://www.chiletango.cl/). It was filled with senior citizens. And it was great fun watching them dance. The level of tango is not too bad. Of course nothing compared to the level of Buenos Aires, but at least they were no crazy nuevo moves in the middle of the milonga. The only problem was that there was not 'cortina' (small break) to mark the 'tandas' (set of 4 tangos); so Siland I just danced amongst ourselves. There were a couple of young dancers that danced pretty well. I could almost see the Javier Rodriguez influence in them. There was another young guy who danced with every lady and danced every song. He practically danced with the ladies one after another in the order of their seating arrangment; just like me when I started out! Well, a lady came up to us and told us we dance just like the Buenos Aireans. Sil told her we were from Bs.As. 
The second day we took a 4 hour ride on a big comfortable bus from Santiago to Papudo beach. The bus company is called 'Turbus' (http://www.turbus.com/inicio.shtml). It is inexpensive, comfortble and takes you from Santiago the capital to all over Chile. Our 4 hour bus ride costs us about 40 pesos (20SGD) with and came with a free hollywood movie, in spanish, of course.
Papudo was a nice beach. Feels great to be one with the nature again. Its definitely not as beautiful as the beaches of Thailand. Good thing is, unlike the beaches of Thailand, which are always full of european hippies and reggae music, this beautiful beach is populated by... chileans! Its like a place where families from the nearby towns come and chill out during weekends and holidays.
We stayed at the beach for two nights. Doing pretty much nothing but sun tanning. I swam a bit in the chilly waters of Papudo. That was my first experience swimming in open waters; motivated by my dear brother, the recently crowned Ironman (good job! you got there first!). Ate my first fish since I left Singapore. The fishes in Buenos Aires are as expensive as the beef steaks in Singapore.
The chileans are really pretty nice and courteous. Quite a different breed from the loud and brash Argentines. It was quite evident by the treatment I received from the respective airports. The man behind the counter at the Santiago was all smiles, very friendly and sunny. Even Sil remarked she would miss the politeness of the chilean service. The man overheard our conversation and we had a good laugh.
When I arrived in the Argentine customs at Ezieza, the lady behind the counter eyed me with suspicion as she inspected my passport.
"What are your purposes in Argentina?" She asked. "Just travelling as a tourist." I answered. "Do you have a place to live in Buenos Aires? What are your means to support yourself? Show me your return ticket to Singapore." "Well I don't have the return ticket to Singapore with me. I have the tickets to Chile if you want to see them." I was getting pretty amused. What happened to "Its very easy! They always let me through, no questions asked!"??
"Ok let me see your credit card!" she said. Well take it, if thats going to help. She probably thinks I'm trying to come to Argentina to work illegally. God damn generalization and prejudism. Didn't God created all men to be equal? We have to ask ourselves this question too. We too, Singaporeans, have our own prejudisms against others. So what if I did earned money as a taxi dancer?!
But anyway after looking at my credit... okay, debit card. She disappeared to her office with my passport to discuss with 'higher authorities', appeared 15 minutes later and reluctantly gave me another 3 months extension stamp.
I have a sneaky feeling it won't be so easy the next time I want to get another 3 months extension through this method.
Unless I bleach my hair blonde, put on blue contact lenses and speak with a french accent.
