From Santiago, Chile to Uspallata, Argentina

My motorcycle journey this time took me from Santiago, the capital of Chile, in central Chile, through Los Libertadores, the most famous border crossing, to Uspallata in Argentina.

This distance is approximately 245km, but the road is quite challenging, climbing from an altitude of about 500m to nearly 4,000m, then descending to 2,000m.

Last time, I charged the battery after arriving in Santiago, so I checked the discharge before leaving.

The battery seems fine.

I’ll also check the voltage.

It’s 12.8V.

The reason for the voltage drop last time was probably because the motorcycle was completely sealed with a cover, causing a short circuit due to moisture from the rain during my stay.

I was relieved that the battery was safe.

Now, I’m leaving Santiago.

Santiago gets very crowded in the morning.

After just over 20 minutes, I finally reached the end of the loop line.

From here, I started to speed up.

After about 30 minutes of driving, I made a fatal mistake.

At the toll booth, I went through the automatic toll lane.

I’ll ask if I can pay at the next toll booth.

I’ll just keep going down the road

I arrive at the next toll booth in about 50 minutes.

Here, I explain that I was unable to pay at the previous toll booth.

The bike costs $1,000, or about 1 USD.

The agent told me I didn’t have to pay the fee for my mistake.

Thank you, and I’m sorry.

Then I passed through the tunnel.

Halfway through this tunnel, the road crosses into Valparaiso.

And I continue along the road.

The mountain scenery is beautiful.

Now I’m on my way to the border

I go very slowly here because it’s sloped and there are trucks and buses going by.

I’ll refuel at COPEC in Rio Branco.

This is the last toll booth.

Motorcycles generally don’t have to pay highway tolls on the Argentine side, so this is my final payment.

The motorbike costs $600, or about USD 0.63.

I’ll just keep going down the road

And then I arrive at the highlight: a winding climb with spectacular views.

Unfortunately, because it’s an uphill climb, I can’t enjoy the view.

I climbed the hill and followed the road until I entered the border tunnel.

Here I say goodbye to Chile

And then I entered Argentina.

The roads were clearly different.

A short distance after I exited the tunnel, I received a piece of paper with “moto 1” written on it.

I would present this at immigration.

Immigration is here.

We need to be careful not to go straight through.

I ride my motorcycle into the building.

I’ll sit in any booth on the left.

First, I went through the exit procedures for Chile and the entry procedures for Argentina at the same time.

Here, I submitted the documents on the right along with my passport.

For the first time ever, I was asked detailed questions like, “How will I fund my stay?” and “What is the purpose of my trip?”

I could have shown them my bank account details, but they didn’t use a translation app and didn’t understand Japanese, so that would be pointless, right?

I talked for about 15 minutes and passed.

I continued on to the next counter.

Here I submitted the document on the left.

I passed easily.

The third one was just to get a stamp.

This is like a stamp rally.

This paper is supposed to be submitted about 10km away.

Now that I’ve entered Argentina, I’m heading back down the same road.

After about 15 minutes of running, I hand over the paper.

This is just a matter of handing it over.

I’m going down the mountain

And now I’ve arrived at Uspallata.

I’m heading straight for the center.

The town itself is small, so I arrived in the center in no time.

On this trip, I booked a hotel in Uspallata beforehand because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to cross the border. However, considering that it took about five hours from Santiago, I figured I could continue on to Mendoza, 120km away, if I left early in the morning.

Next time, I won’t go to Mendoza, but will head south to San Rafael.

Date of trip: October 14, 2025