Chile was warmly recommended as hitchhiking country No. 1 in South America or even in the whole world! Chilenos should be very nice people, wonderfull Landscape in the South, long roads, just the communication would be difficult, as the Chilenos speak such a messy Spanish. My trip should lead just for a short time through Chile, but anyway i would like to contribute with a Hitchhiking in… – article. What i already can say from now: My expectations have been fullfilled.

Stats

Hitchhiked distance: 1804 kilometer

Number of lifts: 17

Average waiting time: 14 minutes 56 seconds

Waiting time total: 4 hours 14 minutes

My Route

I cam through the Andes to Santiago and from there i hitchhiked to Antofagasta and San Pedro de Atacama. Short and easy going tour to gain a couple of more kilometres.

People

Chilenos are definitely nice and humble fellows. A bit like the people in Bolivia just with a more friendly surface. Small, chubby people. What i recognized, that in Chile rules a very strict organization. Santiago seems to be full of securities and watchdogs. No moving without control. Every space is blocked with buildings and private property. The houses have regularly electric fences or alternatively equipped with other sharp and harmful things. Everything structured and they do alot of effort to keep this order up. A political scientist i met in my hostel explained, that this organization-fetish is also a characteristic of post dictatorship-societies, how Chile is. Interesting assumption, which i don´t wanna go deeper inside here.

Related to hitchhiking Chile is a very easy going country. People stop gladly and help if they can. Interesting fact: If you do your driving license in Chile, you will get the recommendation to pcik up hitchhikers. Should even be a question in the final exams about this. The reason is simple: The recommend to pick up people for company and not falling asleep during longer tours. Similar to Argenitna. I think this might propably be one reason for the easy lifting in Chile.

Roads

In my eyes Chile has the best roads in South America. Good, paved highways, often two-laned and fast. Allthough there is one disatvantage, that i already have recignized during my trouble to find a sleeping place in Santiago: the Chilenos block every available centimeter with buildings. No gaps, no ruins in Santiago. At least you have to search alot for it. This continues on the highways, when you face an often slightly crippled emergency lane. Everything is a bit tight in Chile and for stooping cars this is, of course, not the best circumstance. Not like in the wide and big Argentina or Brazil, for instance.

Regarding to this hitchhiking is not a self-selling-item, cause the Chilenos like to stop fast and easily, but on places with missing space to stop the waiting time will be longer, for sure. And as the streets are fast and good in general, it is important to have enough space to pull over and get out of the traffic. Good positions are not too easy to find, which would be preferable. But it is worth to take the time and take a good position.

Tactics

What i allready said, it is working good, but not under all circumstances. If you wanna move fast in Chile i would recommend to look out for a good place to wait. If you found a good place (slow traffic, good visibility and the most important: enough place for stopping) then you will find a fast lift for sure. Even if there are not many cars. Prefer the positioning from the traffic volume. Better take the on-ramp then standing in the middle of the highway. Beside this it is standart hitchhiking in Chile. You ton´ have to do much to move forward. Enjoy!

Fotos

 Specifics

In the north is San Pedro de Attacama and from there you can enter Salar de Uyuni. The only touristisc attraction i did so far during my round the world trip. Four days with a Jeep through the desert. Definitely worth it. Countless lagunes awaiting you with coloured water. Sceneries from the metlting clocks pictures from Salvador Dali. Desert, Geysirs, stones and flamengos.

Antofagasta is a mining town which offer with a little surfer charme a welcoming variety to the deserty chilenian north. Have a look. it is a pleasent mixture. Also Antofagasta has 1001 hair dressers, which sustain mostly of colombian immigrants. Found that pretty special there.

Chile is quite expensive and also quite Americanized. I haven´t recognized so much advertisement in any other country in South America (except Ecuador maybe). Also the usualy Fast-Food restaurants you can find there, which is also not a usual fact. Somehow i felt like CHile sold itself to something. Maybe i perceived that wrong but the consume and the all annoying advertisment where extremly noticeable.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in… (10) Chile erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

General

Since 20th October 2014 i hitchhiked more than 36968,2 km. I had more than 405 Lifts, had to wait in average 23 minutes and 34 seconds and waited in total 182 hours and 39 minutes (which is about 7,5 days). I don´t wanna miss any of those minutes.

The Best

Is…Tenerife. 21 lifts i catched together with Hanna on this beautiful island. 8 minutes and 12 seconds we had to wait in average. I think Lanzarote was even better, but it was before i started with my documentation.
For South America the country with the best statistics is Ecudaor. 14 minutes and 30 seconds in average, till a car stopped and picked me up. 21 lifts in total and nearly 1000 km might not be that representative. But anyway.

The Positive Suprise

Brazil felt like Spain and Italy together. Totally shit. But the numbers speak another message. 15 minutes and 15 seconds average waiting time are close to the values of Ecuador. I catched 44 Lifts and did 6550 km through Brazil, which has definitely a higher represantation than Ecuador. Feelings might be wrong, numbers aren´t in this case. I don´t know how this can be so good, but during my Brazil crossing i felt like i had to walk at least one hour for every lift. Seems like i didn´t.

Mistaken

Totally overrated was Argentina on the other hand. For me one of the best country for hitchhiking in South America. Probably because of the Free WiFi in the gas stations and the comftable mix of warm roads, acceptable food, long ways and Internet. But the numbers are quite sobering. 34 minutes and 50 seconds average waiting time is the second worst for all my countries so far. I have to add, that i did alot of night hitchhiking in Argentina and this might have affected this value. With 8045 km it is also the country which i hitchhiked the biggest distance in. Also 84 lifts represent a big part of my catched cars so far.

The Worst

Definitely Colombia. Not even in the stats, but also how it felt. Don´t get me wrong, Colombia is a beautiful country, nice people, stunning landscape but moving here is just a pain in the ass. 48 minutes average waiting time. Can´t get worser. Allthough i had only in Venezuela less lifts than in Colombia. 943 km is the least distance i did from all countries in South America. But honestly, i doubt that this stast would get better if i make more distance here. Just a feeling. The reasons for this „hitchhiking-disaster“ im going to discuss in my „Hitchhiking in… – Colombia“ article.

My Secret Favourite…

…for hitchhiking in South America is not Chile…..but Uruguay. 88 Lifts: Its the country where i had the most cars and with 2689 km we find it in the upper midfield of the distances. The average waiting time was with 19 minutes and 42 seconds quite good. Even better if we take in account, that most of the time i was with Ralf together as a men/men team. Fucking good time, good job buddy. Also the country where i hitchhiked my first Cargo Train (hitchhiked and not hopped) and beside Syria the place where i got the most of my lovely Pick-Up rides. Unfortunately riding with Pick-Ups is freshly banned by the government, but let´s hope, that the Uruguayans take this law with the same „We don´t give a shit“-attitude as they take the rest of their lifes and still stop to pick up hitchhikers. Just so much fun there.

This table is fucking nice, isnt it?

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Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in South America – Statistically conclusions of my South America crossing erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.