Chilly relations

    To the end of the world we flew, and through a dreadful border crossing in the middle of sheep grazing pastures we landed in Patagonia, the southern tip of of South America. Fortunately, it was spring, so two layers of clothes sufficed :) 3 hours of searching for
fruit in our bags later we entered into Antarctic Chile, a region of Chile inaccessible by road to northern Chile except through Argentina. As such, the region has an independent feel. For example, this whole region was on strike and was marching in a
parade in the city Punta Arenas when we arrived!
    The lengthy border crossing is only the tip of the iceberg (a particularly apt aphorism for this area of the world if I do say so myself) of strained relationships between Argentina and Chile. Beginning with disputed land at the border, continuing with a sour
legacy of Chile giving Argentina a large swathe of Patagonia 100 years ago as blackmail to prevent a 3 front war that now contains valuable petroleum and further stoked by Chile's help to the British when Argentina naively tried to take the Falkland islands from
England to unite the Argentine people, Argentina and Chile are not best of friends. The lack of Chilean fruit, a large American import, in Argentina attests to this fact subtly whereas the mine fields on the border make the point slightly stronger.
  Fortunately, although the politics run deep, on the basic level of human interactions, only light hearted jabs based on the idiosyncrasies of each country were ever exchanged in my presence (such as expressing fake disgust over drinking Pisco sour, a
Chilean and Peruvian drink or regarding Chileans as nicer because their hotels allow you to eat your own food on the premises, which is prohibited in Argentina). I guess where the world ends, politics matter less :)