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I've changed the fact that public transport will not take you for free, because i got free rides from public transport more than once. and added information about the road system
If you tell people you're a foreigner when you ask for a ride, they might ask to see your passport. Just swallow your pride and take the ride.
If you travel longer distances, you probably want to hitch the ''panamericana'', called ''Ruta 5'' here, which goes from north all the way to the south. Around larger cities, it's developed as a motorway. It's very common to walk or cycle on the emergency lane, so you can also stand there and put your thumb out. Cops won't bother either (I was standing right next to them holding my thumb out (to try out the hard way if it is legal) and they didn't care). Maximum Speed is 120 km/h, so if you are in a visible place, everyone can stop fast enough. Using a sign can prevent taxis, micros and buses to stop for you. They won't take you for free.
The traffic is not very dense in general. In rural areas, there might be one car in 5 or 10 minutes, so prepare for longer waiting times if you can't stay on the main roads (e.g. check some [[games]] you can play). To get to towns and out of there take a Micro or a collectivo, it is not worth it hitchhiking within a city (although sometimes possible).
The best places in Chile for hitchhiking are easily in the extreme south, in the Region of Magallanes. From [[Punta Arenas]], one can easily find a semi truck all the way to Santiago; while in Punta Arenas, [[User:Themodernnomad|themodernnomad]] was offered a ride all the way to Arica (on the border of Peru), but, sadly, had to turn it down due to the fact that he was trying to lose himself in Isla Riesco.
Maybe the only big problem of hitchhiking in Chile is the highway system. Hitchhiking is really good, but the roads don't make it super easy.
On ruta 5 the cars go really fast, and many of them can't stop for you even if they want.
And in some places there is very little traffic that comes from the near by town.
So it might take sometime to find a ride.
It might be better not to take a ride that would leave you next to a very small town and stick with the bigger places.
if you are stuck in a small town, consider hitchhiking on the highway, so the cars that go really fast can see you, they might stop.
== Border Crossings ==