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Santiago de Chile

1,351 bytes added, 20:14, 20 July 2023
North, northeast towards Los Andes, San Felipe and Mendoza (AR) (Ruta 57)
=== South towards Rancagua (Ruta 5)===
Go to San Bernardo either by microbus or by hitchhiking. I hitch hiked there but had to wait 1 hour to get to San Bernardo. There you will find a bus station next to the Ruta 5. It's actually not so good here, you can have more chance hitchhiking from the access ramp a little before (-33.581348,-70.714067). People leaving from the Shell gas station can pick you up.
===North, nortwest towards [[La Serena]] (Ruta 5)===
Go to "Puente Cal Y Canto" metro station (2nd line) and find Avenida La Paz, follow this street to La Paz Terminal and from there take a bus with the sign "Panamericana" (800 pesos, if youre lucky - for free). Take a seat in front and search for a spot you like or ask the driver for "lugar para hacer dedo", perhaps he knows. There is for example one on-ramp near big truck station, cars are going about 60 - 70 km/h so its possible to hitchhike
Alternative: Use google maps to take public buses until one access ramp that could be suitable (spoiler: none of them really are great). One could be here (-33.321808, -70.719898). From there your main objective is to find someone that can help you reach the Copec gas station further ahead (-33.2156679, -70.7675877). Then from this Copec it's really easy to hitch a ride.
===North, northeast towards [[Los Andes]], [[San Felipe]] and [[Mendoza]] [[Argentina|(AR)]] (Ruta 57)===
 
Using google maps and city buses you can arrive close (20min walk?) to this Copec gas station (-33.314618, -70.7042316). People on the road can't really stop easily but people exiting the Copec can give you a lift. You also have a tollbooth a few hundred meters further but as written here, there's no space to stop.
Then your main objective is to reach the toll booth of Chacabuco (-33.000787, -70.687244) where trucks going to Argentina could easily stop. Going to Los Andes would be a detour for you (you would have to walk for one hour before reaching a good place).
BEWARE: Look at the weather before as in automn/winter the border can close for a few days if there's snow!! The truck drivers will keep driving there and will wait for it to open but none of them will give you a lift.
Línea 3 of the Santiago Metro opened in January of 2019, its northern terminus Los Libertadores being just west of where Avenida Independencia becomes Ruta 57, which heads north to Los Andes and the border. It had previously been recommended that hitchers bus to this point to hitch here.
Neither is ideal: there is nowhere to pull over at the tollbooth (as of November 2018 the Googlemaps Streetview appearing to show such a space is out of date) while the traffic at the COPEC is relatively light, the station sees limited numbers of truck stopping, and the traffic on Ruta 57 itself is flying past and the further lane will have difficulty getting to you standing at the station. That said, you will get a ride at either before long. Bus fare to Colina is approximately 1000 pesos (November 2018), but explain where you're going and you may well get taken for free.
If from there you're offered a ride to San Felipe or Los Andes, beware! Neither are particularly good spots to be when heading to Mendoza. From San Felipe you'll need to pass through Los Andes, which spreads out over a wide area, and both are some distance west of the customs facility for trucks going to Argentina. The split in the highway to the south of Los Andes, where it heads northwest to San Felipe and northeast to the customs facility and Mendoza, is isolated and with fast-moving traffic. Instead, ask to be dropped at the next tollbooth (Peaje Chacabuco on Googlemaps, though locals I rode with had another name for it). It's about 10km south of where Ruta 57 splits south of Los Andes, away from any local Santiago traffic and with ample space for cars to pull over; a much better spot than Peaje Las Canteras or the COPEC station.  
==Public transport==