Los Andes sits at the foot of the real thing. The town lies in the Aconcagua valley in central Chile, at about eight hundred metres, among orchards of avocados, grapes and citrus, with the whole wall of the high Andes rising to the east. On a clear day, the snow-covered cone of Aconcagua, at 6,961 metres the highest mountain outside Asia, is visible not far beyond the border, a tilted white tooth above the lesser peaks. The town was founded in 1791 by the governor Ambrosio O'Higgins, the father of the independence hero Bernardo O'Higgins, as a stop on the route over the mountains.
That route is the reason the town matters. The Paso de los Libertadores, also known as Cristo Redentor, is the main road crossing between Chile and Argentina, linking Santiago and Valparaíso with Mendoza, and it follows an old mule track used for centuries by traders, soldiers and travellers. In 1817 General San Martín led an army of some five thousand men over the Andes by passes near here to attack the Spanish in Chile, one of the great military marches of history. A railway, the Transandine, once ran over the pass, until floods wrecked part of it in 1984.
The road from Los Andes climbs steadily up the valley and then reaches the famous Caracoles, a stack of switchbacks that lifts the road up a headwall with a long series of tight hairpins, passing the ski resort of Portillo before it reaches the border tunnel at about 3,200 metres. The surface is generally good, but the road is heavily used by trucks, and queues at the border can be long, sometimes hours. In winter, snow and avalanches close the pass regularly, sometimes for days, so check the status with the border authorities. The air is thin, the wind cold, and weather can change quickly.
Los Andes has about fifty-seven thousand people, so it has all the services you need: fuel, banks, supermarkets and hotels. It is the last place to fill up and to organise the paperwork for the border, including insurance and vehicle documents. Customs on the Chilean side are at the top of the pass, so allow plenty of time.
Pastel de choclo, a baked corn and beef pie, and a glass of local red wine make a fitting last meal in Chile.