Road trip to Argentina

(Written over the course of the 7+ hour bus ride from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina)

Of course last night I had everything packed, alarm set, and my clothes laid out. I got in bed early (10:30ish) but, if you noticed the time stamp on my last post, I couldn't sleep. I was so excited and nervous to go to Argentina today. Finally, around 5 I was able to sleep.

Driving in Chile

Next thing I know, I look at my phone and it says 7:37. Fuck. So I spent $13 on a taxi, arriving at the bus station at 8:20. My bus was supposed to leave at 8:40. We all made it though, if only by the skin on our necks. (That's the phrase, right?)

Now we are cruising through the Chilean countryside at 90 kph. There are so many Chilean flags from every rooftop. I see the first cactus I have seen since arriving in Latin America. I'm adding another set of sceneries to my mental collage of the New World, América.
As I am watching the landscape scroll by, it all stops. We have arrived at a line of stopped cars, which I'm assuming are waiting to cross the border. An invisible man-made line in the Andes dividing currencies, laws, plug types, economies... And yet I jumped the gun. We are not at the border yet, only a toll booth or something similar. I'm not sure.

A few hours later...

We passed several more places that may have been the border. A little town with patrolmen. Booths with Argentine flags. Then an industrial-looking building through which all of the cars, buses, and trucks were slowly passing. I don't know when I crossed the border, but this is where I got my stamp and officially entered my 8th foreign country.

Thoughts...
What is a border anyways?
Is it really a border if...?
-I cross it without knowing
-I cross it and I only I know
-little changes-- same language, same landscape, same dominant religion, similar development levels, etc.
-no one searched my things, made me pay an entrance fee, or asked me to declare certain types of items
And, if in my lifetime Chile claims Mendoza, can I still say that I have been to Argentina?