SummitPost.org

I am planning a trip to Aconcagua this December/January and have heard mixed things about people having food taken from them at customs in Chile and/or Argentina. We are flying through Santiago to Mendoza which is why I am asking about Chile.
I have a mild sensitivity to wheat which is why I want to bring my own granola bars and stuff with me from the US. Not a huge deal -- eating it won't kill me but I'd rather not have too much, especially while climbing.
Does anyone here know what kinds of things they will confiscate and what kinds of things are OK to take?
Specifically, we are looking to bring:
Minute Rice (so we don't use up all our fuel just cooking it)
Bottled hot sauce
Mountain House/backpacker pantry meals
Larabars/Clif bars/etc
Cookies/chocolate/sweets
Oatmeal
Protein powder

I have a mild sensitivity to wheat

Man up! You're going mountain climbing.

Argentine Customs are inconsistent - some times they don't look at your bags, sometimes they go through everything. Mainly they are looking for meat products, but both Chile and Arg are quite serious about it, more so in recent years than before, so it is an issue, even if someone tells you not to worry.

Your Backpacker Pantry freezedrieds may well get confiscated.
Rice should be OK.
Nuts, honey, vegetables etc can all get confiscated, but often get through.

You can buy hot sauce easily in supermarkets in Santiago or Mendoza. You can also buy protein powder and oatmeal, but maybe not good ones. Energy bars are best brought from home and should be no problem at Customs. Quaker granola bars are often in supermarkets in both Arg and Chile, but only basic types, not a great variety. Local brands are no better.

My info is based on over a dozen trips through Chile and Arg Customs in the last 11 years, both land and airports, and the consumption of several dozen cheap local granola bars.

I did Aconcagua this past Jan 2012. I brought all my food for the mountain with me. I brought two of those XL TNF duffels and put all my food items into bags and packed them in and around clothing items and such. I brought fuel bottles, empty, very well cleaned out and made to look not like fuel bottles, tucked away also. I did put items like beef jerky and stuff into boots and somewhat hid them but customs in Chile didn't even look at any of our bags. We weren't checked at all. Argentina was the same. I had heard stories also and was a little nervous but all went well. If something were to be confiscated Mendoza has stores where you can replace them. Good luck on your climb and enjoy it. It's a beautiful area.

We went thru Santiago too, coming from Toronto with Air Canada and then Lan to Mendoza.
We had lots of food from Canada, meat, bars, almost the whole quantity we needed for the expedition. Al the way to Mendoza we had no problems at all, so I think you can pack all your stuff from USA.
Good luck.

Be aware that in both Chile and Argentina hefty fines are in principle applied for trying to hide stuff and get away with it, so an option may be just to ask if it's OK or not. There are plenty of signs when you land or approach any border post as to what the regulations are regarding food. With buses at least the Chilean guards are pretty thorough when it comes to looking for food, on the Argentina side it's usually more lax. Just transferring through Chile shouldn't really pose an issue re. their regs though I would have thought.

It is good to note that if you take food from the US to SA and have any leftover it might be confiscated as you enter the US on your way back. I've had it happen with jerky that I took abroad and had leftover as I flew home.

Ok. We'll probably just take a bunch of stuff and not worry too much if it get's confiscated. Don't imagine they'd be too concerned about granola bars, quick-cooking-rice, oatmeal and such, but I get that meat and fresh stuff might be an issue. I figure we can just get fruit at the stores there anyway. Might try and bring a couple mountain house meals and just keep them separate from everything else so if it's not OK we can get rid of them easily.
I bought a couple bags of nuts but they are still sealed/in the original packaging, which clearly says "roasted" (i.e. not raw), so hopefully those will get through.

Fruit and nuts confiscated at Santiago yesterday: http://icelandfoundation.squarespace.co ... lm-walker/

It happens.

Came through customs in Santiago 5 days ago and had my bag searched - the customs officials thought they saw some dried fruit in my sack on the x-ray (there was none). So they seemed pretty on it - hadn't realised they were so diligent! Someone ahead of me had loads of vacuum packed meat products confiscated.

Don't be surprised if your shoes are fumigated.

I am flying to Santiago, Chile December 2016 with some freeze dried food such as alpine aeri. Is that going to be a problem at the customs? I plan to go to Mendoza by bus the next day

dr_feng@yahoo.com wrote:I am flying to Santiago, Chile December 2016 with some freeze dried food such as alpine aeri. Is that going to be a problem at the customs? I plan to go to Mendoza by bus the next day

Hello Dr Feng

If you read the previous posts on this thread you will see that freeze dry food is a problem entering Chile - notably Santiago, as you plan to. It is not (or rather it wasn't for me - twice) a problem going to the Andes via Argentina - flying into the country at Buenos Aires and then taking a domestic flight to Mendoza. I deliberately took the BA/Mendoza route in 2011 when I climbed Aconcagua and again in 2016 when I climbed in the Cordon del Plata, since I wanted to take a lot of freeze dried food (I took Mountain House) and knew it would be a problem going via Chile. Having said that having read the small print on 'agriculture and fisheries' section of customs declaration form just before we landed in BA this year, we concluded that some of what we had might have been a problem - but in the event they just let us through.

In 2018 I plan to return to the Andes. Two things: (1) Having used Mountain House freeze dried exclusively for the last 6 years (the best of a bad lot) I am now heartily sick of the stuff (2) We are aiming to climb in Chile, entering the country at Santiago - so we are not even thinking of trying to take freeze dried food and will be buying what we need over there - and my understanding is you can't get freeze dried, or if you can it would be next to intolerable if I no longer like Mountain House. My question now is what do people suggest for high altitude food which can be purchased in Santiago - and is suitable for a 6000m peak (i.e. as light as possible, can be created with the minimum of preparation and boiling using an MSR stove?) Anyone who has been out there what do you know about availability of 'instant noodles' or part cooked rice, which can be added to etc? Anyone of you high altitude gourmands have any good recipes - or suggest a good resource - which will work in Chile?

Cheers, Mark

So Mark, to clarify on Santiago vs Mendoza:

We are approaching Aconcagua from Mendoza. However, we are flying to Mendoza via Santiago. My bags should be checked all the way through so I will be "in transit" in Santiago and shouldn't be going through customs or declaring in Chile. Is that correct? This is the case in every other part of the world I've traveled but don't want to make any assumptions.

I get pretty tired of Mountain House food after a long trip, but it's hard to beat the convenience. Especially if the alternative means trying to plan, procure, and pack a couple of weeks of food in a foreign country when I have limited time and a lot of other things to coordinate and deal with. Do you know anything of the specifics on regulations that make Mountain House packs a problem? Is it the ones with meat? Eggs? Fruit? Obviously the meat is all cooked so that seems contradictory if raw meat is an issue. Fruit I could see as a problem (though I don't think dehydrated passes as "fresh"). But if fruit is the real culprit I could just avoid those.

If on the other hand the whole process is arbitrary and subjective judgments made by the officials on duty that day, I get that. In which case I guess knowing the regs doesn't really matter. If you can't predict it just becomes a gamble.

Appreciate your experience, thanks for sharing!