To Chile

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Day 122 on The Big Trip. “Chilean Desert”

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, the northern Chilean desert town that basks in the sun a good 12-hour busride away from the Chile-Peru border town of Arica. We found Hostel Florida, a cheap and descent alternative to more upscale and pricey options like La Aruca. This town has a lot of hostels, restaurants, and expedition shops. The bus from here to Argentina next leaves at 11:30am on Friday, else Sunday or Tuesday. So we’ll probably jam-pack Thursday with adventures like sandboarding, biking, laguna-seeing, star-seeing (which is impeccable in the Atacama Desert, we hear). Then again, it’s hot enough to fry a chicken out here so maybe we’ll limit our excursions! Plus Chile’s more expensive than Argentina and the bus tickets we bought today were 27,000 pesos p/p, which is something like $40.50 p/p. Not cheap! But hey, what do you expect a bus to cost that’s 12-hours long and crosses the Andes and a border?


Yesterday was a 121 Tuesday that we spent enjoying the familiarity of a shopping boardwalk in Arica, Chile that I could actually see thanks to a haircut that removed hairs covering my eyes. We also spent time swimming, sunbathing/burning, ice-cream licking, playground playing, and running across the beach in Arica. The day was shared with the friendly Irish couple of Padraig and Caroline.

Yesterday’s yesterday was a 120 travel Monday from Arequipa to Tacna, Peru by bus, and from Tacna to Arica, Chile by train. My passport has more stamps. We had to run in order to catch the bus from Arequipa to Tacna because our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong bus terminal! Yikes!

The day before that was a much-deserved rest/errand 119 Sunday in Arequipa after our Chachani ascent. Errands included eating a lot, resting some, updating the good ole blogaroni, fixing and improving Sean’s gift, and buying a gift for Nicky and Jon. At night, we record a vlog entry since Arequipa’s been rewarding and we’re leaving tomorrow for Chile!