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Published: March 26th 2012
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Despite the extremely small town of San Pedro, we were able to book Tur Bus to Calama and then Tur Bus again to Arica. We had an 8:30 PM bus out of San Pedro. We arrived in Calama at 10:00 and stayed at the station unti our 11:20 bus to Arica. The ride to Arica was 8 hours. It was another semi-cama. This time the driver did not stink, but the road did. For the first couple hours we were on a rutted dirt road that was totally washed out. So, yet again, very little sleep.
We arrived in Arica bright and early, about 7:30. Arica is a border town with Peru, so it was our last stop in Chile. We became a little nervous at the bus station when everything was closed. It was Sunday, but both of our travel books indicated we could cross the border on Sunday...although the books have been wrong before...
We arrived in Arica at the domestic bus terminal, so we had to walk across the street to the international terminal. And of course everything was closed there too. Sarah got some coffee while I tried to figure out how to cross. Our
books indicated Collectivos (shared taxis) were the way to go, but there were not a lot around. The train was supposed to be an option, but after talking to the only open shop, they said "No Tren." It could be that he wanted us to take his bus, the train did not run on Sundays, or it does not exist anymore. We will never know. Everybody was doing the bus, so we went with that. Plus it was only $2,000 pesos ($4 USD).
At about 9:30 we boarded a bus to Tacna, Peru. By 10:30 we sat in a long traffic jam at the border. Apparently the crossing did not open until 12:00. I guess the bus guy told us the border did not open until noon, but we thought he meant we would get to Tacna at noon. So, we hung out in the only shade available, the shade of the bus. The day had not gotten too hot, but as the shade disappeared and the sun rose it got hot.
The border crossing opened only a few minutes late and we made our way through. First to be stamped out of Chile. Then through a weird
bus inspection. Then stamped in to Peru. In our hostel in Santiago, a girl told us she had trouble crossing in to Peru. She had planned to be in the country for a month, so when the border guy asked her how long she would be there she said thirty days. The border guy said she did not deserve to be in their country for 30 days and only stamped her passport for 20 days. Fearful of a similar fate, we elected to tell the border guy we were going to be there for 90 days (the maximum number of days allowed for visitors). Figuring that even if he took the same approach as with the girl at the hostal we should come away with the 30 days we need. He was a little skeptical, but stamped us for 90 days. Phew.
We ran our bags through an x-ray machine, that nobody paid any attention to and walked through a metal detector that I am pretty sure went off for me. Nobody cared so we exited the building and got back on the bus.
We have arrived in Peru!!!
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Mike and Jill
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YAYAYAYAY PERU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!