Arica is the northernmost town of Chile. It used to be Bolivia, but we won’t talk about that… What really matters is that it’s in the middle of the Atacama desert - well, almost. It’s on the coast, and the waters off that coast are very very rich (Peru & Chile are still bickering about the sea-frontier. Something that paradoxical could only be disputed in South America. Or the Balkans. Or Belgium… Or anywhere there’s people, I guess. Hm). Strange that a desert could have such a sharp border. Then again, there is Texas. But that desert isn’t so much physical. Anyways, I got into Arica at seven, four hours after the scheduled arrival (of course border control wasn’t included in the time-table. Silly me), and weaved round the bus-station with my snail-size top-heavy ruck-sack, trying
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